Art Spiegelman wrote this comic about his family’s experiences on 9/11
Clip: 4/15/2025 | 1m 21sVideo has Closed Captions
Art Spiegelman later depicted the Twin Towers falling in his comic, “In the Shadow of No Towers.”
When the Spiegelman family witnessed the towers falling on 9/11, they noticed that the gray of the buildings fell first, leaving bright red beams hanging in the air that slowly disintegrated. Art Spiegelman later depicted this in his comic, “In the Shadow of No Towers.”
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...
Art Spiegelman wrote this comic about his family’s experiences on 9/11
Clip: 4/15/2025 | 1m 21sVideo has Closed Captions
When the Spiegelman family witnessed the towers falling on 9/11, they noticed that the gray of the buildings fell first, leaving bright red beams hanging in the air that slowly disintegrated. Art Spiegelman later depicted this in his comic, “In the Shadow of No Towers.”
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(soft music) - My high school was right underneath the World Trade Center, and it was my second or third day of high school when 9/11 happened.
And it was a very difficult day, which my dad then wrote about in this book.
The school was shaking.
The lights were going on and off.
Teachers were running out of classrooms.
Some kids were glued to the windows, watching people jump.
And my parents came to get me.
- We went dashing down there.
We got her out and began walking to the West Side Highway.
We turned to see the towers.
At that point, the other tower was on fire as well.
And what we saw was so astonishingly unreal looking.
- My dad and I, and my mom as well, witnessed something that you never see in the footage of 9/11.
It looked like all of the gray of the tower fell first, and then there were these bright red beams that hung in the air for a really long time.
And then those bright red beams slowly disintegrated.
And I remember seeing that so vividly, and the fact that my dad saw it too and then drew it, is really beautiful.
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
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Explore the career of cartoonist Art Spiegelman and his award-winning graphic novel Maus. (2m)
Art Spiegelman interpreted the Holocaust from a child’s perspective
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Art Spiegelman’s “Li’l Pitcher” comic depicted the Holocaust from a child’s perspective. (1m 24s)
The double meaning behind Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”
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“Maus” was about Art Spiegelman’s father’s experiences in the Holocaust and their relationship. (1m 57s)
How Art Spiegelman got involved in the world of underground comix
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Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” was featured in the comic book “Funny Aminals” in 1972. (1m 40s)
One of the most important pages of Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”
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In this segment of “Maus,” Art Spiegelman illustrated four Jewish victims hung by Nazis in Poland. (2m 6s)
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...