The Folio Society has announced a series of volumes paying tribute to the history of Marvel Comics, the inaugural volume was originally scheduled to feature an introduction from Art Spiegelman, the creator of Maus and the first person to ever win a Pulitzer Prize for a graphic novel.
Marvel is a division of Disney, and its chairman, Isaac ‘Ike’
Perlmutter, is a longtime personal friend of Donald Trump, donated to
Trump’s campaign, and serves Trump as an “unofficial and influential
advisor.” Spiegelman’s intro made reference to this fact, and tied the
origin of Marvel with its thin-veiled allegories about fighting fascism,
to the contemporary moment, comparing Trump to the golden age Marvel
villain “Red Skull” and dubbing him “Orange Skull.”
In response, Disney/Marvel demanded that Spiegelman redact his essay,
removing references to Trump. The corporation said that it was trying to
be “apolitical…and is not allowing its publications to take a
political stance.”
Spiegelman refused to make the change and instead severed ties with the
project. His unredacted essay will appear this weekend in The Guardian.
