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Use Scott McCloud’s Six Steps According to Art Spiegelman’s Maus!

Image 1

The Invisible Art: Discovering the Anatomy of Comics

Have you ever wondered what makes a comic truly effective? What elements separate a simple comic strip from a masterpiece of the ninth art? Behind every memorable panel exists a fascinating creative process that few readers fully appreciate. Today we’ll dive into the methodology that transforms simple ideas into powerful visual narratives, and discover how one of the most revolutionary comic theorists breaks down this process into six fundamental steps.

In his seminal work “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art,” Scott McCloud builds on Will Eisner’s definition of comics as “Sequential Art” and states that this definition has a neutral character since it doesn’t reference “style,” “quality,” or “subject matter.” This description, although simple in appearance, opens the door to a deeper understanding of a frequently underestimated medium.

Image 2

That’s why McCloud proposes separating form from content through “aesthetic surgery” and thus expanding Eisner’s definition by specifying a vocabulary unique to comics. After guiding us through this fascinating conceptual journey, he presents the “six steps” of the creative process, a framework that proves invaluable for those who wish to venture into comic creation. Would you like to explore the fundamental basics of sequential drawing? Discover specialized resources here.

Scott McCloud’s “Six Steps”: The Structure Behind Every Graphic Narrative

Image 3

1. Idea / Purpose: These are the impulses, ideas, emotions, and philosophies that motivate us to create our content. This is the primordial seed, the “why?” behind our story. What do we want to communicate? What message do we wish to convey? What emotions do we seek to provoke in our readers? This first step is fundamental because it establishes the foundation upon which we will build our entire work.

The idea can emerge from personal experiences, social observations, philosophical reflections, or simply pure imagination. Some creators begin with an abstract concept that gradually takes shape, while others start from a specific mental image or scene that they then expand. What’s important is that the idea has enough strength and meaning to drive the entire creative process that follows.

2. Form: Here we face a fundamental question: What format will our work take? A complete book, a newspaper strip, a webcomic, a graphic novel? The choice of form is not trivial, as it will determine many subsequent decisions and directly affect how our story will be perceived by the audience.

The chosen form should complement and enhance our initial idea. For example, a deep reflection on the human condition might benefit from the space and measured pace offered by a graphic novel, while a pointed social critique might work better as a concise and direct comic strip. Form also determines practical aspects such as dimensions, number of pages, chromatics (black and white, color, duotone) and other physical elements that will condition our narrative.

3. Idiom (or Stylistic Language): What school or artistic tradition will we follow? Each has its own style, its particular ways of elaborating gestures and representing genres. In this step we must ask ourselves: In which tradition will we feel most comfortable developing our work? Which aligns best with our purposes?

The stylistic idiom ranges from expressionist caricature to detailed realism, including Japanese manga, European clear line, American underground, or innovations in experimental comics. The choice not only reflects our influences and technical capabilities but also establishes a visual contract with the reader and communicates subliminal information about the tone and intentions of our story. Want to perfect your personal drawing style? Find practical exercises that will help you develop your artistic voice here.

4. Structure: This is the moment of composition, where we must decide which elements of everything we’ve conceived will remain in our final production and which will be left out to achieve our objective. Structure is the invisible architecture that supports the entire narrative.

Here crucial decisions come into play such as the sequence of events, narrative rhythm, distribution of climactic moments, organization of chapters or sections, and construction of plot arcs. A solid structure ensures that the reader can follow the story without confusion, that revelations occur at the right moments, and that the narrative flow maintains its internal coherence. This step involves meticulous planning work and requires both artistic intuition and analytical thinking.

5. Craft (or Skill): This instance is perhaps the most practical, since this is where we use our theoretical and technical knowledge, our acquired skills to optimally resolve the entire path we have been sketching since the initial conception of our comic.

