Topline
Print sales of the Maus series by Art Spigelman skyrocketed 753% in January, according to NPD Bookscan, following a controversial ban of the graphic novel in a Tennessee school district.
Key Facts
According to NPD Bookscan, which tracks sales of print books in the U.S., there were 1,684 copies of Maus I, Maus II, The Complete Maus and a paperback box set of the series sold during the first week of January, before the McMinn County School Board voted to ban Maus from being taught in its schools.
Sales rose 46% to 2,423 copies during the second week of January—which included several days after the school district voted to remove the books on January 10.
After widespread media coverage of the ban in the fourth week of January, 14,360 copies of the books were sold, a 753% increase from the first week of the month.
A representative for Spigelman and Pantheon, the publisher of the Maus series, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Big Number
3,859. That’s how many print copies of Maus II were bought in the fourth week of January, a 2,656% increase from the first week of the month, according to NPD Bookscan.
Key Background
Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in which Nazis are depicted as cats and Jews are drawn as mice, has widely been used in schools to educate students about the Holocaust since the first book was published in 1986. The McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove Maus I from eighth-grade classrooms over what it called an “unnecessary use of profanity and nudity” on January 10. The ban started receiving widespread media coverage on January 26, the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The U.S. Holocaust Museum condemned the ban, writing “it is more important than ever for students to learn this history” in a tweet.
Surprising Fact
The series made up nearly half of the Top 10 best-selling comics and graphic novels on Amazon by January 27, and rose as high as 16th on the platform’s list of best-sellers across all genres. The books are now sold out on Amazon.
Further Reading
'Maus' Sales Surge After Tennessee School District Bans The Holocaust Graphic Novel (Forbes)
School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel 'Maus' (The New York Times)
