Art Spiegelman leaves The New Yorker

This morning my friend Robin sent me this article regarding cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s decision to leave The New Yorker in protest at censorship this past winter. As a regular The New Yorker reader and a big fan of Spiegelman, I was surprised that I did not learn about this til now.r
r
For those who don’t know the work of Spiegelman, he’s best known for his Pultizer Prize winning book Maus : A Survivor’s Tale. A brilliant cartoonist who uses his medium to communicate the most complex of issues, Spiegelman was dismayed at the direction he percieved The New Yorker (was moving in after the events of September 11th.r
r
When asked about censorship at The New Yorker, Spiegelman cited as an example:r
r
“For the Thanksgiving cover with turkies dropped in the place of bombs, I chose the title ‘Operation Enduring Turkey’ to mimic ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ then begun by America in Afghanistan. But (New Yorker Editor) David Remnick forced me to change the title.”r
r
While there’s no doubting Spiegelman’s experieces, personally I have felt for some time that The New Yorker was one of the few places where I could read journalism that was extremely critical of the Bush administrarion. For instance, during the past six months The New Yorker has given a great deal of space to Seymour Hirsch and his investigations into the criminal activites in the White House. r