 Spiegelman is a prominent advocate for the comics medium and comics literacy . He believes the medium echoes the way the human brain processes information . He has toured the US with a lecture called " Comix 101 " , examining its history and cultural importance . He sees comics ' low status in the late 20th century as having come down from where it was in the 1930s and 1940s , when comics " tended to appeal to an older audience of GIs and other adults " . Following the advent of the censorious Comics Code Authority in the mid @-@ 1950s , Spiegelman sees comics ' potential as having stagnated until the rise of underground comix in the late 1960s . He taught courses in the history and aesthetics of comics at schools such as the School of Visual Arts in New York . As co @-@ editor of Raw , he helped propel the careers of younger cartoonists whom he mentored , such as Chris Ware , and published the work of his School of Visual Arts students , such as Kaz , Drew Friedman , and Mark Newgarden . Some of the work published in Raw was originally turned in as class assignments . 
