Aimee Jurado

Dr. Hollis

ENG 345T

MW 1-2:15pm

9/24/18

Defining a Moment: What Cameras Can’t Do

The use of simple art and muted color schemes in some comics typically enable readers

to better relate to the comic’s characters and to focus more on the content of the book and less on

the art. However, in the book “Maus,” by Art Spiegelman, Spiegelman’s artistic simplicity and

black and white color scheme is not only for readers to perceive the images more quickly, but

also to force readers to analyze each image more thoroughly. In “Understanding Comics,”

McCloud notes that “when pictures are more abstracted from reality, they require greater levels

of perception” (McCloud, 49). By using this art style and color scheme, it can be inferred that

while Spiegelman wants readers to digest his images more quickly, he also wants them draw

conclusions of the image’s mood from what is provided. Looking specifically at page 276 of

“Maus,” these ideas are implemented by the way Spiegelman utilizes the comic’s text, art, and

form to convey feelings of nostalgia and intimacy that are not expressed explicitly through

words, actions, or color.

Beginning with the first panel on page 276, we see Vladek and Art drawn on the couch

together talking when Art asks his father about his own side of the family and what had

happened to them during the Holocaust. In Art’s textbox, the word “your” is bold and larger than

the rest of the other text. Having text that stands out from the rest of the text around it creates

emphasis on the word and allows it to be perceived more quickly than the rest (McCloud, 49).
What the emphasis of “your” does in this panel specifically is it primes the reader for a transition

in topic. This emphasis is also a clue to the readers that Vladek’s side of the family is something

he wants to draw focus on. Vladek’s response to Art’s question begins with another question, he

says “My side?” followed by an ellipsis before he begins to talk about his family. Spiegelman

does not explain or describe his father’s feelings about this question directly, but rather writes his

response in a way that best mimics Vladek’s tone, which readers can then draw conclusions

from. By saying, “My family?” I get the sense that Vladek is surprised by Art’s question. Vladek

could be surprised because perhaps no one usually asks him about his side of the family. If Art is

only asking Vladek about his family now in his adult years, it can be assumed that it wasn’t

discussed much as he was growing up. The rest of the panel is drawn in Spiegelman’s usual

simple form, which assists in drawing more focus on the text of this panel.

An action to action transition happens between panel one and panel two, visually

showing readers how the conversation is moving forward. In this panel, the word “younger” is

bolder and larger than the other words around it, similarly to how “your” was emphasized in the

last panel. What the attention drawn on “younger” does in this panel specifically is it

differentiates Vladek’s younger sister to Fela, who was addressed in the first panel. Like the first

panel, emphasizing “younger” introduces a new topic, in this case Vladek’s other sibling. This is

important because it is Spiegelman’s way of indirectly telling readers that while Fela and

Vladek’s father were his only family members mentioned thus far, they were not Vladek’s only

family. In this panel, the picture of Vladek and Art on the couch is closer and drawn with harder

lines than the previous panel. This change of art style can be compared to a camera, because

much like a camera lens, Spiegelman is “zooming” into this moment and focusing the lens for
readers to show what he wants them to see and focus on. Cameras also capture moments, and

while time is passing, this moment and this conversation is one Art wants to capture.

Panel two moves to panel three through an aspect to aspect transition, focusing even

closer on Vladek speaking. In this image of Vladek, readers can begin to notice more details in

Vladek’s clothes. From this perspective, the way Vladek’s jacket crinkles becomes visible, along

with a sharper pattern on both his jacket, the couch, and the wallpaper. The words emphasized in

this textbox are “closest” when referring to Vladek’s brother Marcus and the word “bread.” Like

the other words emphasized, “closest” and “bread” are bolder and larger than the rest of the text

around it. Interestingly, the word “closest” when describing Marcus does not give readers much

information on Vladek’s relation to his brother. It does not specify whether the two were close in

age, close in proximity before Vladek moved to the camps, or close in their relationship.

