18 Sep / Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories by Peter Kuper [in Booklist]
Eisner-winning Peter Kuper’s career of “translating Kafka into comics” began in 1995, when his initial collection of nine shorts hit shelves, with Give It Up! He adds another five here, scrambles the previous order, and includes his “Kuperesque” foreword, emphasizing how, since Kafka’s death at 40, in 1924, “our world increasingly reflects the adjective ‘Kafkaesque’” – nightmarish, oppressive, surreal.
Kuper employs “scratch board, a chalk-covered paper that can be inked and scratched to approximate woodcuts” to evoke the German expressionism of Kafka’s time; the effect of etching images out of black background undoubtedly heightens a sense of surreal entrapment.
Using Kafka’s texts “as an anchor,” Kuper alchemizes “Before the Law” (originally from The Trial) into a contemporary parable on racism; “The Burrow” becomes a warning against paranoid consumerism; police brutality literally looms in “Give It Up!” and “The Trees”; unchecked power rules in “The Helmsman.”
In distilling Kafka’s timeless themes, Kuper creates stark panels of disturbing truth and powerful warning. While Kafka aficionados will savor enhanced perception, readers without prior knowledge will nevertheless appreciate Kuper’s unflinching interpretations.
Review: “Fiction: Graphic Novels,” Booklist, September 15, 2018
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2018