Comics

• In Event: 31.085 - Trains, Tents, and Board Games: Collaborative Teacher Research Into Historical Trauma Through Arts-Based Inquiry

Abstract

As part of the larger research project, students and teachers explored how Speigelman (1986) used animals to represent humans in Maus through a comic-making workshop with a visiting artist. As part of this several-day workshop, which took up comic-making as a form of systematic inquiry, students and teachers drew themselves as animals, representing their interactions with characters and ideas from Maus. Some students were drawn to the comics medium to express a range of emotional responses to the memoir (Fig. 5). They attempted to bridge the seriousness of the subject matter with the playful nature of many comics. Some students articulated that, at first, they felt Maus would, as a comic, be “easy” to read. Caught between the emotional weight of the content and the ease of their reading, students attempted to come to grips with feelings that often caught them by surprise. Making their own comics helped student researchers engage with that turbulence, work through their own emotional responses, and develop a deeper appreciation for Spiegelman's craft as an artist.

Author

• benjamin lee hicks, University of Toronto