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In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman
"Jeet Heer more thoroughly and widely understands comics history and the perplexing binomial life of the cartoonist better than anyone who's not one. As well-versed in literature as he is in comics, he always gets at the peculiar, poetical texture of his subject not only by what he writes, but how he writes it--clearly, mellifluously, and beautifully. Our humble discipline is singularly lucky to have him telling its story."--Chris Ware
In a partnership spanning four decades, Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman have become the pre-eminent power couple of cutting-edge graphic art. Their landmark magazine Raw, which first published artists such as Ben Katchor, Chris Ware, and Charles Burns, brought an avant-garde sensibility to comics and, along with Spiegelman's legendary graphic novel Maus, completely revolutionized the form. As art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, Mouly has remade the face of that venerable magazine with covers that capture the political and social upheavals of the last two decades, such as the black-on-black cover after 9/11 and the infamous Barack Obama fist-bump cartoon. Based on exclusive interviews with Mouly, Spiegelman, and a pantheon of comics artists--including Dan Clowes, Barry Blitt, Anita Kunz, and Adrian Tomine--In Love with Art is both an intimate portrait of Mouly and a rare, behind-the-scenes look at some of today's most iconic images. Through the prism of an uncommonly successful relationship, the book tells the story of one of the most remarkable artistic transformations of our time.
Jeet Heer's writing has appeared in the Guardian, Slate, Boston Globe, the American Prospect, and the Virginia Quarterly Review.
In a partnership spanning four decades, Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman have become the pre-eminent power couple of cutting-edge graphic art. Their landmark magazine Raw, which first published artists such as Ben Katchor, Chris Ware, and Charles Burns, brought an avant-garde sensibility to comics and, along with Spiegelman's legendary graphic novel Maus, completely revolutionized the form. As art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, Mouly has remade the face of that venerable magazine with covers that capture the political and social upheavals of the last two decades, such as the black-on-black cover after 9/11 and the infamous Barack Obama fist-bump cartoon. Based on exclusive interviews with Mouly, Spiegelman, and a pantheon of comics artists--including Dan Clowes, Barry Blitt, Anita Kunz, and Adrian Tomine--In Love with Art is both an intimate portrait of Mouly and a rare, behind-the-scenes look at some of today's most iconic images. Through the prism of an uncommonly successful relationship, the book tells the story of one of the most remarkable artistic transformations of our time.
Jeet Heer's writing has appeared in the Guardian, Slate, Boston Globe, the American Prospect, and the Virginia Quarterly Review.
136 pages, Paperback
First published August 16, 2013
8 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Jeet Heer
23 books11 followersJeet Heer is a senior editor at the New Republic who has published in a wide array of journals including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and VQR. He is the author of two books: In Love With Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (Coach House Books) and Sweet Lechery: Essays, Profiles and Reviews (Porcupine’s Quill). He has co-edited eight books and served as a contributing editor on another eight volumes. With Kent Worcester, Heer co-edited A Comics Studies Reader (University Press of Mississippi), which won the Peter C. Rollins Book Award given annually to the best book in American Studies or Cultural Studies. He’s been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 12, 2017
This book describes a strong woman while allowing her to maintain her feminine features to the joy of feminists everywhere, but it seems a bit forced. The interesting story of Raw, The New Yorker, and TOONS gets pushed into this "hoowah! Mouly is an amazing woman and she's a woman!" framework refusing to allow any criticism of the author's subject slip in except for the positive "she's a bit too aggressive" masquerading as criticism.
That being said this is an interesting look at the woman behind the movement of comics becoming art. With Raw and The New Yorker she managed to allow comics to be regarded as artwork. With Toons she allowed comics to be viewed as legitimate literature for children. I don't think the comic scene would be as productive if it weren't for her. It is easy to look at the finished pieces and ignore the assistance that the artists required.
The author also seems to be firmly rooted in that pretentious art-comic crowd thoroughly dismissing the superhero genre as trash. Alan Moore and Frank Miller are dismissed as being gory and violent but not for mature adults. The only talent in mainstream comics, according to Heer, was Jack Kirby (and those assholes at DC and Marvel drove him into doing "grunt work" on cartoon shows). Dave Sim's Cerebus - what is usually considered to be a watershed series in the independent comics world - is dismissed as a silly mash-up of Howard the Duck and Conan the Barbarian as though Heer had only read the first couple issues of the series. He sounds like he could have dismissed Maus as a silly animal comicbook mashed up with some old geezer's holocaust story.
