THE COMPLETE MAUS: VOLUME 1: MY FATHER BLEEDS HISTORY/VOLUME 2: AND HERE MY TROUBLES BEGAN

New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 1997. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 1997. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 296 pages. The author/graphic artist's "Maus" masterpiece, presented in one stupendous volume. One of the greatest books of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Complete Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which there are many. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Complete Edition is now rare. Presents Art Spiegelman's "The Complete Maus". The Definitive Edition of his two-volume graphic art masterpiece. "Maus I: My Father Bleeds History" was originally published in 1986. It definitively - almost insolently - answered the seemingly unanswerable, nagging question, "Is it possible to create literature or a work of art after - let alone about - the Holocaust?". Whose underlying premise was actually, "Is it permissible?". Art Spiegelman's answer was an "un-serious" comics book ABOUT the Holocaust. Unthinkable, unprecedented, and unrepeatable. Not quite because he then doubled down and followed it up with "Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began". Unbelievable but by now, unsurpassable. "The story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist, who tries to come to terms with his father's terrifying story, and History itself. Its form, the cartoon - the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice - succeeds perfectly in shocking us out of any lingering sense of familiarity with the events described, approaching as it does, the unspeakable through the diminutive" (Publisher's blurb). "A brutally moving work of art" (The Washington Post). An absolute "must-have" title for Art Spiegelman collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the opposite page facing the half-title page ("en face") by Art Spiegelman. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Complete Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Almost ALL other copies of the Complete Edition available online are in innumerable subsequent printings. It does NOT matter if Spiegelman, always accommodating and generous, drew a mouse or any other enhancement on a copy if it is not the true First Edition. First Edition = First Printing, NO exceptions, despite what other dealers say or don't say. Copies of various "Maus" editions available online command many hundreds to thousands of dollars more. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A very rare signed copy thus. "Maus" is the Winner of the Guggenheim Grant, the Pulitzer Prize, and innumerable global honors since its publication in 1986. One of the greatest graphic artists of the 20th century and our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ART SPIEGELMAN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0679406417.