Maus by Art Speigelman

First of all, when I saw the naming of the title, I think it was pretty interesting. The pronunciation of "Maus" sounds similar to "mouse," which is the character in the story. The story was written by the comic artist Art Spiegelman after World War II, about what the Nazis did to the Jews, and how did it affect their lives afterward. I think the storytelling approach that Spiegelman took was interesting. Instead of showing vivid blood and tortures from the war, he used cute animals mouses to be the characters, and pigs for the German soldiers in the camp. All of the characters were in minimalistic drawing style, and the environment was, too. I understand the author's intention to not use the visuals of real people but a metaphor of mouse instead-- because it would be too brutal to see those cruel scenes. The minimalistic images gave an emotional break for the readers, so they can read it in an emotionally less intense level, just like watching animations. Also, I think the comic is more words driven than visual driven, the words tell a big part of the story, but the visuals were supplementary. 

In the second part of the comic, his dad Vladek talked about his experience in the Nazis concentration camp. I was surprised to see that Vladek met a "nice" German soldier who saved him a couple of times. Vladek taught the soldier English language; in return, the soldier gave him a fitted pair of shoes, clothes, and decent meals (which to him was banquet meals almost). 

He also told a lot of stories about the little things that happened in the camp which I think was interesting, because I didn't see it elsewhere. Most of the movies portrayed the more significant impact of the war but ignored the details, but the comics showed it out. The scene I liked the most was when Vladek brought his friends a belt and a pair of fitted shoes from the soldier-- he didn't forget his friends even if he receives something. It was the little things that Spiegelman portrayed that were very touching.