Craft encompasses everything from mastery of drawing (anatomy, perspective, composition) to handling specific tools (nibs, brushes, digital tablets), including inking techniques, lettering, coloring, and layout. It’s the moment where our practical skills transform abstract ideas into concrete images. The level of craft not only determines the visual quality of the final result but also the efficiency with which we can communicate our story. An experienced artist knows how to direct the reader’s gaze, how to use the space of the page, and how to manipulate the expressiveness of characters to maximize narrative impact.

6. Surface: This is where all our work becomes visible, where finalization occurs and the aesthetic values we will expose both to ourselves and our potential audience are expressed. It’s the outermost layer of our creation, the first thing the reader perceives.

Surface includes final finishes, presentation details, print or digital display quality, and all those elements that make up the immediate sensory experience of the reader. Although it might seem merely cosmetic, surface is crucial because it acts as a gateway to the entire narrative universe we have built. An attractive surface that is congruent with the other steps invites the reader to immerse themselves in our story, while a careless or incongruent surface can drive away even the most predisposed audience.

When McCloud talks about these six steps, he exemplifies them with different fictional comic artists and explains what trajectories each follows based on the paths they take. Ultimately, he clarifies that the order of the steps is not necessarily linear or rigid. The important thing is that all of us, in some way, must go through each of these aspects, focusing more or less on each depending on our interests and objectives. In this way, we could go back and forth between different “beginnings” and “endings” according to the artistic choices we make.

Image 4

Therefore, according to McCloud, all steps must be traversed since they interrogate each other, and if we don’t do this, our “apple” (the visual metaphor he uses to represent the final product) could be empty of content or lack internal coherence. It is necessary, then, to understand that all moments are related and we must make them dialogue with each other to give rise to a complete, complex, and well-established work.

This doesn’t mean that, by doing it correctly, our reception will necessarily be successful in terms of fame or popularity, because that also depends on the market and its trends, but it can be successful from our own experience and our development as artists. Such is the interrelationship between these parts that more than one recognized artist has asked themselves, once their career has advanced: “What am I doing this for?” In other words: is form or content more important?

Some creators have revolutionized the visual form of storytelling, while others have caused uproars with the subjects they have chosen to address. However, these two aspects are not opposed but complementary, and they can have different relevance in different periods of our artistic trajectory. Enhance your ability to tell visually appealing stories by accessing specialized resources here.

All this interiority of the creative process, which until now had not been systematically analyzed in academic discussions about comics, led McCloud to gain great recognition for his dissection of what he himself called the “Invisible Art.” His approach gives us an innovative perspective, both to the curious and to those knowledgeable about those debates that comic artists have but of which, as readers, we usually see only a minimal part.

The “Six Steps” Applied to Maus: Anatomy of a Comic Masterpiece

One of the essential names for understanding the practical application of these concepts is Art Spiegelman, the first comic artist to receive a Pulitzer Prize for his exceptional graphic novel “Maus” (1991). His work not only “elevated” comics to the category of art recognized by mainstream critics, but also managed to break through simultaneously from form and content, revolutionizing the narrative possibilities of the medium.

Let’s analyze how McCloud’s six steps manifest in this fundamental work:

1. Idea/Purpose: Spiegelman’s initial impulse arises from a deeply personal need: to understand and process his father Vladek’s traumatic experience as a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. To this intimate motivation is added a broader purpose: to document and transmit to new generations the memory of one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century, from an individual and humanized perspective that contrasts with the abstraction of historical figures and data. Spiegelman also sought to explore the complex father-son relationships marked by intergenerational trauma and to question the limits of artistic representation of traumatic historical events.

2. Form: Spiegelman opted for the serialized graphic novel format (initially published in installments in RAW magazine and later compiled into two volumes). This choice allowed him to develop a complex and long-form narrative that required space to unfold, avoiding the limitations of shorter formats. The graphic novel also provided him with the necessary freedom to combine multiple temporal and narrative layers, alternating between the present (conversations with his father) and the past (Vladek’s experiences during the war).

