Bay Area comic shop donates copies of banned Holocaust graphic novel "Maus"

Earlier this month, a Tennessee school board voted unanimously to ban the teaching of "Maus," an iconic graphic novel that depicts the Holocaust, with Jews represented as mice and Nazis as cats.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel was published in 1980, written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. It was removed from McMinn County's curriculum due to complaints over profanity — specifically the word "damn" — and the depiction of a dead nude mouse; the scene was representative of Spiegelman's own mother's death. The objection, at least openly, did not seem to be regarding the the depiction of the Holocaust.

In an interview with CNN, Spiegelman expressed his disbelief.

“I’ve moved past total bafflement, to try to be tolerant of people who may, possibly, not be Nazis. Because having read the transcript of the school board meeting, the problem is bigger and stupider than that,” says Spiegelman, who spoke between hits from a vape pen.

Ryan Higgins, owner of Sunnyvale's Comics Conspiracy, heard the news and thought it was a bizarre decision.

"You can't teach the Holocaust without showing the most graphic imagery that humanity has ever seen. ["Maus"] is nothing compared to the actual thing. It's just mind-boggling that they'd remove it," says Higgins. "It's one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time, it's just a seminal work. It's been taught in schools and libraries and colleges for decades at this point."

In response, Higgins tweeted an offer to donate up to 100 copies of "Maus" to families in the McMinn county area. It's not the first time he's made such a pledge — last year, he made a similar offer when Texas removed the political graphic novels "Why the Last Man" and "V for Vendetta" from some libraries.

This time around, the tweet went viral, with over 11,700 likes and 3,442 retweets. He said Comics Conspiracy sold out of the few copies they have on hand, and a couple dozen people have replied requesting copies, including messages from both students and parents.

"What was fascinating was the replies from the students. Their embarrassment, that they hate to be lumped in with the potentially racist problems with removing books like this," says Higgins. "They said the teachers have been blindsided, the teachers are trying to fight back against it. It does not seem like the will of the people in the area."