The System

by Peter Kuper, Calvin Reid (Introduction)

Actions speak louder than words in this wordless, fully painted graphic novel. If every action has an equal and oppostie reaction, get ready to run for cover: A corrupt cop is shaking down drug dealers, a serial killer is slaughtering strippers, a political scandal is about to explode, the planet is burning and nobody's tal

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Dystopia, Comic Book, Art

105 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

Peter Kuper is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, renowned for his politically charged, socially conscious, and often autobiographical work. He co-founded the influential anthology World War 3 Illustrated, and is best known for his long-running reinvention of Spy vs. Spy for Mad magazine from 1997 to 2022. Kuper has produced numerous graphic novels, including award-winning adaptations of Franz Kafka’s Give It Up! and The Metamorphosis, as well as autobiographical works like Stop Forgetting To Remember and Diario de Oaxaca, documenting life, travel, and social struggles. His illustration work has appeared on covers and in publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. Kuper’s style often merges comics and illustration techniques, with both wordless narratives and text-driven storytelling, reflecting his belief that the two disciplines are inseparable. He has traveled extensively across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia, often documenting these experiences in sketchbook journals. Kuper has taught courses on comics and illustration at the Parsons School of Design, the School of Visual Arts, and Harvard University’s first class on graphic novels. He has received numerous awards, including recognition from the Society of Newspaper Designers, the Society of Illustrators, and Eisner and NCS awards for his work. His comics combine sharp political commentary, personal observation, and inventive visual storytelling, establishing him as a prominent figure in contemporary alternative comics and illustration.

Reviews

[Karen Merino Caballero · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐'s
Peter Kuper plasmó una historia como crítica social de lo que acontece día a día en la gran metrópoli de Nueva York.
La comparan con las películas de Charles Chaplin (cine mudo) pero en novela gráfica, en la que uno puede interpretar las imágenes y también inventar diálogos.
Definitivamente toda una experiencia visual increíble.

[Miguel Soto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nunca deja de sorprenderme cómo los monos son capaces de producirme tanto o más que las palabras. El Sistema es un enorme ejercicio de ¿novela? gráfica, tres momentos relativamente separados donde personajes que pueden o no conocerse se entrelazan de maneras no siempre esperadas. Maravillosamente, toda la historia se desarrolla sin palabras, y cuando éstas aparecen son más bien una imagen que las contiene, una palabra hecha imagen, que una palabra como habitualmente las localizamos, son palabras para verse, no para oírse.

Peter Kuper siempre me ha gustado por su estilo y sus temas, y este libro no es la excepción porque sigue su línea habitual de mostrar lo cotidiano a detalle, de enseñarnos lo íntimo de sus personajes, y esta vez lo logra, como ya dije, sin que éstos hablen, sino haciendo hablar lo visto. Probablemente sea el trabajo que más me ha dejado impresión hasta ahora.

Fue bueno saber que El Sistema se dibujó originalmente en los '90, es algo que aclara aunque no necesariamente limita a la década. El sistema está por ahí todavía.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wordless graphic novel by Peter Kuper first released in 1997, now re-released in 2014. With brightly colored stencil and spray painted drawings that sort of bleed across panels, this is an impressively told story, though the story itself is pretty grim, with what seem to me some pretty stereotypical images of the New York he know and loves well. I think of the silent Charlie Chaplin and Eric Drooker's Flood and Franz Masereel's wordless work, though Kuper seems to me grimmer. Maybe Drooker is equally grim, but there is complexity in his tale… I guess the appeal here is in the artwork, and the very wordlessness of it, that much gets accomplished without the words, and so much gets told. It'e exuberant in its grimness, in a way, maybe calling forth the love/hate relationship many New Yorkers have for their City...

[Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

A graphic novel, no words, showing a "dark side" to NYC. The standard evil corporation goons with dark glasses doing shady deals, fat white cops taking money from skinny black drug dealers, family loving strippers getting butchered by religious nuts, all the "real stuff" like that. I did enter the world, enjoyed it, but it said nothing to me, and when I put it down I even forgot how it all ended for the characters.

[Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

El término novela gráfica es un término que llega a usarse con demasiada liberalidad o frivolidad, pero El sistema es un ejemplo de un libro que realmente merece ese título. Un retrato dinámico de la Nueva York de los años noventa, el libro entrelaza las historias de sus diversos personajes (policías corruptos, bailarinas exóticas, pordioseros, hackers, magnates y terroristas) para adentrarnos en la vida y las venas de esa fascinante y compleja ciudad. El paisaje urbano es retratado con igual maestría, en un estilo que combina referencias pop noventeras con ecos de la tradición del grabado europeo. En resumen, El sistema de Kuper nos transporta al microcosmos de Nueva York con una gran maestría.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another silent comic borrowing elements from Ward and Masareel.

The cool thing is instead of b+w woodcut print, this comic is drawn as though Kuper used spray painted stencils. It's a fun way to modernize those old woodcut graphic novels to the subway art gritty 90s.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt completely current and relevant today.

[Maryna Ponomaryova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Прикольний комікс без слів (майже - тільки газетні заголовки), про те, як пов'язані прошарки суспільства, від бідних до багатих, від злочинців до поліції і тд, доволі похмура картина, але ефектний і круто перегукуються панельки. Хотілось би більше. Зараз читається за 15 хв і ок. Але напевно на 97 рік і в сша ваще бомба пушка був.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphic novel very light on text that will assault your senses. It paints a picture of a city driven by corruption, greed, and dark needs tempered with the lives of those who are trying to rise above the dark underbelly of their home. Jarring images drive the point home without the need for text in this raw gritty graphic novel.

[Stephanie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

After years of trying to read "The System" I finally managed to read it all the way through. Read is the wrong word as the book as no text, merely pictures.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, illustrated perfectly in this story. It tells the story of greed, corruption, murder and adultery in a world that is falling apart at the seams. The book opens with the William Blake quote "I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans". The same can be said about the process of writing, social expectations, and what we are trained to think of as "literature" or even "a book."

Within the plot itself, "The System" creates an enjoyable albeit predictable story and characters. However, the format of the book is the only thing that differentiates The System from any other system.

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geniální a strhující! Peter Kuper vám poodhalí systém života ve velkoměstě. Tento příběh, vyprávěný v komiksu beze slov, se stal legendou po právu!
Celá recenze zde: vlcibouda.net/komiks/system
---
Brilliant and exciting! This has all rights to be called legend!

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous, wordless comic that follows a series of eccentric events across a grimy, corrupt city. Stylistically, it is comparable to Frans Masereel's The City with the artwork even looking a lot like woodcuts. But where Masereel's The City was focused on vignettes of the many mundane lives of the city dwellers, Kuper seems much more interested in a continuous wordless narrative. Calling his comic The System is an apt name - the people of Kuper's world are ground down by the excesses of the city and the squallor is completely palpable across each page. And yet, there is a rustic beauty to this comic given Kuper's simplistic cartooning style. The colors are also really well done - the heavy use of muddy colors accentuate the atmosphere of The System. This is a quick read, but well worth it especially since you have to pay attention to how the narrative evolves across all three issues.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wordless comic showing a variety of characters, from the high to the low, all circulating in New York City. Kuper truly is the successor to Franz Masareel and Lynd Ward's style. This collects the original three part series published by DC, back when they were doing new things. It contains Kuper's standard points of view, often expressed in WWIII magazine, but even if you don't agree with his worldview, you have to admire the art. The system as portrayed is a brutal place, random, violent, uncaring. What little snatches of joy a character gleans is quickly trampled underfoot by the other denizens looking to destroy, steal, and kill whatever they come across. It is a jaundiced view of New York, beautifully drawn.

[Janet Azucena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Kuper por medio su novela gráfica, relata o mejor dicho, por medio de las imágenes (sólo cuando los personajes leen periódicos o algún cartel aparece texto escrito) nos narran diferentes historias ante una realidad muy cercana.