3. Idiom/Stylistic Language: In a revolutionary decision for his time, Spiegelman chose to represent his characters anthropomorphically, assigning them animal heads according to their nationality or ethnicity: mice for Jews, cats for Germans, pigs for non-Jewish Poles, etc. This stylistic choice, inspired by both the traditions of political caricature and Nazi propaganda that dehumanized Jews by comparing them to “rats,” became one of the most commented on and analyzed aspects of the work.

The idea of representing Jews as “mice” directly dialogues with the propagandistic symbolization of this population as responsible for carrying the economic “plague” and racial “contamination.” By recovering and recontextualizing these stereotypes, Spiegelman exposes the mechanism of dehumanization that facilitated genocide. On the other hand, the graphic style of “Maus,” with its expressive black and white strokes, its detailed backgrounds, and its variable panel layout, combines influences from both American underground and the European expressionist tradition.

Image 5

The use of universal cartoon style in “Maus” also serves a paradoxical function: on one hand, it creates a certain aesthetic distance that makes bearable the representation of horrors that would be difficult to assimilate in a more realistic style; on the other, it universalizes the experience by allowing readers to more easily project their own emotions onto simplified characters. This stylistic decision was criticized by those who perceived a gesture of bad taste or trivialization in the representation of the Holocaust. However, it’s important to recognize that Spiegelman was facing uncharted territory: the representation of traumatic historical testimony in a medium traditionally associated with children’s entertainment or satire.

On the page shown, we can appreciate the internal debate about the self-fictionalized representation of Art Spiegelman himself in his comic. In the first panels, we find the contextualization of his work, placing us in the production and post-production of “Maus.” In the initial three panels showing his profile face, we understand that he is wearing a mouse mask, suggesting that the identity of a Jew victim of the Holocaust is not his primary identity but an identification he adopted during the documentation process. However, in the fourth panel, seeing him from the front, that distinction becomes blurred, symbolizing how that project has consumed him, an idea reinforced by the flies surrounding him and, finally, by the corpses on which he is working. This meta-image exposes a reflective critique: his artistic and commercial success derives, in a way, from the media “exploitation” of a historical tragedy of unimaginable proportions.

4. Structure: “Maus” presents a complex structure of a story within a story, alternating two main timelines: the present of the interviews Art conducts with his father (1970s-80s) and the past of Vladek’s experiences during the Nazi rise and World War II (1930s-40s). To this double temporality is added, in the second volume, a third metanarrative layer where Spiegelman reflects on the process of creating the comic itself and the ethical implications of his undertaking.

This structure allows for multiple levels of reading and creates a constant counterpoint between historical trauma and its reverberations in the present, between the grand History and personal history. Additionally, the episodic structure facilitates the dosing of emotional intensity, interspersing moments of extreme tension with everyday scenes that provide respite to the reader.

Image 6

The exchange between father and son takes the form of an interview, generating a back-and-forth between the present reality of the conversations and the past narrated by Vladek. This produces a sophisticated temporal play where discourses intertwine and hierarchize, flowing smoothly from speech bubbles to text boxes and vice versa, creating a dynamic rhythm that makes us constantly enter and exit the testimony. This narrative structure is not only aesthetically innovative but conceptually significant: it reflects how traumatic memory is not linear but fragmentary, and how access to the past is always mediated by the limitations of memory and narration.

5. Craft/Skill: Spiegelman’s technical mastery manifests in multiple aspects of “Maus.” His ability to balance expressiveness and readability in an apparently simple but tremendously effective style; his mastery in page composition, varying the size and arrangement of panels according to narrative needs; his skill in representing different emotional states through the gestures of characters with animal features; and his command of narrative rhythm, alternating dialogue scenes with more visual sequences.

Particularly notable is the way Spiegelman solves the problem of visually representing the “unrepresentable” of the Holocaust. When he must show atrocities that his father did not directly witness but knew through third-party accounts, Spiegelman employs specific visual resources that mark this testimonial difference, as we see on the following page. Explore different graphic expression techniques for narrating complex stories with effective visual resources here.

