Agent Palmer

Maus is the award-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. It is a “Survivor’s Tale” specifically, Art’s dad, Vladek, and his survival of the Holocaust.

It is also Art’s story of dealing with his father’s history, legacy, and guilt. It is beautifully crafted in both form and function, in the black-and-white panels, text, and spaces in between.

If you are a regular viewer of this blog, you may be thinking to yourself, “Palmer reviewing a Coupland book about Marshall McLuhan? Hasn’t this already been done before?”

It has! Back in February of 2024, I reviewed Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan by Douglas Coupland. But the thing about reading through an author’s biography is that sometimes they cover a subject more than once.

I’ve prided myself on separating the artist and their art. On a whole, it generally makes things easier to enjoy. 

The art is the art, and any baggage that may come with the artist can be left at the door.

There is an exception that changes the perception of the artist and can change the art, which is based on digging deeper into the artist.

Beatles ‘64 is a solid documentary. Like many documentaries before it, it frames itself with more stories than just its subject matter.

However, what occurred to me during my viewing was just how rare the footage was, which led to thoughts about how common footage is today.