Wordless God's Man by Lynd Ward in YouTube video: Rich Barrett's fine review in The Comics Journal, where you can see some of the images from the book: Here's a 38 minute film presentation, thanks to YouTube, of Kuper on his career, Kafka (Kuper also did a comics version of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis,") and about this book in particular:
The production is awesome.Ī preview of the book by Kuper, on Twitter: The black and white scratchboard art is meant to approximate some of the black and white woodcuts with which Kafka may have been familiar at the time he wrote, early twentieth century comics wordless comics by Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward. There's some expected stories, much longer, such as Kafka classic stories "The Hunger Artist" and "In the Penal Colony" that are bleak and yes, have a kind of surreal (call it gallows?) humor, some of them focused on authoritarian power crushing little people, sometimes based in the legal profession, something Kafka knew from his own work and training. There's an intro by Kuper, which explains, among other things, why he is attracted to the (admittedly bleak, or black) humor of Kafka. Maybe those are not quite as memorable as others, but there's no mistaking Kuper's deep connection to Kafka.
Some of these are stripped-down versions of short short stories told in even shorter fashion through mostly images, sometimes in as few as four pages, such as "Trip to the Mountains," or "A Little Fable". Wonderful comics/illustrated versions of 14 stories by cartoonist/illustrator Kuper. Longtime lovers of Kafka will appreciate Kuper’s innovative interpretations, while Kafka novices will discover a haunting introduction to some of the great writer’s most beguiling stories, including "A Hunger Artist," "In The Penal Colony," and "The Burrow." Kafkaesque stands somewhere between adaptation and wholly original creation, going beyond a simple illustration of Kafka’s words to become a stunning work of art. Working from new translations of the classic texts, Kuper has reimagined these iconic stories for the twenty-first century, using setting and perspective to comment on contemporary issues like civil rights and homelessness. Kuper’s style deliberately evokes Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel, contemporaries of Kafka whose wordless novels captured much of the same claustrophobia and mania as Kafka’s tales. Initially drawn to the master’s dark humor, Kuper adapted the stories over the years to plumb their deeper truths. Long fascinated with the work of Franz Kafka, Peter Kuper began illustrating his stories in 1988.
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