 Spiegelman did not renew his New Yorker contract after 2003 . He later quipped that he regretted leaving when he did , as he could have left in protest when the magazine ran a pro @-@ invasion of Iraq piece later in the year . Spiegelman said his parting from The New Yorker was part of his general disappointment with " the widespread conformism of the mass media in the Bush era " . He said he felt like he was in " internal exile " following September 11 attacks as the US media had become " conservative and timid " and did not welcome the provocative art that he felt the need to create . Nevertheless , Spiegelman asserted he left not over political differences , as had been widely reported , but because The New Yorker was not interested in doing serialized work , which he wanted to do with his next project . 
