A Tennessee school board's decision to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic Novel Maus from its curriculum has attracted a flurry of online attention, including an act of generosity from one California comic shop owner."As I've offered before with other banned comics, I'll donate up to 100 copies of The Complete Maus to any family in the McMinn County area in Tennessee," tweeted Ryan Higgins, owner of Comics Conspiracy in Sunnyvale, California. "Just DM me your address!"
The tweet went viral and has received over 10,000 likes and 3,000 retweets at the time of writing -- including a retweet from CNN anchor Jake Tapper. CBR reached out to Higgins, who said he was "blown away by the response to my offer."
"Already a few dozen kids and parents have replied, and we'll have copies going to them shortly," Higgins said. "It's great to see so many people interested in reading Maus for the first time, but to also see many others willing to provide copies. It's sad that people are still willing to ban ANY book these days, but especially such an important work as Maus. I've made this same offer a few times in the past and had a couple people reach out (recently for Y The Last Man and V For Vendetta being banned in Texas), but this seems to be getting a lot more attention!"
A number of creators echoed their desire to transport copies of Maus to McMinn County, including Rogue One co-writer Gary Whitta -- who tweeted that he sent out about 25 copies -- comic book artist Mitch Gerads (Mister Miracle, Batman) and the Twitter account for the Comics in the Golden Age podcast.
Maus, which was originally serialized from 1980 to 1991 in the comic magazine Raw before it was published in an omnibus edition, tells the tale of the Holocaust, with Jewish people depicted as mice and Germans as cats. Written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman, who based Maus on his father's memories of the Holocaust, the graphic novel has garnered considerable praise over the years. It won not only a Pulitzer in 1992 but also Eisner and Harvey Awards that same year.
The McMinn County school board's decision to ban Maus came after the local school board voted for its removal, citing a nude illustration of a woman, disturbing imagery and objectionable language. The decision has been met with condemnation from retailers like Higgins and comic book creators like Gerads and Neil Gaiman, not to mention the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Spiegelman himself reacted with confusion at the move to ban the book, calling it "Orwellian" and a squandered opportunity to teach young people the truth of the Holocaust. "I'm kind of baffled by this," Spiegelman said. "It's leaving me with my jaws open, like, 'What?' ... I also understand that Tennessee is obviously demented. There's something going on very, very haywire there."
The McMinn County school board ultimately issued a response to the criticism, writing, "We do not diminish the value of Maus as an impactful and meaningful piece of literature, nor do we dispute the importance of teaching our children the historical and moral lessons and realities of the Holocaust... We simply do not believe that this work is an appropriate text for our students to study."
Source: Twitter