An Evening with Art Spiegelman, 30th May 2020

**Penguin Random House is cancelling all author events already organised until the end of June. This includes its own events, author festival appearances and bookshop events. We have made this decision to ensure the health and wellbeing of our authors, audiences and staff. We will continue to monitor the situation and thank you for your understanding. Ticketholders will be contacted by the Box Office for a full refund.**

The Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and illustrator brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves with Holocaust narrative Maus.  Art Spiegelman’s masterful graphic novel, first serialised in 1980, portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. His comics are best known for their shifting graphic styles, their formal complexity, and their controversial content.

Hear Spiegelman discuss his life’s work, the rise of comics into the mainstream and the important role they play in understanding our unprecedented political landscape.

Having risen from the subcultures of geekdom, comics and graphic novels now range from blockbuster family favourites to innovative, independent stories to satisfy any tastes.  Superheroes offering role models for young people, gripping autobiography, and memoir: the graphic novel offers an accessible form for writers to communicate with: one that can transcend language.

Art Spiegelman has been drawing professionally since he was 15. His work has appeared in publications worldwide, including the London Review of Books and the New Yorker.  His work was selected for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Arts’ Masters of American Comics exhibition.

Spiegelman has won awards including the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival and accolades including Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Copies of a new slipcase edition of Maus are available for £15 (RRP £20) when you buy a ticket to the talk.