A real-life hero who survived insurmountable odds and devastating adversity to create a new life with his family in a new world, Vladek Spiegleman�s life bursts out of the page�s of his son�s seminal series to heartbreaking effect. Depicted as a mouse, his concentration camp incarceration under the yoke of Nazi felines and subsequent escape to a new world populated by dogs, frogs and fish is overflowing with a humanity that has yet to be equalled in comic-book lore. That Art Spiegelman was able to recount such a harrowing chapter in history in comic book form and in such a stylised manner is impressive enough, but through a rodentised image of his father he embodied the fear, desperation and hope of the holocaust in one person. Even the subsequent change in character, as Vladek morphs from idealistic young adult to embittered old codger, cannot lessen the impact he makes upon the reader.

FIRST APPEARED IN MAUS #1: MY FATHER BLEEDS HISTORY (1973)
CREATED BY ART SPIELGELMAN