Saturday, September 16, 2017

Art Spiegelman: The Ink and Paste Club

The original edition of Art Spiegelman's Breakdowns was published in 1977 a bit before he found himself catapulted into the mainstream. The Maus in the subtitle refers to a beautifully-rendered but disappointingly short experimental comic that presaged the later acclaimed graphic novel. The book's cover depicts Spiegelman swilling ink right out of the bottle, as one no doubt does during a "breakdown." The copy personalized for collage artist Stephen Kroninger includes a drawing of the two artists toasting each other, Art with ink and Steve with paste, appropriately enough.

Inscribed "FOR STEVE
To yer healt'
All the best as my braincells
breakdown at 5 AM March 30, 1996
Art Spiegelman"

Art Spiegelman. Breakdowns, 1977


Note:  By now those of you with great deductive powers will have surmised that Stephen Kroninger provided the scans of his book. Thanks, Stephen, and—just so you know—I prefer champagne.

What would this blog be without reader-submitted scans or photographs of uniquely-personalized books by Art Spiegelman and other New Yorker artists? It would be just like all the other blogs out there. Don't condemn me to showing cat videos!

Maybe you've heard:  the new American Bystander #5 will carry the very first classified ad for this blog. There's other good stuff too.

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