The creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel "Maus" on Saturday said he pulled an essay meant to introduce a new Marvel collection after editors pressured him to remove a disparaging reference to President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE.

In the essay ultimately published in the The Guardian, Art Spiegelman brought up Trump while discussing the importance of Marvel between 1939–1949.

"Captain America’s most nefarious villain, the Red Skull, is alive on screen and an Orange Skull haunts America," he wrote in the essay.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Folio Society, who was handling publishing for the particular collection, asked Spiegelman to remove the reference, claiming Marvel was trying to be “apolitical," the author wrote in the version of the essay subsequently published in the Guardian.

"I didn’t think of myself as especially political compared with some of my fellow travelers, but when asked to kill a relatively anodyne reference to an Orange Skull I realized that perhaps it had been irresponsible to be playful about the dire existential threat we now live with, and I withdrew my introduction," he wrote.

Spiegelman closed out his essay by highlighting the relationship between Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter and Trump.

"I learned that the billionaire chairman and former CEO of Marvel Entertainment, Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, is a longtime friend of Donald Trump’s, an unofficial and influential adviser and a member of the president’s elite Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida," he wrote. "And Perlmutter and his wife have each recently donated $360,000 (the maximum allowed) to the Orange Skull’s “Trump Victory Joint Fundraising Committee” for 2020."

"I’ve also had to learn, yet again, that everything is political... just like Captain America socking Hitler on the jaw."