I read an issue of Blab a few months ago wherein Daniel Clowes criticizes Raw for being dull. He states that all the individual creators are amazing but the magazine as a whole just doesn't work for him; this is obviously an explicit criticism of the editors Art and Froncoise. Surprisingly, Heer quotes this exact passage in this book, but then immediately follows it up with a later Clowes' quote where Clowes recants his previous statement expressing his bias of not being in the magazine as the reason he didn't like Raw. But, that's nonsense. Heer cherry-picked the second quote. Clowes didn't like the editing of the magazine. And guess what? That's fine. Raw isn't the greatest, most amazing thing in the whole universe. Heer wants to pin-point the entire evolution of mature comics onto Francoise Mouly and her editing of Raw as though comics would have never became an accepted medium if it weren't for Raw. You know, just like films would be for kids and illiterates if Orson Welles hadn't come along.
This really is only a minor quibble with the book as much of the book is more specific to Mouly's work and the reader can ignore the worship-like passages. It always pisses me off when someone writing about the history of an artform can be so pretentious and condescending.
That being said this is an interesting look at the woman behind the movement of comics becoming art. With Raw and The New Yorker she managed to allow comics to be regarded as artwork. With Toons she allowed comics to be viewed as legitimate literature for children. I don't think the comic scene would be as productive if it weren't for her. It is easy to look at the finished pieces and ignore the assistance that the artists required.
The author also seems to be firmly rooted in that pretentious art-comic crowd thoroughly dismissing the superhero genre as trash. Alan Moore and Frank Miller are dismissed as being gory and violent but not for mature adults. The only talent in mainstream comics, according to Heer, was Jack Kirby (and those assholes at DC and Marvel drove him into doing "grunt work" on cartoon shows). Dave Sim's Cerebus - what is usually considered to be a watershed series in the independent comics world - is dismissed as a silly mash-up of Howard the Duck and Conan the Barbarian as though Heer had only read the first couple issues of the series. He sounds like he could have dismissed Maus as a silly animal comicbook mashed up with some old geezer's holocaust story.
I read an issue of Blab a few months ago wherein Daniel Clowes criticizes Raw for being dull. He states that all the individual creators are amazing but the magazine as a whole just doesn't work for him; this is obviously an explicit criticism of the editors Art and Froncoise. Surprisingly, Heer quotes this exact passage in this book, but then immediately follows it up with a later Clowes' quote where Clowes recants his previous statement expressing his bias of not being in the magazine as the reason he didn't like Raw. But, that's nonsense. Heer cherry-picked the second quote. Clowes didn't like the editing of the magazine. And guess what? That's fine. Raw isn't the greatest, most amazing thing in the whole universe. Heer wants to pin-point the entire evolution of mature comics onto Francoise Mouly and her editing of Raw as though comics would have never became an accepted medium if it weren't for Raw. You know, just like films would be for kids and illiterates if Orson Welles hadn't come along.
This really is only a minor quibble with the book as much of the book is more specific to Mouly's work and the reader can ignore the worship-like passages. It always pisses me off when someone writing about the history of an artform can be so pretentious and condescending.
March 30, 2014
I'm not in love with In Love With Art. Neither as a title, nor the book itself. Taking the former, it seems to define Mouly only in relation to Spiegelman. And really that is the problem with the latter - there is just not enough of Mouly and too much of Art.
Unfortunately, I don't feel that Heer got to grips with the art of editing. Mouly's input to RAW is described in pretty nebulous terms. I realise that memories may be hazy now, and documentation scant, but a bit more detail would have been really helpful. As it was, we only really got that she worried about the order of the stories. In contrast, there was much more detail about Spiegelman's early career, which could have been skated over. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Spiegelman fan, it's just not what I was reading the book for).
It's a little scattershot too - some things are peculiarly detailed, others mentioned in passing. Someone says they don't know how they got a printing press in the loft - that would have been interesting to know. similarly, Heer asserts that Clowes changed his mind about RAW, but doesn't say when the second quote was from. Compounding this, some material just seemed a bit weak. The description of editors as spies; pointing out that "Ware" contains the letters of RAW... And while I'm grouching - the tension between Weirdo and RAW seemed poorly motivated. These are all pretty minor faults, but I just had a sense of the whole being somewhat insubstantial.
