Breakdowns by Art Spiegelman: A Groundbreaking Collection of Avant-Garde Comics

Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&!* is an experimental, boundary-pushing collection of underground comic strips by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman. First published in 1977 under the subtitle From Maus to Now, this early work represents Spiegelman’s bold investigation into the language of comics—predating his globally renowned graphic novel Maus. A new, expanded edition published by Pantheon Books in 2008 added autobiographical framing material that significantly broadened the original volume, introducing a new generation of readers to Spiegelman’s daring innovations in form and subject. From metafictional reflections to philosophical inquiries, Breakdowns not only foreshadowed Spiegelman’s later masterpieces but also redefined what comics could be: experimental, intellectual, emotional, and deeply personal.

Infobox: Breakdowns (Comics)

Overview and Origins

The 1977 edition of Breakdowns assembles a series of short, provocative comic strips Spiegelman created between 1972 and 1977 for avant-garde publications such as Arcade, which he co-edited with Bill Griffith. Unlike conventional comic narratives, these pieces delve into the mechanics of visual storytelling, emphasizing formal experimentation over plot or linearity. Spiegelman treats each comic as a laboratory for testing the limits of the form—breaking down the medium into its most essential elements and recombining them into something radical and unfamiliar. Panels are no longer simple storytelling units, but instead become part of the conceptual experience, layered with symbolism, visual irony, and spatial fragmentation.

At the time, Spiegelman was intensely focused on exploring the panel as a unit of meaning, using juxtaposition, distortion, surrealism, abstraction, and recursive structures to convey not only psychological depth but also metafictional and philosophical commentary. These formal strategies often highlight the contradictions inherent in cartooning itself—balancing humor with darkness, clarity with obfuscation, and accessibility with avant-garde sensibility.

Spiegelman was also keen to subvert the traditional format of American comics. His works parody and pay homage to Golden Age comic icons, including Dick Tracy, Rex Morgan, M.D., and Winsor McCay’s Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. These visual references are never mere nostalgia—they’re deconstructions. Spiegelman borrows their familiar tropes only to expose their structural absurdities or cultural limitations. Through his pastiche and critique, Spiegelman investigates the relationship between creator and creation, visual signifier and meaning, and the cultural baggage comics carry, especially the tension between high and low art.

The original cover presents a repetitive visual of Spiegelman drinking India ink, rendered with an unsettling insistence that borders on obsessive. It presents an artist consumed—literally and metaphorically—by his medium. The hand-scrawled, jittery block-lettered title suggests both a nervous breakdown and a breakdown of conventional cartooning language—a fitting metaphor for the visual and emotional themes inside. The cover, like the contents within, signals a disruption of reader expectations and a demand for engagement, challenging the notion that comics must be lighthearted or linear to be impactful.

Expanded Edition (2008): Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!

In 2008, Pantheon Books released an expanded version of Breakdowns with the new subtitle Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&!*. This edition nearly doubles the original volume’s size, featuring a newly illustrated 19-page introduction and a reflective afterword. The added materials provide a semi-autobiographical lens through which to view Spiegelman’s early creative impulses, chronicling his artistic awakening and turbulent relationship with comics and his identity as a cartoonist.

A recurring motif in the 2008 edition is a loose squiggle—an emblem of chaos, creation, and spontaneity. Initially appearing as the symbol of a slip on the original book’s cover, the squiggle is later used as a stand-in for Spiegelman himself, suggesting both his youthful exuberance and artistic uncertainty. This visual motif ties together Spiegelman’s early ambitions and mature self-reflection.

The updated edition positions Breakdowns not just as a retrospective collection but as a self-examination. The new material helps contextualize the original strips within Spiegelman’s personal history, offering insight into his influences, anxieties, and eventual artistic breakthroughs.

Publication History

When first published in 1977 by Bélier Press, Breakdowns was notable for being released as a hardcover—uncommon in the comics world at the time, especially for a book of such overtly experimental content. It sold fewer than 3,000 copies and was largely ignored by the mainstream press and readership. Most traditional comic fans found it too obscure, while literary audiences had not yet warmed to the idea that comics could be intellectually or artistically significant. However, among underground artists, critics, and visual theorists, the book gained a cult following and was hailed as an intellectual milestone in comic arts.