Image 7

In this crucial sequence of “Maus,” the text boxes narrating Vladek’s story are fundamental to understanding the complex testimonial structure of the work. Here, what Spiegelman’s father tells is not something he witnessed directly, but something that was related to him. As this “secondhand” horror is even more unimaginable for Art than his father’s direct experiences, the author resorts to an ingenious visual resource: he uses the speech bubble to partially “hide” the unwitnessed scene, reducing the explicit character of what is represented. Additionally, he introduces the characters into the scene as external spectators, visually suggesting that both are auditory rather than visual witnesses of what is narrated. This sophisticated graphic ellipsis resolves the ethical and aesthetic dilemma of representing a horror that exceeds even the direct experience of the main witness.

6. Surface: The final appearance of “Maus” reflects deliberate aesthetic decisions that reinforce its fundamental concept. The choice of black and white not only responded to economic limitations but gave the work a sobriety in keeping with its theme. The expressive stroke, the attention to detail in backgrounds and environments (especially in the architectural representations of Auschwitz), and the general design of the two volumes as a cohesive set contribute to creating an immersive and emotionally resonant reading experience.

The quality of the surface in “Maus” also manifests in subtle aspects such as stylistic consistency throughout hundreds of pages, clarity in lettering (crucial for a work with so much dialogue), and the balance between areas of detail and spaces for visual “breathing.” The final finish reflects a meticulous refinement process where each visual element serves the narrative and the message of the work. Want to master the art of creating impactful comics? Click here to access resources that will take your creations to the next level.

From Maus to Your Own Creation: Applying the Six Steps

Art Spiegelman’s creative process for “Maus” perfectly illustrates how the six steps proposed by Scott McCloud don’t function in isolation but as an interconnected system where each decision affects all others. The strength of “Maus” lies precisely in the coherence with which all these dimensions are integrated in service of an artistic and testimonial purpose.

What makes this work extraordinary is not just the originality of its concept or the technical perfection of its execution, but the authenticity with which Spiegelman confronted his own limitations, doubts, and contradictions, incorporating them as an integral part of the story. Instead of claiming absolute narrative authority, “Maus” constantly exposes its own fragility as an attempt at representation, and it is precisely this honesty that gives the work its unbreakable emotional power and enduring relevance.

The transformation that Spiegelman operated in the field of comics cannot be underestimated. By demonstrating that comics could address the deepest themes of human experience with rigor and sensitivity, he opened paths that subsequent generations of artists have continued to explore. His work, which took him more than thirteen years to complete, represents one of the clearest examples of how the conscious integration of the six steps can result in a work that transcends the expectations of the medium and reaches the category of undisputed classic.

Start Narrating! Your Next Masterpiece Awaits

We have analyzed in detail the six steps proposed by Scott McCloud and have seen how they materialize in Art Spiegelman’s “Maus.” The creation of this revolutionary graphic novel was an extremely challenging process that involved countless creative, technical, and ethical decisions, resulting in a work that forever transformed the landscape of world comics.

Now it’s your turn. Whether you’re taking your first steps in creating comics or looking to take your work to a new level, McCloud’s six steps offer a valuable framework for reflecting on your creative process. Ready to turn your ideas into extraordinary comics? Discover professional tools and methods here.

Remember that there is no magic formula or pre-established order: each creator finds their own path through these fundamental aspects. The important thing is that every decision you make is aligned with your artistic vision and that all elements work in harmony to create a coherent and meaningful experience for your readers.

What story burns within you waiting to be told? What form will you give it? What visual language will you choose to express it? How will you structure its development? What technical skills do you need to develop to materialize it? What will its final appearance be?

The journey from the initial idea to the finished work can be long and full of challenges, as it was for Spiegelman, but it can also be deeply rewarding. Don’t be afraid to experiment, question established conventions, or explore unexplored narrative territories. After all, the works that truly endure are those that manage to combine all aspects of the creative process in a unique and personal way.

So go ahead: take pencil and paper, or open your favorite drawing software, and begin to shape your next creation. The world is waiting for your story.

