Spiegelman

I feel the horizontal strip on page 9 (composed of three "plates"- one each on the top, middle and bottom of the page) was a good summary of Spiegelman's purpose in creating this series of comix. The man in the middle of the bed-awake while everyone else seems to be sleeping-represents Spiegelman. His post 9/11 anxieties and fear that "the sky is falling" are reiterated here, as is his belief that others are not experiencing nearly as severe a reaction in the long term.

The last strip on the bottom of the page explains his compulsion to make these strips as a way to deal with the trauma of 9/11. This is underlined by his signature, also at the bottom of this frame, which reads: "art 'feeling inexplicably less anxious today, thanks' spiegelman". I feel he is here thanking us as the readers, because he realizes that we may now share in his anxiousness, just as the formerly sleeping men do in the last plate of this cartoon. The fact that this particular cartoon appears on this page, so close to the end of the series, is also important. Spiegelman is telling the reader that his cartoons are in fact acting therapeutically for him, as he had hoped, and he can now "sleep" a little bit better.