(From DCist contributor Kanishka Gangopadhyay)

Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the epic graphic novel Maus, comes to Politics & Prose Tuesday at 7 p.m. to sign copies of his new work “In the Shadow of No Towers” .

The innovative work is the first extended piece Spiegelman has written since the legendary Maus series. Packaged audaciously at more than twice the size of the industry standard graphic novel, In the Shadow is guaranteed to garner serious attention. The book is hardly a traditional comic. Instead, it’s a combination of 10 original comic strips and strips from the early days of comics like The Katzenjammer Kids. Critical reactions have been mixed. A recent review in the Washington Post called the work “a colossal wet firecracker,” while online magazine Salon.com has called the work a “must-have collection of hard-hitting, self-deprecating strips on life during wartime.”

Whatever your reaction to Spiegelman’s work, seeing the artist can be an experience in and of itself. A dedicated smoker, Spiegelman is known for refusing to appear if he is barred from smoking. After seeing the artist defiantly puffing away at this year’s Book Expo America, DCist was glad to see Spiegelman hasn’t changed with the times. We wonder what the reaction to his ubiquitous Camels will be in D.C.