Join us

Use Scott McCloud’s Six Steps According to Art Spiegelman’s Maus!

Image 1

The Invisible Art: Discovering the Anatomy of Comics

Have you ever wondered what makes a comic truly effective? What elements separate a simple comic strip from a masterpiece of the ninth art? Behind every memorable panel exists a fascinating creative process that few readers fully appreciate. Today we’ll dive into the methodology that transforms simple ideas into powerful visual narratives, and discover how one of the most revolutionary comic theorists breaks down this process into six fundamental steps.

In his seminal work “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art,” Scott McCloud builds on Will Eisner’s definition of comics as “Sequential Art” and states that this definition has a neutral character since it doesn’t reference “style,” “quality,” or “subject matter.” This description, although simple in appearance, opens the door to a deeper understanding of a frequently underestimated medium.

Image 2

That’s why McCloud proposes separating form from content through “aesthetic surgery” and thus expanding Eisner’s definition by specifying a vocabulary unique to comics. After guiding us through this fascinating conceptual journey, he presents the “six steps” of the creative process, a framework that proves invaluable for those who wish to venture into comic creation. Would you like to explore the fundamental basics of sequential drawing? Discover specialized resources here.

Scott McCloud’s “Six Steps”: The Structure Behind Every Graphic Narrative

Image 3

1. Idea / Purpose: These are the impulses, ideas, emotions, and philosophies that motivate us to create our content. This is the primordial seed, the “why?” behind our story. What do we want to communicate? What message do we wish to convey? What emotions do we seek to provoke in our readers? This first step is fundamental because it establishes the foundation upon which we will build our entire work.

The idea can emerge from personal experiences, social observations, philosophical reflections, or simply pure imagination. Some creators begin with an abstract concept that gradually takes shape, while others start from a specific mental image or scene that they then expand. What’s important is that the idea has enough strength and meaning to drive the entire creative process that follows.

2. Form: Here we face a fundamental question: What format will our work take? A complete book, a newspaper strip, a webcomic, a graphic novel? The choice of form is not trivial, as it will determine many subsequent decisions and directly affect how our story will be perceived by the audience.

The chosen form should complement and enhance our initial idea. For example, a deep reflection on the human condition might benefit from the space and measured pace offered by a graphic novel, while a pointed social critique might work better as a concise and direct comic strip. Form also determines practical aspects such as dimensions, number of pages, chromatics (black and white, color, duotone) and other physical elements that will condition our narrative.

3. Idiom (or Stylistic Language): What school or artistic tradition will we follow? Each has its own style, its particular ways of elaborating gestures and representing genres. In this step we must ask ourselves: In which tradition will we feel most comfortable developing our work? Which aligns best with our purposes?

The stylistic idiom ranges from expressionist caricature to detailed realism, including Japanese manga, European clear line, American underground, or innovations in experimental comics. The choice not only reflects our influences and technical capabilities but also establishes a visual contract with the reader and communicates subliminal information about the tone and intentions of our story. Want to perfect your personal drawing style? Find practical exercises that will help you develop your artistic voice here.

4. Structure: This is the moment of composition, where we must decide which elements of everything we’ve conceived will remain in our final production and which will be left out to achieve our objective. Structure is the invisible architecture that supports the entire narrative.

Here crucial decisions come into play such as the sequence of events, narrative rhythm, distribution of climactic moments, organization of chapters or sections, and construction of plot arcs. A solid structure ensures that the reader can follow the story without confusion, that revelations occur at the right moments, and that the narrative flow maintains its internal coherence. This step involves meticulous planning work and requires both artistic intuition and analytical thinking.

5. Craft (or Skill): This instance is perhaps the most practical, since this is where we use our theoretical and technical knowledge, our acquired skills to optimally resolve the entire path we have been sketching since the initial conception of our comic.

