Subverting Power: Cartoons, Comics, and Culture
An Evening with Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly in Conversation with Michael Silverblatt

The USC Bookstore will have books available for sale at the event.

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required.

USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP
USC Alumni: RSVP
General Public: RSVP

DESCRIPTION:
Listen in as literati power couple Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman talk with their dear friend and NPR radio host Michael Silverblatt about art and politics, the subversive responsibilities of artists and media makers, and more. Françoise Mouly is an artist, author, and the art editor of The New Yorker. Art Spiegelman is a fabled cartoonist and the author of In the Shadow of No Towers, Breakdowns, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel Maus. Michael Silverblatt, host of NPR’s Bookworm, will moderate a dynamic discussion covering Mouly’s iconic task as the person who selects New Yorker covers each week, Spiegelman’s groundbreaking expansion of the possibilities of comics, and the ways these and the couple’s many other endeavors respond to timely political issues through culture and creativity. As a married couple who have collaborated since they met in the 1970s, Spiegelman and Mouly blend the personal and the professional while separately and jointly shaping the culture we all experience.

Bios:
Françoise Mouly has been the art editor of The New Yorker since 1993 and is the publisher and editorial director of TOON Books. She founded and co-edited (with Art Spiegelman) the groundbreaking comics anthology RAW; the best-selling Little Lit series; and the TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics. Over her tenure at The New Yorker, Mouly has been responsible for over 1,000 covers. She has been named Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and received the French Legion of Honor. Her many awards include the Richard Gangel Art Director Award from the Society of Illustrators, the Eric Carle Museum Bridge Award for “sustained achievement in the realm of the illustrated book for young people,” and the Smithsonian magazine’s Ingenuity Award for being a “transformative figure in comics.” (Facebook, Instagram, The New Yorker profile, TED profile, Twitter)

Art Spiegelman almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves. In 1992, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his Holocaust narrative, Maus. His comics are known for their shifting graphic styles, formal complexity, and controversial content, while Spiegelman is renowned as both a creator and a historian of comics. He was part of the underground comix subculture of the 1960s and ’70s, co-founded the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine RAW with Françoise Mouly, and has authored Maus, In the Shadow of No Towers, and Breakdowns, among other works. He was a staff artist and writer at The New Yorker from 1993 to 2003. Spiegelman has been honored with the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (Facebook, Instagram, The New Yorker profile, Penguin Random House profile, Wikipedia)

Michael Silverblatt is the host of the nationally syndicated radio show Bookworm, the nation’s premier literary talk show. (Wikipedia)

Additional Links:
Françoise Mouly’s TED Talk: The Stories Behind The New Yorker’s Iconic Covers (Video)

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Keith Mayerson (Art and Design).

Photo (Spiegelman): Enno Kapitza/Agentur Focus
Photo (Mouly): Sarah Shatz