In his summing up, Heer asserts that it was through Spiegleman that Mouly found her love for art. I suspect he forces this point a bit because of the assonance of the sentence, but the the result almost reads as if any smart woman chosen by Spiegelman would have achieved what Mouly has. I know that wasn't Heer's intention, but it is, I think, a problem with this book - Heer cannot or will not put Spiegelman to one side. Maybe he's just too in love with Art. Sorry.
Unfortunately, I don't feel that Heer got to grips with the art of editing. Mouly's input to RAW is described in pretty nebulous terms. I realise that memories may be hazy now, and documentation scant, but a bit more detail would have been really helpful. As it was, we only really got that she worried about the order of the stories. In contrast, there was much more detail about Spiegelman's early career, which could have been skated over. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Spiegelman fan, it's just not what I was reading the book for).
It's a little scattershot too - some things are peculiarly detailed, others mentioned in passing. Someone says they don't know how they got a printing press in the loft - that would have been interesting to know. similarly, Heer asserts that Clowes changed his mind about RAW, but doesn't say when the second quote was from. Compounding this, some material just seemed a bit weak. The description of editors as spies; pointing out that "Ware" contains the letters of RAW... And while I'm grouching - the tension between Weirdo and RAW seemed poorly motivated. These are all pretty minor faults, but I just had a sense of the whole being somewhat insubstantial.
In his summing up, Heer asserts that it was through Spiegleman that Mouly found her love for art. I suspect he forces this point a bit because of the assonance of the sentence, but the the result almost reads as if any smart woman chosen by Spiegelman would have achieved what Mouly has. I know that wasn't Heer's intention, but it is, I think, a problem with this book - Heer cannot or will not put Spiegelman to one side. Maybe he's just too in love with Art. Sorry.
October 3, 2013
The name Art Spiegelman is known throughout the world for his revolutionary work, Maus, and his editorial work on RAW, which first helped introduce the work to Chris Ware, Charles Burns, and others. But...Art didn't work alone. His partner in these adventures for over forty years has been his wife, Francoise Mouly, who has her own artistic talents. She has been the art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, including the famous black on black cover after 9/11, and was a driving force behind RAW. In this book Jeet Heer, introduces the world to Mouly, through exclusive interviews with Mouly, Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and more. This book provides a behind-the-scenes look at the successful relationship between Mouly and Spiegelman, as they transform the world around them. Heer does an excellent job of telling their story and capturing their personality.
This is a great book, and an easy read that covers a lot of ground between Mouly and Spiegelman. I highly recommend this book for all fans of graphic novels, comics, and art in general. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
ARC provided by NetGalley
This is a great book, and an easy read that covers a lot of ground between Mouly and Spiegelman. I highly recommend this book for all fans of graphic novels, comics, and art in general. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
ARC provided by NetGalley
November 1, 2018
Book review of Jeet Heer's In Love with Art: Françoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013)
I did not know anything about Françoise Mouly, not her name, not her story, not her work, nada, zilch, nichts, rien, niente, ei mitään, hakuna, before reading this book.
The reader will discover how the characters and plots of Mouly's story contain and trace the bifurcated history of comic arts that we know it to have become nowadays in North America at least. For comic arts would become a thing breaking through (with the curatorial and architectural sensibilities provided by Mouly) or "mainstreaming" beyond popular pulp American comics and, with her husband Art also articulating a voice or narrative form or idiom that is materially art (in the collectible sense) but also accessible in its layers of meaning and conveyance of meaning.
In a word, Mouly, daughter of a French cosmetic surgeon who wanted his daughter to follow in the field of medicine, escaping to Brooklyn with little English, is a pivot as a publisher, editor and artist herself, unacknowledged during a largely male-dominated developmental course and discourse in comics, and the book does not so much argue as lays out touchstones as to why this is so.
Those touchstones are many and varied and occupies a wide span of the possibilities and impossibilities of the work of comics, including the comic artists themselves collaborating, meanwhile exploding the mostly quiet work and the sometimes convulsive drive to deliver/publish to the occasion or to the times the image or the imagery heretofore undrawn or unfigured.
For those interested in how The New Yorker magazine develops and uses illustration on the cover, there is one chapter that will satisfy.
Indeed, this slim book (really an extended long essay) will satisfy the mere curiosity as well as the Grand Inquisition while offering tangents to comic artistic confessions and to many other peripheral explorations in art, in marriage, in the work of labours of love. The only slight that might be thrown at the book is that it is something that would not this time be conveyed in comic arts form itself.
