Art Spiegelman reveals Marvel tried to censor his essay on the history of anti-fascism in comics
Art Spiegelman: golden age superheroes were shaped by the rise of fascism https://t.co/lxRSEoHOuS
- Guardian US (@GuardianUS) August 17, 2019
- Spiegelman is a cartoonist best known for his pulitzer prize winning winning work Maus, a graphic novel depicting his father's experiences surviving the holocaust
- Spiegelman was asked to write a forward for a compilation of Golden Age comics published by the Folio Society
- His forward talked about the influential work that Jewish writers did and how comics were important in depicting fascists as villains
- The Folio Society said the Marvel Comics (who was co-publishing) wanted Spiegelman to censor a line because they are apolitical
- This is the portion of the essay that they wanted to censor: In today’s all too real world, Captain America’s most nefarious villain, the Red Skull, is alive on screen and an Orange Skull haunts America. International fascism again looms large (how quickly we humans forget - study these golden age comics hard, boys and girls!) and the dislocations that have followed the global economic meltdown of 2008 helped bring us to a point where the planet itself seems likely to melt down. Armageddon seems somehow plausible and we’re all turned into helpless children scared of forces grander than we can imagine, looking for respite and answers in superheroes flying across screens in our chapel of dreams.
- The Guardian published Spiegelman's essay in full