"Spiegelman decided to publish the book in two volumes because he learned Steven Spielberg was making An American Tail, an animated film about a family of Jewish mice fleeing Cossacks and cats in early-20th-century Russia.

Spiegelman thought that, if he waited until he completed both volumes of Maus, people would believe he had gotten the idea from Spielberg instead of the other way around. The publication of Maus I preceded the release of An American Tail by three months."