Now in paperback from the creator of Maus, a completely original autobiography—the story of his life as a comix artist. Breakdowns is the chronicle of Spiegelman’s story, featuring vignettes of the people, events, and comics that shaped him. It is told in three ways—in 20 pages of comix that give us the story of his rebellious adolescence, a section on the work he did in the 1970s as an underground comix artist (this book brings back into circulation—and restores—the work of his first book, Breakdowns, out of print for 30 years), and an 8-page essay in which Art looks at the role of comics in the 1970s and how, in ways he didn’t understand until much later, it was already coalescing into a medium whose resurgence now is evident everywhere.

Copies of Breakdown will be distributed for free to all attendees. The event is free and open to the public.