The classical Greek gods Jupiter et al have been known to command impossible or easy tasks which when unmet bring about punishments or rewards. The tasks will often demand ingenuity or the invention of tricks and such, obtaining from hard logical puzzles and indeed the fillip of divine help, the deus ex machina.
Françoise Mouly, would she had been such the classical legend, may yet have to receive an impossible task but also divine intervention, for already holding up half the sky.
I did not know anything about Françoise Mouly, not her name, not her story, not her work, nada, zilch, nichts, rien, niente, ei mitään, hakuna, before reading this book.
The reader will discover how the characters and plots of Mouly's story contain and trace the bifurcated history of comic arts that we know it to have become nowadays in North America at least. For comic arts would become a thing breaking through (with the curatorial and architectural sensibilities provided by Mouly) or "mainstreaming" beyond popular pulp American comics and, with her husband Art also articulating a voice or narrative form or idiom that is materially art (in the collectible sense) but also accessible in its layers of meaning and conveyance of meaning.
In a word, Mouly, daughter of a French cosmetic surgeon who wanted his daughter to follow in the field of medicine, escaping to Brooklyn with little English, is a pivot as a publisher, editor and artist herself, unacknowledged during a largely male-dominated developmental course and discourse in comics, and the book does not so much argue as lays out touchstones as to why this is so.
Those touchstones are many and varied and occupies a wide span of the possibilities and impossibilities of the work of comics, including the comic artists themselves collaborating, meanwhile exploding the mostly quiet work and the sometimes convulsive drive to deliver/publish to the occasion or to the times the image or the imagery heretofore undrawn or unfigured.
For those interested in how The New Yorker magazine develops and uses illustration on the cover, there is one chapter that will satisfy.
Indeed, this slim book (really an extended long essay) will satisfy the mere curiosity as well as the Grand Inquisition while offering tangents to comic artistic confessions and to many other peripheral explorations in art, in marriage, in the work of labours of love. The only slight that might be thrown at the book is that it is something that would not this time be conveyed in comic arts form itself.
The classical Greek gods Jupiter et al have been known to command impossible or easy tasks which when unmet bring about punishments or rewards. The tasks will often demand ingenuity or the invention of tricks and such, obtaining from hard logical puzzles and indeed the fillip of divine help, the deus ex machina.
Françoise Mouly, would she had been such the classical legend, may yet have to receive an impossible task but also divine intervention, for already holding up half the sky.
November 2, 2024
Fascinating look at the life and career of Francoise Mouly, art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, which I didn't even know until I went to hear her interviewed on stage (with her husband, Art Spiegelman) at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus recently. I knew of Francoise Mouly before that event, but only as a key figure in the world of comics, and didn't know that she was responsible for all the great New Yorker covers of the past three decades (guess I'm more out of it than I realized!). But enough about me, this book tells you a lot more about this very remarkable woman, whose work has often been behind the scenes, but absolutely essential to the explosion of great comics and graphic novels in our lifetimes. Now she's focused on publishing comics for kids as founder of TOON books, and as with everything she does, it sounds like a brilliant success. If you are not already familiar with her story, this book provides a great introduction.
May 18, 2020
I don't know what book these other reviewers are referring to below. This is an amazing and empathetic work of biography and history. Each chapter carefully places Françoise Mouly's fascinating life at the center of the story; most chapters include one of her amazing contributions to history of print and cartoon. Yes, she was married to Art Spiegelman, so one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century will enter the stage. In this case, and to his credit, as a supportive artist, husband, and father. If you thought that you knew the story of underground comix, of the New Yorker magazine, of Maus,and you have not read of Françoise Mouly's contributions to the history of each of those, than you may friend, know less than you think! This work approaches feminist history! Read it now!
January 11, 2018
this was a fun book to read, but annoyingly centered on art spiegelman in spite of its aims and claims to the contrary. as a profile of francoise mouly to remedy her constant sidelining, it pretty much fails—it feels forced and clumsy in the author's attempts to make amends for his previous underestimation of mouly, as if he knows he was wrong but is only going through the motions to assuage guilt. that said, it is filling a very garing gap in comics literature (at least until a better mouly biography comes along) and was a very enjoyable read as a fan of both spiegelman and mouly. would have been a lot better if it were just honestly presented as an overview of the pair's relationship—the focus on mouly is relatively slight.
