RARE Art Spiegelman Maus II Galley Proof Signed w/Drawing & 12 Pages of Sketches

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RARE Art Spiegelman Maus II Galley Proof Signed w/Drawing & 12 Pages of Sketches:
$2599.99

.——Description——This sale is for a VERY rare collectible -- so rare that you probably never have seen one of these for sale at any price, much less one that is signed by Art Spiegelman and with an original drawing by him inside!That's because this is not a typical galley proof of the kind you usually come across, which commonly resemble the published versions of books and are sent to reviewers.Instead, this was a work-in-progress proof of "Maus II." It was created "in-house" by the publisher while the unfinished book (about World War 2, the Holocaust, Nazi treatment of the Jews in WW2, and Spiegelman's family history) still was being written and drawn -- as you can see by the fact that the final 11 pages (and one chapter-title page) are copies of rough, unfinished sketches by Spiegelman, some of which show differences from their later published versions.Each sheet here is a one-sided photocopy of a single page (meaning the reverse side of each page is blank -- unlike the published version, which has printing on both sides of nearly every printed page). That is why, for example, what appears as a two-page left-and-right spread showing the book's title in the published version appears here as one sheet with the huge letter "M" and the next sheet showing the rest of "AUS" (see photos above).Because the sheets are bound photocopies, all pages (including the cover image) are black-and-white.The sheets are bound with a blank white spine. The front "cover" is clear plastic, and the back "cover" is white card stock. It measures 11 inches tall by 8 5/8 inches wide by .75 inches thick (different from the smaller dimensions of the published version, because of the photocopy paper's wider margins).Making this copy even more special, I personally got it signed by Art Spiegelman -- who also did a full-page original drawing inside -- at a signing he did at Olsson's Books and Records in Washington, DC, on November 11, 1991.When I presented it for him to sign, I asked him exactly what it was, because it appeared to be such an unusual item. (I had purchased it at, of all places, a church rummage sale in Falls Church, Virginia. I have no idea who the original owner may have been.)After I got home from the signing, I wrote the following note to myself, which I have kept with the book all these years:"Spiegelman said he couldn't imagine how one of these got out. They were bound just for the editors to see (not sent to reviewers). When he signed it, he said he wouldn't personalize it to me because 'it'll be worth more later this way.'"(Which I thought was pretty funny, and which also was pretty decent of him!)As you can see above, I have included photos of each of the 12 pages that are photocopies of Spiegelman's "roughs." Each appears alongside photos I took of pages from my copy of "The Complete Maus" hardback, to show what the pages ended up looking like when they were finished later. In two cases, where the roughs show several significant differences from their published counterparts, I have included bigger individual shots of those individual pages. (I would have done this with all 12 of the rough pages, but I hit 's 24-photo limit!)The rest of the pages of the book were photocopied from the finished art, with only minor differences (such as the fact that the "Chapter One," "Chapter Two," etc., text headings are missing from the chapter-title pages). In other words, the contents of the entire book are here and readable, but only the final 11 pages (and the Chapter Five "The Second Honeymoon" title page) are copied from sketch pages.Some physical details about the bound proof: The pages basically are photocopies that aren't as sharp as their counterparts in the published book (looking especially bad on two pages that include reproductions of photographs), but all are clear enough to read. Spiegelman wrote a few notes in the margins of some of the rough-sketch pages (such as "picture research: quonset huts" and "picture ref Belsen survivors").Besides some layout differences in the art sketches between the roughs and their printed versions, there are many minor caption and dialog changes. Here are some (but not nearly all) of them:On the equivalent of page 286 in "The Complete Maus," the sketch has the dialog line "Don't worry -- my insurance will pay this!" The published version became "Don't worry, the ride is paid by my insurance."On the equivalent of page 287, the line "Yes? Well, Mala and I can stay then the rest of the year in Rego Park..." became "Yah? Then Mala and I can stay the rest of the year here in Rego Park."On the equivalent of page 288, the line "I needed time to forget our Miami trip...what's new?" became "I needed time to get over our trip from Florida...what's new?"On the equivalent of page 289, the line "You told me you were staying in a farmhouse with some American soldiers..." became "You were living on a farm with some G.I.s..." On the sketch page, Vladek replies, "After we came free, yah," but in the published version that became "Yah. With my friend, Shivek." The rough page also includes Vladek being asked his date of birth and replying "Oct. 11, 1906," but neither of those bits of dialog appear in the published version. On the same page, the sketch version has Shivek saying, "He's married to a Gentile...I know she hid him, and..." In the printed version, it's "He's married to a Gentile who kept him hidden."Two more notable changes on that page: When Vladek's doctor says "Yes. But you had symptoms of some other illness too. We don't have the facilities to diagnose it here," that dialog became "See a doctor regularly. We can't diagnose it, but something is still wrong." The caption at the bottom of that panel, in the sketch version, says "A year after, in Sweden, I got also this itching, and then my diabetes!" In the printed version, the caption says "A year after, I found out it was not only typhus, but also diabetes."The sketch page that has the most differences from its printed version is the equivalent of page 290, with several changes in both the text and art layouts. Blow up photos 15 and 16 above to see what I mean, because typing all of them up would take forever!Likewise, note the significant art changes between photos 22 and 23, which show the equivalent of page 295 and the printed version.The equivalent of page 296, the final page of the printed version, has small dialog changes such as "But somebody showed me to the Jewish organization" becoming "But I found out where is the Jewish organization." And, at the very bottom of the page, "art spiegelman 1978-1990" became "art spiegelman 1978-1991" in the printed version.More about the physical aspects:Many of the original pages that were copied to make this book apparently were three-hole punched, because you can see the circle images indicating where the holes were in them. (In other words, the pages included here do not have holes in them, but were copied from pages that had holes.)Also, whoever assembled this copy (a careless intern, perhaps?) got several of the pages out of order -- and, in one case, a repeated page takes the place of a page that is missing. While most of the pages have numbers written in their bottom right corners, those numbers often are mostly missing (and many pages have no page numbers at all).Here is a list of the out-of-order pages:Pages 25 and 26 (equivalent to 194 and 195 in "The Complete Maus" HB) are reversed.Pages 53 and 54 (equivalent to 224 and 225) are reversed.Page 61 (equivalent to page 233) is missing entirely. Instead, page 62 (equivalent to page 234) repeats.The equivalents of pages 245 and 246 appear out of order, after the equivalent of page 250. (None of those pages have visible page numbers on the photocopied pages.)Finally: The overall condition is basically like new, with only a very small and very faint mark at the top left edge of the front cover (within the white binding). It doesn't even really show up in the photo above. No age tanning. I've kept it sealed in a plastic bag for the past three-decades-plus, so it's in great shape!You'll love it! If you have any questions, just ask!ANOTHER GREAT sale, FROM A SMOKE-FREE PET-FREE HOME!----------------Shipping Info----------------
Shipping will be a flat $20.00 to any US address, which includes tracking and insurance.International shipping will be higher, and only through 's Global Shipping Program.