In Love with Art

September 30, 2013
Having previously discounted Mouly's contributions to art to more effectively highlight those of her husband Spiegelman, journalist and academic Heer attempts to address this snub with this short biography of the influential editor. From her French beginnings to American success, Mouly has spent almost four decades reshaping the American graphic arts, both with her husband and on her own. From her days at RAW Books and Graphics to her more than 20 years as art editor of The New Yorker, Mouly has often been controversial, but her work is undeniably influential. One of the grand figures of modern art, her role as editor is one too easily overlooked, and it is both just and right that someone should write a detailed biography drawing the public eye to Mouly. Unfortunately, this is not the biography Mouly deserves. At 136 pages, there simply is not room to do Mouly's career justice, and beginning with the subtitle, Heer cannot resist the urge to spend too many of the few pages he has on discussions of Spiegelman. The result is intensely frustrating, a flawed work embodying the very sins its author hoped to expiate.

Starred review from November 15, 2013

The eminence francaise or "powerful influence" behind scads of well-known cartoonists is Paris-born and New York-based writer and artist Francoise Mouly (Best American Comics 2012). Mouly is known primarily through her partnership with superfamous husband and cartoonist Art Spiegelman; however, Heer (editor, Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium) points out that in her innovation, creativity, initiative, and advocacy over many decades, she has dramatically influenced comics and comics artists in her own right. Originally trained in architecture, Mouly was drawn to graphic narrative through Spiegelman and pushed him into coediting the comics magazine Raw between 1980 and 1991. Her work in Raw led to her current 20-year tenure as art editor of The New Yorker. In addition, Mouly recently established TOON Books to bring comics for the youngest readers back on the market. VERDICT Heer's detailed biography fills a glaring omission in histories of graphic narrative. Dozens of illustrations give face to Mouly's accomplishments yet are still not enough. This lively portrait of an editor and publisher par excellence will enlighten researchers, cartooning cognoscenti, and casual fans. Essential for serious art, graphic novels, and women's studies collections. [For more on Art Spiegelman, see the review of his recent work Co-Mix: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps, on p. 69.--Ed.]--Martha Cornog, Philadelphia

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