Button 045: Famous Cartoonist Art Spiegelman (Maus, Raw, New Yorker)

Famous Cartoonist Button 45

Art Spiegelman. One of the earliest underground cartoonists, Spiegelman appeared in East Village Other, Phucked-Up Funnies, Funny Aminals, Bizarre Sex and Snarf. He co-founded the magazine Arcade, then launched the artsy oversize Raw magazine, where he serialized chapters of his "Maus," the story of his father's ordeals in Nazi Germany and simultaneously Art's relationship with his father. The Maus collection from Pantheon Books won an unprecedented Pulitzer Prize for a graphic novel and launched Spiegelman into a new literary climate. He currently contributes rergularly to The New Yorker and creates and edits children's books such as Little Lit and I Am Not a Dog. Spiegelman's button gag references a famous line in the Bogart/Ford film, Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Pinback Jack issued this "Famous Cartoonist Series" of self-portrait buttons back in 1975. All of the participating cartoonists were alive and created self-portraits specifically for this button set. With very few exceptions, the images have not appeared elsewhere in print. The buttons were distributed by Krupp Comic Works and Phil Seuling. This set was originally announced as 52 buttons, and the alphabetical numbering reflects that. However, two artists (Neal Adams and Rick Meyerowitz) turned in their self-portraits late, after the first 52 had already been designed. They were included in the set, but numbered 53 and 54 respectively, out of alphabetical sequence. Steve Krupp's Curio Shoppe is now the exclusive source of the remaining limited inventory.

All the color buttons in this set are metal with clear celluloid covers, are 2.25 inches in diameter, and have "safety" pinbacks. This button is listed for sale as an individual, but we do offer the complete set as well.