Art Spiegelman

A real-world legend rendered as a comics character in his own right, Art Spiegelman steps onto the page in 1975's Arcade the Comics Revue — a Bronze Age underground landmark — introduced by the great Spain in the company of figures like Robert Crumb and Jack Kirby, which tells you everything about the rarified creative world this character inhabits. Across nearly five decades of appearances, Spiegelman turns up in titles from Evil Twin Comics and beyond, a meta-comics presence whose very existence on the page blurs the line between creator and creation in the most fascinating way. With 19 catalog appearances spanning 1975 to 2021, he's a uniquely durable figure — less a superhero than a monument to comics culture itself, the kind of character that rewards the reader who loves the art form's history as much as its adventures.