Certainly no one would have thought, after the collapse of Nazi Germany, that one of the most detailed and accurate historical accounts of this dark period in human history would be populated with cartoon mice and cats and take the form of a comic. In fact, for me, only Claude Lanzman's SHOAH documentary is as searing and powerful. Both focus on storytelling and memory, littering the mundane with the shocking. Spiegelman's background as a counter-culture underground comic artist serves him well. The art is stark, intentionally crude at times, and evocative in a way film or prose could never achieve. King of the heap, really, when it comes to the world of graphic novels.