Françoise Mouly

Françoise Mouly, long-time art director of *The New Yorker*, details her journey from architectural studies in Paris to pioneering the groundbreaking comics magazine *RAW* alongside Art Spiegelman. This conversation highlights her commitment to visual storytelling, emphasizing how *RAW* established comics as a medium of profound literary and artistic depth. Mouly explains her editorial philosophy at *The New Yorker*, where she champions the artist’s unique perspective and prioritizes immediate, impactful visual communication over didactic illustration. She argues that despite the rise of digital media, print remains a vital, commemorative medium that captures cultural moments with a permanence digital flux cannot replicate. Her career reflects a consistent pursuit of independence, autonomy, and the power of images to convey complex human experiences without relying on text-based explanations.