There could hardly exist a more appropriate picture than the one at right, by Art Spiegelman, to publicize the 2005-6 Penn Humanities Forum on Word and Image. It’s fitting, too, that Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and graphic novelist, will kick off the year with a Sept. 27 talk on the history of comics. Spiegelman has pushed the boundaries of the graphic novel form, with his compelling Maus and Maus II books, about a comic book author’s relationship with his Holocaust survivor father, and also with “In the Shadow of No Towers,” his response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

For more on the diverse events at this year’s Humanities Forum—from Kathleen Hall Jamieson on the deflective power of images in political ads to an exploration of music and literature by pianist Marc André Hamelin and soprano Jody Karin Applebaum—go to www.humanities.sas.upenn.edu.

—WORD AND IMAGE: Art Spiegelman speaks at 6 p.m. on Sept. 27 at Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce St. Tickets: $8; $5 students. Call the Annenberg Center Box Office at 215-898-3900 or go to www.humanities.sas.upenn.edu.
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