Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!

For the last 40 years, comics artist Art Spiegelman has been influential in both pushing the limits of the medium, as well as bringing underground "comix” to the forefront of popular culture. He's perhaps most famous for Maus, the story of his parents' experience in the Holocaust, which earned him a special Pulitzer Prize Letters award in 1992. More recently, his work has appeared in the New Yorker--including the stunning, somber post-9/11 cover--and he was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2005. We sent him a few questions about Breakdowns, and he was kind enough to respond with this handwritten document. See the full image with more questions and answers. [JPEG, 389K]