In Love with Art

Françoise Mouly, an editor and publisher of uncommon taste and creativity, and an artist in her own right, has spent nearly four decades transforming comics. With her husband, Art Spiegelman, Mouly founded the landmark magazine RAW, which showcased artists such as Ben Katchor, Chris Ware, Charles Burns and Sue Coe, and, along with Spiegelman's Maus, brought an avant-garde sensibility to the popular art form. As art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, Mouly has remade the face of that venerable magazine with covers that capture the political and social upheavals of the last two decades, from the black-on-black cover after 9/11 to the Obamas' pre-election fist-bump. And now, with TOON Books, Mouly is at the forefront of a new wave of comic-making for children.

Based on exclusive interviews with Mouly, Spiegelman and a pantheon of comics artists – including Dan Clowes, Anita Kunz and Bill Griffith – In Love With Art is both the first book-length portrait of a female pioneer in a male-dominated industry and a rare, behind-the-scenes look at some of today’s most iconic images. Through the prism of an uncommonly successful relationship, the book tells the story of one of the most remarkable artistic transformations of our time.

Jeet Heer's writing has appeared in the Guardian, Slate, Boston Globe, the American Prospect, the National Post, the Globe and Mail and the Virginia Quarterly Review.