SPIEGELMAN / AUSTER - Mr. Vertigo cover prelim (1994)

The great American novelist Paul Auster passez away yesterday (April 30, 2024) at age 77.

This is one of Art Spiegelman's ink prelims to the cover of Auster's 1994 novel *Mr. Vertigo*. This design was flipped upside down in the published cover.
Signed in pencil by Art Spiegelman. Paul Auster signed in ballpoint pen next to Spiegelman's signature.

I met Paul Auster once at the Paris Book Fair on March 27, 2010, when he signed my Art Spiegelman prelim to the cover art of Mr Vertigo. Our encounter was very brief (shy of ten seconds, I'd say) because of the Actes Sud publishing house's henchman (might have been a woman though) barking at every person to clear their spot immediately after the author had autographed their book ("Just a signature, no inscription, next please!!!"). Minutes earlier, Auster had been rushed to the Actes Sud booth from a public roundtable talk with Salman Rushdie. He looked puzzled by his chaperone's testiness toward people that had all PURCHASED their books but the softspoken part of his personality prompted him to simply move along with the flow. Yet, regardless of the background ruckus (crowd of visitors + publisher's goon), he flashed a smile of surprise when I asked him to sign this piece of cartoon art rather than one of his novels. He scribbled his signature in a rush but I like to think I gave him a few seconds' respite from the repetitiveness of signing books under neon lights in the admittedly unfriendly environment of a giant book fair patronized by several thousand visitors that Saturday afternoon in Paris.