October 10, 2020
Lively little biography of an influential comics editor, insightful on the interplay between writers and editors, between text and image. "Editors are like spies. Both jobs involve working behind the scenes and keeping confidences. A secret agent who breaks a code and wins a war might get nothing more than a private handshake for her efforts."
July 2, 2018
This is a sweet little book, a long essay in short biography.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to Atlanta-Fulton Public Library for the loan.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to Atlanta-Fulton Public Library for the loan.
April 28, 2014
What a lovely book. Jeet's mission with this book is a phenomenal one: Recognize the work of an editor -- and a woman -- whose work in the field of comics is far too under-recognized and appreciated. The slim novel follows Françoise Mouly's work, from her move to New York to her marriage to the iconic Art Spiegelman to her work crafting RAW to her time at the New Yorker.
She is a woman that seems to be a quiet storm. She has shaped so many important and iconic pieces of comics, art and popular culture that it simply seems egregious that most people have not heard of her. I found many aspects of her work fascinating, including the one comic she created for RAW during its run, which seems to be a medication on her own career. It contained the telling phrase, "But ... I'm just not an 'artist!'"
The section of the book about RAW reminds me of the documentation of another iconic era of comics (of a different sort), I'm Dying Up Here, which tells the tale of stand up comedians in the 1970s and '80s.
Mouly has shaped the work of many who would proudly take up the phrase, but neither she nor many others are quick to affix her with the label. As someone who spends much time shaping and editing the work of others, I recognize some of that instinct in her. When you devote so much time aiding the works of others, you often wonder what your identity is, since it remains hidden from readers.
Jeet's doing a great service by bringing her work to our attention, and I hope Mouly -- who is alive and well, by the way -- joins everyone else in thinking of her as an artist in her own right.
She is a woman that seems to be a quiet storm. She has shaped so many important and iconic pieces of comics, art and popular culture that it simply seems egregious that most people have not heard of her. I found many aspects of her work fascinating, including the one comic she created for RAW during its run, which seems to be a medication on her own career. It contained the telling phrase, "But ... I'm just not an 'artist!'"
The section of the book about RAW reminds me of the documentation of another iconic era of comics (of a different sort), I'm Dying Up Here, which tells the tale of stand up comedians in the 1970s and '80s.
Mouly has shaped the work of many who would proudly take up the phrase, but neither she nor many others are quick to affix her with the label. As someone who spends much time shaping and editing the work of others, I recognize some of that instinct in her. When you devote so much time aiding the works of others, you often wonder what your identity is, since it remains hidden from readers.
Jeet's doing a great service by bringing her work to our attention, and I hope Mouly -- who is alive and well, by the way -- joins everyone else in thinking of her as an artist in her own right.
August 10, 2016
The past couple of weeks has been one of those reading dry spells. The books I have had by my nightstand Simon Leys' The Hall of Uselessness and Morris B. Kaplan's Sodom on the Thames, have just not been that enthralling. I miss the feeling of wanting to retreat to a book that calls me each night. Luckily, last weekend Mr.J visited and gave us a copy of his new book In Love With Art: Francoise Mouly's: Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2013).
The slim, small study looks at the work of Francoise Mouly who has been art editor for the New Yorker magazine since 1993. Heer argues that Mouly's work prior to this with Spiegelman, specifically her work with their joint venture RAW has largely been uncredited and that she helped influence a generation of cartoonists and graphic novelists. Heer, who is completing his PhD on comics, cartooning and popular culture writes extensively on this world. He is the perfect writer to shed light on the work of someone like Mouly who has largely remained overshadowed by her partner Spiegelman. Heer's book not only gives her proper credit and much needed exposure but also places her in the larger context of the cartooning, graphic novel revolution in design that occurred in the 1980s. The only issue is that the nature of the work being discussed would be better served in a format that was larger and allowed more attention to the detail of Mouly's design. Maybe Heer's book will encourage more coverage of Mouly's work in a larger format that would showcase her talents.
The slim, small study looks at the work of Francoise Mouly who has been art editor for the New Yorker magazine since 1993. Heer argues that Mouly's work prior to this with Spiegelman, specifically her work with their joint venture RAW has largely been uncredited and that she helped influence a generation of cartoonists and graphic novelists. Heer, who is completing his PhD on comics, cartooning and popular culture writes extensively on this world. He is the perfect writer to shed light on the work of someone like Mouly who has largely remained overshadowed by her partner Spiegelman. Heer's book not only gives her proper credit and much needed exposure but also places her in the larger context of the cartooning, graphic novel revolution in design that occurred in the 1980s. The only issue is that the nature of the work being discussed would be better served in a format that was larger and allowed more attention to the detail of Mouly's design. Maybe Heer's book will encourage more coverage of Mouly's work in a larger format that would showcase her talents.