Craft encompasses everything from mastery of drawing (anatomy, perspective, composition) to handling specific tools (nibs, brushes, digital tablets), including inking techniques, lettering, coloring, and layout. It’s the moment where our practical skills transform abstract ideas into concrete images. The level of craft not only determines the visual quality of the final result but also the efficiency with which we can communicate our story. An experienced artist knows how to direct the reader’s gaze, how to use the space of the page, and how to manipulate the expressiveness of characters to maximize narrative impact.

6. Surface: This is where all our work becomes visible, where finalization occurs and the aesthetic values we will expose both to ourselves and our potential audience are expressed. It’s the outermost layer of our creation, the first thing the reader perceives.

Surface includes final finishes, presentation details, print or digital display quality, and all those elements that make up the immediate sensory experience of the reader. Although it might seem merely cosmetic, surface is crucial because it acts as a gateway to the entire narrative universe we have built. An attractive surface that is congruent with the other steps invites the reader to immerse themselves in our story, while a careless or incongruent surface can drive away even the most predisposed audience.

When McCloud talks about these six steps, he exemplifies them with different fictional comic artists and explains what trajectories each follows based on the paths they take. Ultimately, he clarifies that the order of the steps is not necessarily linear or rigid. The important thing is that all of us, in some way, must go through each of these aspects, focusing more or less on each depending on our interests and objectives. In this way, we could go back and forth between different “beginnings” and “endings” according to the artistic choices we make.

Image 4

Therefore, according to McCloud, all steps must be traversed since they interrogate each other, and if we don’t do this, our “apple” (the visual metaphor he uses to represent the final product) could be empty of content or lack internal coherence. It is necessary, then, to understand that all moments are related and we must make them dialogue with each other to give rise to a complete, complex, and well-established work.

This doesn’t mean that, by doing it correctly, our reception will necessarily be successful in terms of fame or popularity, because that also depends on the market and its trends, but it can be successful from our own experience and our development as artists. Such is the interrelationship between these parts that more than one recognized artist has asked themselves, once their career has advanced: “What am I doing this for?” In other words: is form or content more important?

Some creators have revolutionized the visual form of storytelling, while others have caused uproars with the subjects they have chosen to address. However, these two aspects are not opposed but complementary, and they can have different relevance in different periods of our artistic trajectory. Enhance your ability to tell visually appealing stories by accessing specialized resources here.

All this interiority of the creative process, which until now had not been systematically analyzed in academic discussions about comics, led McCloud to gain great recognition for his dissection of what he himself called the “Invisible Art.” His approach gives us an innovative perspective, both to the curious and to those knowledgeable about those debates that comic artists have but of which, as readers, we usually see only a minimal part.

The “Six Steps” Applied to Maus: Anatomy of a Comic Masterpiece

One of the essential names for understanding the practical application of these concepts is Art Spiegelman, the first comic artist to receive a Pulitzer Prize for his exceptional graphic novel “Maus” (1991). His work not only “elevated” comics to the category of art recognized by mainstream critics, but also managed to break through simultaneously from form and content, revolutionizing the narrative possibilities of the medium.

Let’s analyze how McCloud’s six steps manifest in this fundamental work:

1. Idea/Purpose: Spiegelman’s initial impulse arises from a deeply personal need: to understand and process his father Vladek’s traumatic experience as a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. To this intimate motivation is added a broader purpose: to document and transmit to new generations the memory of one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century, from an individual and humanized perspective that contrasts with the abstraction of historical figures and data. Spiegelman also sought to explore the complex father-son relationships marked by intergenerational trauma and to question the limits of artistic representation of traumatic historical events.

2. Form: Spiegelman opted for the serialized graphic novel format (initially published in installments in RAW magazine and later compiled into two volumes). This choice allowed him to develop a complex and long-form narrative that required space to unfold, avoiding the limitations of shorter formats. The graphic novel also provided him with the necessary freedom to combine multiple temporal and narrative layers, alternating between the present (conversations with his father) and the past (Vladek’s experiences during the war).

