5 Art Spiegelman first editions are documented on this shelf, from Breakdowns (1977) to In the Shadow of No Towers (2004) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Art Spiegelman title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Art Spiegelman copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Breakdowns — 1977 · Belier Press / PantheonThe true first is the 1977 Belier Press oversized hardcover, 'Breakdowns: From Maus to Now. An Anthology of Strips,' large quarto (roughly 10 by 14 inches) with glossy pictorial boards and illustrated endleaves, unpaginated, printed in an edition of fewer than 3,000 copies and now scarce. The 2008 Pantheon 'Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!' is an expanded first-thus with a new introductory…. True first is the 1977 Belier Press oversized edition. The 2008 Pantheon expanded edition is a later first-thus, roughly doubled in length. The 2008 Pantheon expansion is a distinct later edition, not a reprint of the 1977 original.
- Maus I: A Survivor's Tale — My Father Bleeds History — 1986 · Pantheon BooksPaperback original issued first; the trade hardcover came later. The copyright page must state 'First Edition', with the verso ending 'Manufactured in the U.S.A. // First Edition.' The genuine 1986 issue stands alone as 'Maus: A Survivor's Tale' without a 'Volume I' designation keyed to a second volume. Photographs and mouse-headed figures on the cover; original price to the flap. US is the true first (Spiegelman is American; written and published in English). The genuine 1986 first collects only the first six chapters. After Maus II appeared in 1991, Pantheon reissued Vol. I labeled 'Volume I' / 'My Father Bleeds History' WITHOUT changing the copyright-page date; that reissue is routinely misrepresented as the 1986 first. Distinguish by the absence of the volume designation and by the…. No traditional book-club edition; the confusion is the later 'Volume I' reissue (added volume subtitle, often a barcode and revised back panel) and 'The Complete Maus' (1996, single hardcover) — both later than the 1986 first. Look for the standalone title and the stated 'First Edition.'.
- Maus II: A Survivor's Tale — And Here My Troubles Began — 1991 · Pantheon BooksCopyright page dated 1991 with 'First Edition' stated; issued in both softcover and hardcover. Cover shows the mouse couple beneath a guard tower with a cat motif. The hardcover features grey paper-covered boards over a black cloth spine, lettered in white. US Pantheon 1991 is the true first. Completes the work that received a 1992 Special Pulitzer (Special Award in Letters). A clean stated-first hardcover in jacket is the collecting target. Later subsumed into 'The Complete Maus' (1996); that omnibus is not the first of Vol. II. Verify the 1991 date and the stated 'First Edition.'.
- The Complete Maus — 1996 · Pantheon BooksFirst single-volume collected edition, Pantheon Books 1996, combining both previously published Maus volumes. A true first of this single-volume format carries the 'First Edition' statement and full number line on the copyright page. This is a first-thus single-volume omnibus (1996), not a true first of the content; Maus I (1986) and Maus II (1991) preceded it. Later printings show a reduced number line and lack the first-edition state.
- In the Shadow of No Towers — 2004 · Pantheon BooksOversized board-page hardcover that opens vertically, Pantheon Books, New York, 2004, ISBN 0-375-42307-6. The first printing carries the full number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (a first printing has the line ending in 1). Printed on heavy card stock throughout, the format echoing the newspaper broadsheets in which the plates first ran. The plates were first serialized in the German newspaper Die Zeit and in the Forward; the US Pantheon board-book hardcover is the first book edition and the true first as a collected book. No book-club edition; later Pantheon printings show the number line beginning at 2 or higher.
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