Art Spiegelman

I went to the Art Spiegelman event at SCAD tonight; it was brilliant. He spoke and presented a slideshow on the history of comics, starting as an underground (often forbidden) medium, and becoming a respected art form more recently. Simultaneously, he discussed his own story of becoming a comic book writer, including his work before MAUS, In the Shadow of No Towers, his New Yorker covers and essays, and on into some stuff that ain't even out yet. Spiegelman is really an amazing thinker and speaker on the topic of comic books. As a presenter, his performance is loose, funny, charming, and feels unrehearsed and improvised. I'm sure he's give some version of this presentation hundreds of times, but his presentation didn't feel stiff and rote.

He discussed the structure of comics as being two languages working in conjunction, and his belief that we understand comics better than either pictures or words, because they work in the same way that our minds are wired to work. It was a fascinating talk; if you couldn't go, I sincerely hope you get another chance to hear this guy speak.
One of my favorite parts of his speech, loosely paraphrased:

NANCY was read by a lot of people, not because it's good, but because it's harder to not read it than it is to read it.