3. Idiom/Stylistic Language: In a revolutionary decision for his time, Spiegelman chose to represent his characters anthropomorphically, assigning them animal heads according to their nationality or ethnicity: mice for Jews, cats for Germans, pigs for non-Jewish Poles, etc. This stylistic choice, inspired by both the traditions of political caricature and Nazi propaganda that dehumanized Jews by comparing them to “rats,” became one of the most commented on and analyzed aspects of the work.

The idea of representing Jews as “mice” directly dialogues with the propagandistic symbolization of this population as responsible for carrying the economic “plague” and racial “contamination.” By recovering and recontextualizing these stereotypes, Spiegelman exposes the mechanism of dehumanization that facilitated genocide. On the other hand, the graphic style of “Maus,” with its expressive black and white strokes, its detailed backgrounds, and its variable panel layout, combines influences from both American underground and the European expressionist tradition.

Image 5

The use of universal cartoon style in “Maus” also serves a paradoxical function: on one hand, it creates a certain aesthetic distance that makes bearable the representation of horrors that would be difficult to assimilate in a more realistic style; on the other, it universalizes the experience by allowing readers to more easily project their own emotions onto simplified characters. This stylistic decision was criticized by those who perceived a gesture of bad taste or trivialization in the representation of the Holocaust. However, it’s important to recognize that Spiegelman was facing uncharted territory: the representation of traumatic historical testimony in a medium traditionally associated with children’s entertainment or satire.

On the page shown, we can appreciate the internal debate about the self-fictionalized representation of Art Spiegelman himself in his comic. In the first panels, we find the contextualization of his work, placing us in the production and post-production of “Maus.” In the initial three panels showing his profile face, we understand that he is wearing a mouse mask, suggesting that the identity of a Jew victim of the Holocaust is not his primary identity but an identification he adopted during the documentation process. However, in the fourth panel, seeing him from the front, that distinction becomes blurred, symbolizing how that project has consumed him, an idea reinforced by the flies surrounding him and, finally, by the corpses on which he is working. This meta-image exposes a reflective critique: his artistic and commercial success derives, in a way, from the media “exploitation” of a historical tragedy of unimaginable proportions.

4. Structure: “Maus” presents a complex structure of a story within a story, alternating two main timelines: the present of the interviews Art conducts with his father (1970s-80s) and the past of Vladek’s experiences during the Nazi rise and World War II (1930s-40s). To this double temporality is added, in the second volume, a third metanarrative layer where Spiegelman reflects on the process of creating the comic itself and the ethical implications of his undertaking.

This structure allows for multiple levels of reading and creates a constant counterpoint between historical trauma and its reverberations in the present, between the grand History and personal history. Additionally, the episodic structure facilitates the dosing of emotional intensity, interspersing moments of extreme tension with everyday scenes that provide respite to the reader.

Image 6

The exchange between father and son takes the form of an interview, generating a back-and-forth between the present reality of the conversations and the past narrated by Vladek. This produces a sophisticated temporal play where discourses intertwine and hierarchize, flowing smoothly from speech bubbles to text boxes and vice versa, creating a dynamic rhythm that makes us constantly enter and exit the testimony. This narrative structure is not only aesthetically innovative but conceptually significant: it reflects how traumatic memory is not linear but fragmentary, and how access to the past is always mediated by the limitations of memory and narration.

5. Craft/Skill: Spiegelman’s technical mastery manifests in multiple aspects of “Maus.” His ability to balance expressiveness and readability in an apparently simple but tremendously effective style; his mastery in page composition, varying the size and arrangement of panels according to narrative needs; his skill in representing different emotional states through the gestures of characters with animal features; and his command of narrative rhythm, alternating dialogue scenes with more visual sequences.

Particularly notable is the way Spiegelman solves the problem of visually representing the “unrepresentable” of the Holocaust. When he must show atrocities that his father did not directly witness but knew through third-party accounts, Spiegelman employs specific visual resources that mark this testimonial difference, as we see on the following page. Explore different graphic expression techniques for narrating complex stories with effective visual resources here.