December 28, 2013
This was a decent long essay/profile pretending to be a full length book. It was good, I wish it was longer. It is about Francoise Mouly and her marginalization because her husband is the well known Pulitizer Prize winning artist Art Spiegleman, though she seems to have done more than him in many ways. It was her drive and support that allowed him to make Maus. She has been the art editor for New Yorker for 20 years now and some of the great covers have come from her. The most amazing thing is that the famous 9/11 cover was created by her. Art had the idea but she created it. SHe did give him the credit but she actually did it. I have been to two museum shows now with that piece in it and both times, the credit is given solely to Spiegelman. The book did a nice job showing this sexist dichotomy, though again, I wish Heer gave himself more room to explore more about her, especially her young readers publishing company, TOONbooks. Aw well, at least the book is out there for the other side of the story.
January 26, 2015
I had a great time reading this book because it was given to me as a gift, the book itself is lovely to hold, and Françoise Mouly is an amazing badass I (sadly) hadn't heard about before.
I'm confused, though. It seems that Heer is in love with Art, too. Didn't he declare, during both the introduction and the first chapter, that he was writing about Mouly on her own terms, because women deserve to be recognized for their own achievements, especially in a field where they've essentially been ignored? Titling the book in order to include Spiegelman, as well as giving him credit for most of the intellectual (and prophetic, according to Heer) aspects of their writing/editing, while affording her only their visual and tactile achievements, seems like a cop out. Plus, the book is only 120 pages long. Yes, there has been much more written on Spiegelman and there are many more of his quotes available to pull. But it seems to me that the whole point of writing this book was to try to balance the scale. I don't think that happened.
I'm confused, though. It seems that Heer is in love with Art, too. Didn't he declare, during both the introduction and the first chapter, that he was writing about Mouly on her own terms, because women deserve to be recognized for their own achievements, especially in a field where they've essentially been ignored? Titling the book in order to include Spiegelman, as well as giving him credit for most of the intellectual (and prophetic, according to Heer) aspects of their writing/editing, while affording her only their visual and tactile achievements, seems like a cop out. Plus, the book is only 120 pages long. Yes, there has been much more written on Spiegelman and there are many more of his quotes available to pull. But it seems to me that the whole point of writing this book was to try to balance the scale. I don't think that happened.
September 5, 2013
As a fan of both comics and the Mouly-Spiegelman duo that has been involved in the making of anti-superhero comics my entire life, I was completely intrigued by Heer 's compilation of interviews and second-hand accounts of this couple's history. It is not for the comics novice. If your only connection to Spiegelman is the Maus series and you aren't familiar with Mouly as a long-time editor and publisher, you may likely feel a bit left out. However, Heer did a good job of not only telling their story, but also capturing their personality nuances . Longtime Mouly-Spiegelman fans, enjoy your read.
Digital galley copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley. Typos and illustration discrepancies overlooked under the assumption the copy was in rough format.
Digital galley copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley. Typos and illustration discrepancies overlooked under the assumption the copy was in rough format.
December 16, 2013
A long overdue overview of Francoise Mouly's career. Her husband, Art Spiegelman, usually gets credited with starting the influential comics anthology RAW back in the '80s. It was at least as much her project as his, as Heer points out, and her influence on the subsequent rise of the graphic novel is not to be underestimated. And as art director of The New Yorker, she's helped considerably in returning the magazine to the levels of success it enjoyed back in its heyday. I'm a little slow so I didn't get the double meaning of the book's title until a chapter or two in. All in all, a fascinating book. Definitely worth your time!
August 27, 2015
gets in its own way right from the get-go. a book focused on Mouly is a great idea. a book that attempts to focus on Mouly but can't manage to talk about her without retaining the Spiegelman obsession (i lost track of how many times the construction "Spiegelman and Mouly" appears as a subject) is just far less interesting. the writing is good and the source material interesting - a book that actually stuck to its subject matter and kept her in the spotlight would have probably been a knockout. meaning, hahaha, a book about a great editorial mind could have used... a good editor.
September 6, 2015
Francoise Mouly is often overshadowed in the world of graphic art and comics by her more famous husband Art Spiegelman, but this well researched and eloquent book clearly demonstrates her significant contributions.
