After reading the first half of Art Spiegelmans Maus series I was very impressed with the intensity of he story. Much as Eisner gave a gritty and honest portrayal of what he saw as real life, Spiegelman wrote a story that did not pull any punches and allows resemblance to stereotypes to exist where he honestly saw them. I haven't begun the second half yet but I think the story will come around to show it is more about Art then his father.
Earlier this week I watched a film by Robert Crumb, based on and named after his Fritz the Cat character. While Crumb was not Jewish himself he married two women who were and he seems to have a great respect for the culture if not the religion. With Judaism as well as Islam that seems to be a tricky separation. Often traits which are cultural and not tied to the religion get attributed to it anyways.
Crumb also drew people as animals and assigned some individual animals to human groups and races. The Police were pigs (cliche but amusing), African Americans were crows (Jim Crow laws came to mind) and Fritz since he was cool had to be a cat. Now what was surprising was the fact that most of the traditional Jews at a temple were portrayed as older male lions. An interesting choice which casts them as an aging power or perhaps just a noble creature? A case could be made they were a revered and stronger version of the cat who was the title role and perhaps the character Crumb associated with himself?
I think it might make an interesting research topic to look further into Robert Crumb and see how the portrayal of Jews or religion by a non-Jew played out during the Silver Age and beyond. I have checked out several panels of his new Genesis work, a five year project where he illustrates the book of Genesis and seems to stay very neutral on interpretations. Any opinions out there on a way to refine and shape these topics?
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