However, Vladek does not use any adjectives to describe his other brother Moses. Because of

this, readers can sense that Marcus holds some importance to Vladek and that he differentiates

Marcus and Moses with the word “closest,” whichever way Vladek means to use the word. I

believe the word “bread” is also emphasized because bread was both literally and a symbol of

livelihood in Vladek’s experience through Aushwitz. Perhaps highlighting these two specific

words in the same textbox is meant to draw a connection between Vladek’s brothers and the

bread he was sending them. While Vladek may not think of his actions of great grandeur,

Spiegelman could be emphasizing these words to express the importance of what he was sending

to his brothers. It’s also interesting that bread and Vladek’s closest brother are equally

emphasized, almost implying that they were equally important to Vladek during this period of

his life.
 The action to action transition from panel three to panel four acts as a way of showing

movement and time passing in the story. By removing focus and detail on Vladek, Spiegelman is

reminding readers of what is happening in this moment and where the characters are when this

conversation takes place. This sense of movement not only keeps the conversation moving

forward in time but also keeps the reader’s eyes interested in what is happening. Without this

panel, readers may have felt stagnant in this moment and value would have been lost in either the

art or the text. The artwork also juxtaposes Spiegelman’s attention to his father alone and the

conversation between him and his father, the former being what he wants to put in the spotlight.

From panel five through seven, all transitions are aspect to aspect and build around one

single moment. It is clear however, that time is passing because Vladek is speaking though the

image isn’t changing (McCloud, 98). According to McCloud, aspect to aspect transitions are

most often used to “establish a mood or a sense of place… time seems to stand still in these quiet

contemplative combinations…rather than acting as a bridge between separate moments, the

reader here must assemble a single, moment using scattered fragments” (McCloud, 79).

Spiegelman utilizes the aspect to aspect transition in order to convey a feeling of nostalgia and

remembrance that Vladek is portraying. Aspect to aspect transitioning assists Spiegelman in

doing this by forcing readers to experience this singular moment more slowly than they would in

a single panel.

The words emphasized in the next three panels are “deserted,” “typhus,” and “nothing.”

What is interesting in the way “deserted” is written, is that it is larger than the text around it but

not bold, which is different from how the other emphasized words are written. This could have

been done to mimic Vladek’s speech and where he placed emphasis as he spoke, but is not

something that should be focused on. The boldness placed on “typhus” and “nothing” add
harshness to the words, emphasizing the severity of typhus and the weight of having nothing left

of their family.

These three panels are also drawn with much more detail, accentuating Vladek’s

appearance in the moment. This art differs from other panels in the novel because of its

resemblance to reality, which could be what Spiegelman was trying to do. By drawing Vladek

this way, Spiegelman is not only focusing on Vladek but humanizing him. This idea becomes

more convincing when focusing solely on panels five, six, and seven; without Vladek’s mouse

head in panel three, panels five, six, and seven appear to be a more realistic depiction of a

human. Spiegelman continues to humanize Vladek by drawing the patterns on Vladek’s coat,

couch, and wallpaper in finer detail as to accentuate his personal tastes and somewhat tacky

style. Vladek’s style of clothing and the shape in which his body is drawn is also telling of his

age. By focusing so much on the image of Vladek, Spiegelman is focusing on his father more as

a person rather than as a survivor of the Holocaust. Bringing attention to small details like

Vladek’s taste in clothing, furniture, and even his stance, humanizes him and shows readers that

there is much more to know about his father than this one period of his life and what has been

presented thus far. By adding this realistic element, Spiegelman isn’t allowing readers to

perceive this moment in their own way and wants this moment and the feelings associated with it

to be conveyed specifically in the way he himself remembers it.

Another thing to note on this page is the small snapshot image of Vladek’s surviving

brother, Pinek. What I find most important about this snapshot is that it brings readers back to

the present, and reminds them that Vladek has lived on past the Holocaust. By adding this,

Spiegelman is continuing to focus on who is father is as a person in this present moment. The

happiness in Pinek and Sarah’s faces also signify happiness that he and other survivors have
experienced since the Holocaust, reinforcing the idea that their lives were much more than what

has been written in this book.

What I like the most about this page is the way the panels piece together and form a

bigger picture. Each panel looks like one of the photographs that Vladek is organizing, which is

reflective of the way he pieces together his memories like photographs in a box. The amount of

detail put in this page expresses value and importance Spiegelman feels towards this single

moment. Though this isn’t a climactic scene, I get a sense of intimacy that Spiegelman wanted to

highlight in the talks with his father, adding to the depth of the overall story. Through comics,

readers can experience the mood and complexity of a singular moment that cannot be

experienced in a single picture alone, and page 276 of “Maus” is representative of that.
 Works Cited:

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Harper Perennial, 1994.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus. Penguin, 1992.