Auto-Phobia

by Art Spiegelman

Signed with small drawing by Art Spigelman

Genres: Comics, Art, Graphic Novels

Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2008

About the author

Art Spiegelman is an American cartoonist, editor, and cultural innovator whose work has profoundly influenced the perception of comics as a legitimate art form, blending literary sophistication with experimental visual storytelling. Emerging from the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Spiegelman quickly distinguished himself with a distinctive approach that combined meticulous craftsmanship, psychological insight, and narrative complexity, challenging conventions of sequential art and the boundaries between personal memoir and historical record. He co-founded the landmark anthology Raw with his wife, Françoise Mouly, which became a platform for cutting-edge, avant-garde cartoonists from around the world, blending surrealist imagery, literary experimentation, and bold visual ideas that redefined the possibilities of the medium. Spiegelman is best known for his groundbreaking graphic novel Maus, a haunting, deeply personal depiction of his father’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor, which used anthropomorphic characters to explore trauma, memory, and identity with unprecedented depth; the work earned a Special Pulitzer Prize and established Spiegelman as a central figure in both literary and visual culture. Beyond Maus, he has contributed influential cartoons and covers to The New Yorker, including the iconic 9/11 cover, demonstrating his ability to communicate complex emotional and cultural truths with economy and symbolic resonance. His artistic sensibility reflects influences from early twentieth-century cartoonists, modernist design, typography, and the visual language of newspapers and advertising, while also incorporating pop culture, surrealism, and abstraction. Spiegelman has consistently experimented with the interplay of image and text, treating comics as a medium that mirrors cognitive processes of memory, perception, and emotional experience. In addition to his creative output, he has curated exhibitions, edited anthologies, and published critical essays on comics history and theory, advocating for the recognition of the medium as serious art and mentoring generations of cartoonists. He has also worked in graphic design, creating posters, album covers, and commemorative stamps, and his visual interventions often reflect his interest in narrative structure, cultural commentary, and the power of imagery to shape public understanding. Throughout his career, Spiegelman has been a vocal advocate for freedom of expression and a critic of censorship, engaging in public discourse on political and social issues, and demonstrating how comics can address profound ethical and historical questions. His pioneering work, editorial vision, and relentless innovation have transformed both the aesthetics and the intellectual reception of comics, proving that the medium can handle grief, history, and identity with sophistication, subtlety, and emotional resonance. Spiegelman’s legacy is evident in the work of contemporary graphic novelists and in the broader cultural recognition of comics as an art form capable of exploring human experience, social commentary, and the complexities of memory and trauma, making him one of the most influential figures in modern visual storytelling.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Autophobia, also called monophobia, isolophobia, or eremophobia, is the specific phobia of isolation; a morbid fear of being egotistical, or a dread of being alone or isolated. Sufferers need not be physically alone, but just to believe that they are being ignored or unloved."--Wikipedia

Auto-phobia is a facsimile of a moleskin sketchbook that Spiegelman used in 2007 to get over his artist's block. It was published as part of McSweeney's 27, in 2008, one of three books. You might not think Spiegelman, one of the greatest comics artists of all time, thanks primarily to Maus, his epic holocaust biography of his father, a survivor, published in 1986, would ever struggle as an artist, but most artists struggle at one time or another, so this is kind of inspiring to be reminded of this fact.

The drawings are often funny, sometimes self-deprecatingly anguished. Fun to spend an hour or so with.

"By pencilling and inking my comics, I cover my traces, dressing up my demons before they reach the public. The rehearsed snap of a 'professional' line replaces raw and intimate seismographs of thought." But here we have Spiegelman raw, and it's fun to see.

[Riddhish Bhalodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal sketchbook compilation of art spigleman ( author of Maus) that he kept as a habit to stay creative on top of his flourishing comic artist career. It is surprising good for a sketchbook. Providing some insight on his mind.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make boxes...
Fill them.
Cartoonists...
And undertakers...
Same business.

As a part-time artist (in the sense that I draw very intermittently but would still like to consider myself a creative person), it's oddly comforting to me that a cartoonist as accomplished as Art Spiegelman also seems to regularly struggle with drawing, or - rather - beating his doodles into some sort of submission to make a legible comic. It's easily the hardest, most personal, most unrewarding artistic medium. It's nice, however, to see how the sausage is made, so to speak, to remind myself that it's hard for everyone, not just me. What I'm trying to say is: this was a cool sketchbook.

[Christoph Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a sketchbook, some things nice, some things not more than doodles. Shows Spiegelman's style.

[Echo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a small sketchbook that Art Spiegelman drew to get over his artist's block and consequently published. It doesn't follow much of a narrative, but I found the sketches to be funny and find the book to be a good inspiration in my own art.
(A note: I have an actual physical copy of the book, not the kindle edition, but it doesn't have any additional publishing information so I'm including it under this edition.)

[AFP · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5