The research Archive and memory in comics: traces of the past in MetaMausaims to understand how Art Spiegelman tapped into a vast private archive, constituted over nearly two decades of research, to bring the graphic novel Maus: a survivor s tale to its final aesthetic and narrative form, that transcends into an archive of its own kind to contribute to the elaboration of the Shoah s collective memory. A comparative analysis between Maus and MetaMaus is this work s main conduit, opening up space for diving into the compendium s material in order to identify the author s references and thematic motivations, aside from investigating how MetaMaus archives are articulated in the comic book s pages. Will be subject of study, for example: the oral testimonies that served as roots for the creation of Maus — especially the one given by Vladek, Spiegelman s father who survived Auschwitz concentration camp —; the graphic novel s visual references and the way the author appropriates them to imagine an unimaginable world; the meanings behind the artist s aesthetic and representational decisions; as well as the representation of the author s mother, Anja Spiegelman, stem from the traces present in MetaMaus.