Many of the strips had appeared in alternative comics publications like Arcade, Short Order Comix, and Bijou Funnies, and were celebrated for their dense visuals, unconventional panel sequencing, recursive narratives, and philosophical musings. These comics challenged the reader’s perception of visual storytelling, making them more than just strips—they were essays in form. Some pieces even bordered on visual poetry, using image and layout to create rhythm and provoke reflection rather than simply deliver punchlines or plot.

Spiegelman’s disappointment with the book’s limited reach and lukewarm reception from the broader market partly fueled his drive to create Maus, a more narrative-driven and emotionally resonant work that maintained his commitment to formal rigor but added an accessible human story. The muted reception of Breakdowns sharpened Spiegelman’s determination to prove that comics could be serious art capable of bearing historical trauma and literary weight.

In the 2000s, while Spiegelman was producing In the Shadow of No Towers—another formally ambitious and politically charged graphic book reacting to the events of 9/11—Pantheon editor Dan Frank suggested republishing Breakdowns to show the early evolution of Spiegelman’s visual and thematic language. The new edition arrived in 2008 to critical acclaim and reestablished the volume as a crucial step in Spiegelman’s artistic evolution. It also sparked renewed scholarly interest in Spiegelman’s pre-Maus output and reinforced his status as a comics formalist ahead of his time.

Style and Analysis

The stylistic range of Breakdowns is vast and eclectic, from Cubist-inspired fragmentation to noirish shadows, from surreal grotesques to minimalist abstractions. Spiegelman’s influences are palpable: the visual rhythm of Lynd Ward’s woodcuts, the absurdity of Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad, and the raw energy of Robert Crumb’s underground comix. However, Spiegelman’s voice is distinct—self-conscious, analytical, and ironic.

One of the most discussed strips in Breakdowns depicts a memory from Spiegelman’s childhood, in which a neighborhood bully humiliates his mother. Instead of treating the scene straightforwardly, Spiegelman presents it in the format of a parody of Charles Atlas’s “The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac” comic ad. The speech bubbles are filled not with tough-guy banter but with excerpts from Viktor Shklovsky’s essay “Art as Technique.” This absurd yet brilliant juxtaposition typifies Spiegelman’s approach: emotionally raw, intellectually rigorous, and stylistically subversive.

His obsession with form—how content is shaped and how meaning is built through visual arrangement—puts Breakdowns in dialogue with literary modernism and conceptual art. It anticipates later works like Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan and Lynda Barry’s What It Is, which also treat the comic page as a canvas for introspection and innovation.

Reception and Legacy

Although commercially unsuccessful in its original release, Breakdowns has since been recognized as a seminal work in the evolution of graphic storytelling. Over time, it has garnered a reputation as a transformative text that helped redefine the possibilities of comics as a serious artistic and literary medium. Scholars, educators, and creators alike cite it as a foundational text in comics formalism, experimental narrative, and autobiographical comics. It stands as one of the earliest and most coherent expressions of comics as a medium capable of sustaining intellectual rigor, emotional resonance, and self-reflective depth.

The 2008 expanded edition helped secure Breakdowns a permanent place on academic syllabi and in museum retrospectives devoted to comic art and visual storytelling. Critics praised its audacity and enduring relevance, particularly in how it laid the groundwork for Maus by foreshadowing many of the themes and formal strategies Spiegelman would later refine. The edition’s inclusion of autobiographical framing material created a layered meta-narrative that deepened the reader’s understanding of Spiegelman’s personal and artistic evolution, situating the original strips within a broader narrative arc of creative maturation and cultural significance.

Breakdowns remains a touchstone for cartoonists interested in pushing the limits of their medium. It has been referenced and celebrated in artist interviews, academic analyses, and retrospectives at institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Jewish Museum in New York. It offers a raw, unfiltered view into the mind of a young artist willing to dismantle every rule to find his voice. In doing so, Spiegelman not only broke down the conventions of comics but also constructed a robust theoretical foundation that would empower generations of cartoonists to approach the medium with both reverence and rebellious innovation.