When Maus I was first published in 1986, Art Spiegelman became the center of controversy. With his use of a typically 'lower' writing form and seemingly lighthearted approach to expressing his views on the holocaust, Spiegelman defied modern writing rules and defined his own. Comic books are usually seen as being a tool for telling fictional stories. Spiegelman used it to tell a biography of himself and his father, and a history of his people. Originally classified as fiction on the national best-seller list, Spiegelman insisted that it be put on the non-fiction list, arguing that its content and topic was entirely non-fictional. Some felt that the use of a drawn media such as cartoons desensitized the meaning and pain of the war and Holocaust. Spiegelman's use of comic media does exactly the opposite and portrays a much harsher picture and feeling of personal pain for the reader to identify with. "...it supercedes the traditional genre in terms of the scope of its presentation ...[and] it presents a historical catastrophe in a medium usually reserved for hero-construction and morality play." (Leventhal) In the book, Artie tries to express his own pain of loss and even more, tries to find a way for the reader to emotionally understand what the author is going through as well as express the horror of the Holocaust.
             Comics and cartoons have always been viewed with disdain in society. The audience that it extends to usually consists of adolescents and is hardly seen as something for adults to read. Although content is considered more important than the media used to express it, many critics feel that comical drawings limit the narrative and stunt the growth of imagination that books are supposed to provide. Comics are often thought of as an item of popular culture rather than sophisticated literature and have been stigmatized by its reputation as a children's source of reading. The actual ...