To me, the highest praise I can give a work of nonfiction about an artist is that it makes you want to run out to consume as much of that artist's work as you can. By that measure, this book is an overwhelming success.
To me, the highest praise I can give a work of nonfiction about an artist is that it makes you want to run out to consume as much of that artist's work as you can. By that measure, this book is an overwhelming success.
December 25, 2014
An excellent introduction to the intelligence, aesthetic, and sensibility of the art editor Françoise Mouly, from her pre-RAW days to her work at the New Yorker, to her directorship of TOON publications.
February 7, 2015
I really loved reading about Francoise, her life, her journey to art, and her partnership with her husband, Art Spiegelman. The book was well interspersed with their art and the art that she curates as an editor at the New Yorker.
Read
September 15, 2014Review by Tahneer Oksman for the Jewish Book Council.
March 17, 2014
Short, but covered the basics. Not a bad way to do bios.
Read
September 15, 2014Review by Tahneer Oksman for the Jewish Book Council.
April 18, 2017
An interesting critical biography of Françoise Mouly's professional life, focusing primarily on her time as the publisher of RAW and as the art editor of the New Yorker. I've read some of Jeet Heer's comics-related pieces before, but I'm less familiar with his mainstream journalism. His forte seems to be in evaluating facts (or, in this case, source quotations) and history rather than using those facts and histories to tell a compelling story, so the best parts of In Love with Art are Heer's assessments of Mouly's value to the comics culture at large--both as a result of her pioneering work in the underground/independent part of the industry in the '80s and also as the New Yorker's art editor since 1993.
Where it could have used some help was in the storytelling department--but then, as a fan of the New Yorker, I've been trained to expect the more creative, Lillian Ross approach to "profiling" artists, wherein the resulting piece is as much about the author's voice as it is about the subject. So perhaps I'm hoping for more out of this book than I should. In the end, Heer has provided those of us who have long been curious about Mouly with an interesting glimpse behind the scenes, which is where--as an editor--she does most of her work.
Most interesting to me was the story (from Mouly's point of view) of the genesis of the New Yorker's iconic 9/11 cover, which, in Art Spiegelman's book Co-mix is presented as entirely his idea--whereas Mouly remembers it differently. Given the context, Mouly's recollection of the idea is more persuasive. It's a shame that Spiegelman continues to take complete credit for the image when it seems that his wife should share a good portion of that credit. This, of course, ties into Heer's exploration of sexism--particularly in the comic book industry--which has clearly played a part in Mouly's relative invisibility despite being such an important influence on the comics culture as a whole.
A fine little book. By no means a definitive biography of Françoise Mouly the person, but then that's not what Heer set out to write. This is, ultimately, a biased, novella-length argument touting the importance of the book's subject. I can't disagree--she is very important to a lot of the work that I continue to cherish. But I would like to see another writer take inspiration from Heer's long think-piece and write a proper biography of Mouly. From the little we gleen of her in these pages, she's certainly deserving of one.
Where it could have used some help was in the storytelling department--but then, as a fan of the New Yorker, I've been trained to expect the more creative, Lillian Ross approach to "profiling" artists, wherein the resulting piece is as much about the author's voice as it is about the subject. So perhaps I'm hoping for more out of this book than I should. In the end, Heer has provided those of us who have long been curious about Mouly with an interesting glimpse behind the scenes, which is where--as an editor--she does most of her work.
Most interesting to me was the story (from Mouly's point of view) of the genesis of the New Yorker's iconic 9/11 cover, which, in Art Spiegelman's book Co-mix is presented as entirely his idea--whereas Mouly remembers it differently. Given the context, Mouly's recollection of the idea is more persuasive. It's a shame that Spiegelman continues to take complete credit for the image when it seems that his wife should share a good portion of that credit. This, of course, ties into Heer's exploration of sexism--particularly in the comic book industry--which has clearly played a part in Mouly's relative invisibility despite being such an important influence on the comics culture as a whole.
A fine little book. By no means a definitive biography of Françoise Mouly the person, but then that's not what Heer set out to write. This is, ultimately, a biased, novella-length argument touting the importance of the book's subject. I can't disagree--she is very important to a lot of the work that I continue to cherish. But I would like to see another writer take inspiration from Heer's long think-piece and write a proper biography of Mouly. From the little we gleen of her in these pages, she's certainly deserving of one.
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