Pittsburgh event on comics' impact

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will present Art Spiegelman in COMIX 101, a chronicle of the social impact and importance of comic-book arts, at 8 p.m. April 9 at Byham Theater.
Even since 1992 when Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize for Maus, his masterful Holocaust comic-book narrative, fans of adult comics have admired his work. In Maus and Maus II -- both Pulitzer-prizing winning books in 1992 -- by portraying Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, he created an unusual and controversial context for his powerful narrative. One of the cover artists for the New Yorker magazine for more than 10 years, his illustrations and comics are best known for their scratchboard, illustrative style and controversial content. "Comics echo the way the brain works," he says.
Born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948, and raised in Queens, N.Y., he taught history and aesthetics of comics at the School for Visual Arts in New York (1979-1986) and was the creator of Wacky Pages, Garbage Pail Kids for Topps bubble gum.
Tickets to COMIX are $11 and $18; students may buy up to two tickets with valid ID for $10 each, and seniors receive $5 off all seats.
Tickets are available at the box office at Theater Square, online at www.pgharts.org, or by calling (412) 456-6666. For special group discounts, call (412) 471-6930.