Publicada originalmente en 1997 pero, recopilada en su totalidad en el 2014, sus protagonistas viven en una gran urbe, cada uno tiene un estrato social, corrupción, racismo por mencionar algunos temas aparecen como una radiografía social. Pareciera que el autor visualizaba lo que vendría en el año 2020 a nivel social en Estados Unidos, aunque comparte en sí rasgos comunes en los diferentes países.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite things about books are the words that make them up. This book had no dialogue; the only words to appear were in the background, on newspapers, billboards, etc. Still, after "reading" it (in like an hour), I feel like it told a story better than most people do with actual words. The weaving in and out of the character's stories, the art, and the plot were all fantastic. Read this book!

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

El merito de esta obra radica en que te cuenta un buen par de historias entrelazadas, sin uso del diálogo e interconectando las viñetas de forma muy audaz.
Ciertamente son como los chiclés típicos de la vida oscura newyorkina: asesinatos, maníaticos, stalkers, strippers, drogas y más pero graficadas de manera única.

Es mi primera obra de Kuper y de seguro no será la última.

[el · Rating 5 out of 5]

The movement of the plot visually reminds me of Chris Ware's works, very cinemagraphic. I like how the story continues to revolve around the same characters as they live life in a common city, passing each other but rarely interacting, they are nonetheless influenced by the existence of the others. Excellent storytelling.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the colors but didn't care for anything else about the art. The narrative flows well and is easy to follow despite being wordless and having a large cast, but it felt unoriginal and didn't do anything to make me care about any of its characters.

[Drake Zappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant use of the comics medium. An intricately woven collection of illustrated narratives coming together cohesively to tell the story of the corrupt systems we find ourselves living in or around throughout our everyday lives. kuper really created something special here.

[Gadiel Ochoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una crítica social plasmada en un cómic, el cual comienza como un thriller, pero se va a adentrando a lo peor de la humanidad, ahí es donde uno dice "el ser humano es su mismo antagonista y su misma destrucción". Más siempre hay esperanza.

[Kevin MacDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Kuper paints an interesting picture of a city in this dialogue-free graphic novel. It probably stands out the most out of the short-lived Vertigo Verité line of comics. Mostly, it stands on its own as an entertaining and tangled web of corruption, crime, and conspiracy.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense, vivid and disturbing.

[محمود راضي · Rating 4 out of 5]

عمل صامت يقرأ في دفعة واحدة، يأخذك بين عشرات الحكايات الصغيرة والمتناثرة داخل الطاحونة الوحشية للحياة النيويوركية.

[Enrico Ribeiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5

[Victor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not really follow the story, and it’s only pictures. His other books are pretty good though.

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 1 out of 5]

cliche

[Jamil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but could've been better

[Javier Campos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy recomendado, es increíble las historiS y el activismo y el misterio en un tomo sin diálogo. Me encantó!

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great!! My ADHD brain has trouble following graphic novels of any kind, much less those without dialogue or captions, but I enjoyed this. It was a quick read and will be great for teaching visual storytelling.

[Filipe Siqueira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quando pensamos num sujeito icônico que leva a linguagem dos quadrinhos aos seus limites artísticos, geralmente pensamos em Daniel Clowes e suas obras malucas, introspectivas e simbólicas. Mas outros artistas fizeram similares.

Além do próprio Will Eisner, um deles é Peter Krupe, nesse fantástico O Sistema. Sem diálogos, vemos a rotina de Nova York seguindo personagens como executivos de empresa, moradores de rua, grafiteiros, trabalhadores. A história é simples, mas aos poucos vemos uma crescente complexidade que abarca desde a dura cultura das ruas até as negociatas de grandes corporações.

A arte é limpa e cada quadro é um pedaço de narrativa, pulamos de uma história para outra através de links visuais, que demonstram a ligação de tudo num gigantesco sistema.

Ao mesmo tempo em que tudo está ligado, temos a teoria de que tudo se repete e alimenta algo maior, que não está de fato vivo, mas nos influencia a todo momento. A arte é tão bela quanto o roteiro, bem limpa, e lembra a arte das ruas.