‘Maus’ sales soar after Tennessee school bans acclaimed graphic novels
After the Tennessee school district banned the graphic novel Maus, by Pulitzer Prize-winning Art Spiegelman, sales of the source material skyrocketed.
Just days after the ban was announced nationally, two editions of the graphic novel broke into the Top 20 on Amazon and limited supply according to the Associated Press.
With Maus reached twelve early Friday night, delivery dates have been backed up through mid-February, according to the report. Complete Maus, which also includes the second volume, is out of stock and is at number nine on the site’s sales charts. It’s a stark contrast from the start of the week, when neither editions made the top 1000.
As the news began to gain national attention, Sandman manga author and Good sign showrunner Neil Gaiman weighed in on the situation, saying in a viral tweet Wednesday, “Only one type of person would vote to ban Mauswhatever they are calling themselves these days. “
Documentary Ken Burns expressed similar displeasure at the situation, saying on Twitter, “The history of the Holocaust includes book bans.”
“The Maus is a work of art that has helped generations understand Nazi atrocities and how they dictated what people might think, be willing to, and say. When you become afraid of ideas, you lose your freedom,” he said.
The comic book is autobiographical, depicting Spiegelman’s experiences in the concentration camp. The illustrations depict rats as persecuted Jews and cats as Nazis. There are sections in the book that depict Spiegelman’s mother, also a Holocaust survivor, in the form of a drawing of a naked woman committing suicide in a bathtub.
According to the minutes of the board of directors meeting, the vote to remove Maus from the curriculum earlier this month at the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee cited “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman.
The decision from the Tennessee school board was made based on sponsored conservative law and other books taken from the curriculum, such as books by Tony Morrison Blue eyes and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
https://wegotthiscovered.com/comicbooks/maus-sales-surge-after-tennessee-school-bans-the-acclaimed-graphic-novel/ ‘Maus’ sales soar after Tennessee school bans acclaimed graphic novels