Image 7

In this crucial sequence of “Maus,” the text boxes narrating Vladek’s story are fundamental to understanding the complex testimonial structure of the work. Here, what Spiegelman’s father tells is not something he witnessed directly, but something that was related to him. As this “secondhand” horror is even more unimaginable for Art than his father’s direct experiences, the author resorts to an ingenious visual resource: he uses the speech bubble to partially “hide” the unwitnessed scene, reducing the explicit character of what is represented. Additionally, he introduces the characters into the scene as external spectators, visually suggesting that both are auditory rather than visual witnesses of what is narrated. This sophisticated graphic ellipsis resolves the ethical and aesthetic dilemma of representing a horror that exceeds even the direct experience of the main witness.

6. Surface: The final appearance of “Maus” reflects deliberate aesthetic decisions that reinforce its fundamental concept. The choice of black and white not only responded to economic limitations but gave the work a sobriety in keeping with its theme. The expressive stroke, the attention to detail in backgrounds and environments (especially in the architectural representations of Auschwitz), and the general design of the two volumes as a cohesive set contribute to creating an immersive and emotionally resonant reading experience.

The quality of the surface in “Maus” also manifests in subtle aspects such as stylistic consistency throughout hundreds of pages, clarity in lettering (crucial for a work with so much dialogue), and the balance between areas of detail and spaces for visual “breathing.” The final finish reflects a meticulous refinement process where each visual element serves the narrative and the message of the work. Want to master the art of creating impactful comics? Click here to access resources that will take your creations to the next level.

From Maus to Your Own Creation: Applying the Six Steps

Art Spiegelman’s creative process for “Maus” perfectly illustrates how the six steps proposed by Scott McCloud don’t function in isolation but as an interconnected system where each decision affects all others. The strength of “Maus” lies precisely in the coherence with which all these dimensions are integrated in service of an artistic and testimonial purpose.

What makes this work extraordinary is not just the originality of its concept or the technical perfection of its execution, but the authenticity with which Spiegelman confronted his own limitations, doubts, and contradictions, incorporating them as an integral part of the story. Instead of claiming absolute narrative authority, “Maus” constantly exposes its own fragility as an attempt at representation, and it is precisely this honesty that gives the work its unbreakable emotional power and enduring relevance.

The transformation that Spiegelman operated in the field of comics cannot be underestimated. By demonstrating that comics could address the deepest themes of human experience with rigor and sensitivity, he opened paths that subsequent generations of artists have continued to explore. His work, which took him more than thirteen years to complete, represents one of the clearest examples of how the conscious integration of the six steps can result in a work that transcends the expectations of the medium and reaches the category of undisputed classic.

Start Narrating! Your Next Masterpiece Awaits

We have analyzed in detail the six steps proposed by Scott McCloud and have seen how they materialize in Art Spiegelman’s “Maus.” The creation of this revolutionary graphic novel was an extremely challenging process that involved countless creative, technical, and ethical decisions, resulting in a work that forever transformed the landscape of world comics.

Now it’s your turn. Whether you’re taking your first steps in creating comics or looking to take your work to a new level, McCloud’s six steps offer a valuable framework for reflecting on your creative process. Ready to turn your ideas into extraordinary comics? Discover professional tools and methods here.

Remember that there is no magic formula or pre-established order: each creator finds their own path through these fundamental aspects. The important thing is that every decision you make is aligned with your artistic vision and that all elements work in harmony to create a coherent and meaningful experience for your readers.

What story burns within you waiting to be told? What form will you give it? What visual language will you choose to express it? How will you structure its development? What technical skills do you need to develop to materialize it? What will its final appearance be?

The journey from the initial idea to the finished work can be long and full of challenges, as it was for Spiegelman, but it can also be deeply rewarding. Don’t be afraid to experiment, question established conventions, or explore unexplored narrative territories. After all, the works that truly endure are those that manage to combine all aspects of the creative process in a unique and personal way.

So go ahead: take pencil and paper, or open your favorite drawing software, and begin to shape your next creation. The world is waiting for your story.

Workbook