Twenty-five years ago, Art Spiegelman published the first of his *Maus* books—a pair of graphic novels about the experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. Maus II was awarded the Pulitzer prize in 1991—the only graphic novel ever to win—and both books continue to move and provoke readers. In his new book *MetaMaus*, Spiegelman talks with Hillary Chute, a professor of English at the University of Chicago, about how the *Maus* books came into being. What follows is the first of two excerpts from their conversation.