Maus book 1 and 3 (12 points)

Maus is a massive graphic novel that is hard to read. Not only because of the hard theme but because of how it is drawn. 

The drawings are black and white, without any shading. Just thick, heady lines and a lot of small panels per only one page. These thick lines made me feel that the artist had a big hand while drawing his comic. 

The way panels are packed makes the reading process slow and hard. 

And think that no matter if this is the artist's style or he made this artistic choice, this way of drawing adds more feelings to the story.

The story is about a young artist that wants to make a comic about his parent's story. About how they survived the horrors of Nazi Germany. While he is telling his father's story, he is also trying to figure out why the war made his father this way and why his mother killed herself. 

This is a personal story that is told by the events that touched millions. 

I liked this graphic novel, even though it was a challenging experience. 

I was reading it slowly because of the amount of text the author used. 

Sometimes this story felt more like a book than a comic. Because in the art, each panel looked very simple, and occasionally several panels were almost the same drawing of mouses talking, but the text was telling absolutely another story. 

I liked how the author decided to show all jews as mouses and nazi as cats. It is incredible how these animals are an excellent depiction of these two nations. Plus, because of this choice you can't see clearly characters expressions. This adds more to the depressing feelings reader have while reading.  A lot of characters look very similar with each other. It give you a feeling that during this war everyone were just a grey mass of bodies. 

This comic doesn't have the gore drawings that you can expect from such a story, but the depressing black and white style with thick lines makes you feel uneasy after reading the novel. 

I think this is the best description of this storytelling style. You feel depressed after reading it because these packed panels make you feel at least a bit as tense and tight as the main characters of this story thought themselves. 

This story made me remember my grand grandfather's story, locked in Leningrad in the horrible blockade by the Nazis. How he and his family were starving in the dying city and how they were surviving these horrendous four years. 

Such stories are important for history. It is important to remember them.