Art (Artie) Spiegelman

Artie is the author, artist, and principle narrator of the graphic text. His presentation is autobiographical and also a family biography, focused on his father's experiences as a Jew in Poland during World War II.

Artie is born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948. Shortly after his birth his family emigrates to the United States of America. Artie grows up in Rego Park, New York. As a young man he suffers a short but serious nervous breakdown in 1968, which he refers to in Prisoner on the Hell Planet - A Case History, the comic-within-the-comic presented in Part 1, Chapter 5. After being released from the mental hospital Artie lives with his parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman until some time after Anja Spiegelman's suicide. As to be expected, Artie is never completely reconciled to Anja's suicide and considers her somewhat of an unknown personage. Later Artie moves out on his own...