Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Art Spiegelman came to Binghamton in the late 1960s as a Harpur College undergrad and worked for this newspaper. Though he didn’t complete his studies, he was invited back to Binghamton in May 1995 to speak at commencement and receive an honorary doctorate. Between the time he left the college and when he once again set foot on campus, he made a name for himself in the world of graphic novels. In 1986 Spiegelman released the first volume ‘Maus,’ ‘Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale,’ which tells the story of his parents’ experience in the Holocaust. He followed up with the second volume, ‘Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began,’ in 1991. Among Spiegelman’s many awards for Maus was 1992’s Pulitzer. In an exclusive interview, Spiegelman spoke with Pipe Dream’s current editor in chief, Melissa Bykofsky ’11, about his time in Binghamton, cartooning in general and what’s next for him.

Pipe Dream: Did you live on campus when you went to BU?

Art Spiegelman: I lived on and off. I think at that time, well it was a very different campus ‘ At that time, you would get one upstate and one downstate person in the same room. We started off that way but my particular roommate and I didn’t have a lot in common so it lasted one semester in the dorms then I moved to Bingham where a number of my developing friends were. Off campus I lived up the hill behind campus. I shared an A-frame with some friends.

PD: What was your experience at Pipe Dream?

AS: I was a contributing cartoonist working on a weekly basis. One strip that I did, and a friend of mine ended up taking it over when I was literally hauled off into a nut house. It must have been ’66, ’67. I did a bunch of gag cartoons when I first came into the school. ‘ When I was a freshman I was editor of this college humor magazine. I changed the name to Mother, then got in trouble ‘ for what became a major scandal. The printer was a Binghamton printer that printed mostly Catholic calendars. Not only would they not publish it, but they wouldn’t give me back my boards since they thought it was the spawn of hell. I unwittingly created this intense embarrassment.

PD: What advice would you have for someone trying to break into the world of comics?

AS: My usual advice still stands, which predates the economic cataclysm, which is get a day job and keep plugging. This job is more of a calling than a career, in that case advice really isn’t necessary you just do it because all other options are pretty much closed to you for one reason or another and you just plug away and do whatever it takes.

PD: Do you find that there is a difference in perception of ‘Maus’ between generations?

AS: The response from survivors when the book came out was surprisingly alright. I was braced for facing a jury full of Vladeks [his father’s name]. I got some wonderful responses from people at the time, but I haven’t kept up with that generation’s response. What I know about people reading it now [middle school, high school and college students] is that they say ‘Art goes back to talk to his grandfather.’ Because I’m the character that they identify with, I’m moved back a generation. ‘Maus’ came neither out of a desire to shock ‘ nor out of the desire to further a political agenda of one kind or another. I didn’t have the term graphic novel in my head, I just wanted a comic book that needed a bookmark. Now I can’t imagine exactly what it means to stumble across it in a world where the Holocaust is a given.

PD: How do you feel about ‘Maus’ being the first taste that young students have of Holocaust history?

AS: At first, I was really worried about it. I never overcome my annoyance with George Eliot for having written ‘Silas Marner’ because that ‘ was a terrible book for kids to read. I was terrified for having become a book which won contests, that could actually destroy the one-to-one relationship that a book and the reader have. Those fears have been erased, that’s not what happened and I am grateful for it. I sometimes wonder what it means for a kid in early middle school to be given ‘Maus.’ It was never made as a young adult novel. It seemed like a kind of child abuse to me at first. It’s clear that it does work for students that entered into it, but it’s not like it was designed to do that job and that way it feels like the real thing.

PD: How is your next project, ‘Meta Maus,’ coming along?

AS: ‘Meta Maus’ is taking the place of almost everything else in my life. This book will gather together the interviews with my father, the rough sketches, the outtakes, the verbal documentation that let me make ‘Maus.’ As a book that will be a companion to Maus for its 25th anniversary if I make my deadline, otherwise its the 26th anniversary. It’s accompanied by a very intensive interview with me ‘ and a DVD. It is thoroughly immersive and making me sort through literally the thousands and thousands of drawings that became the book. After that, the only thing I see on my horizon ‘ is my high school [the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan] is being moved to another building and I have been invited to make a public artwork. I will be making a large stained glass comic strip for the new building. ‘ I feel very honored to be asked to do this kind of project.