Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories

by Peter Kuper, Franz Kafka

Long fascinated with the work of Franz Kafka, Peter Kuper began illustrating his stories in 1988. Initially drawn to the master’s dark humor, Kuper adapted the stories over the years to plumb their deeper truths. 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. 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.


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.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics, Horror, Art

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2018

About the author

American alternative cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations.

Kuper's work in comics and illustration frequently combines techniques from both disciplines, and often takes the form of wordless comic strips. Kuper remarked on this, "I initially put comics on one side and my illustration in another compartment, but over the years I found that it was difficult to compartmentalize like that. The two have merged together so that they're really inseparable."

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful comics/illustrated versions of 14 stories by cartoonist/illustrator Kuper. 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". Maybe those are not quite as memorable as others, but there's no mistaking Kuper's deep connection to Kafka. Kuper gets Kafka!

There's an intro by Kuper, which explains, among other things, why he is attracted to the (admittedly bleak, or black) humor of Kafka. 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.

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. The production is awesome.

A preview of the book by Kuper, on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/PKuperArt/status/...

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1gS1...

Rich Barrett's fine review in The Comics Journal, where you can see some of the images from the book:

http://www.tcj.com/reviews/kafkaesque/

Wordless God's Man by Lynd Ward in YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DiaB...

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Kuper is the most obvious choice in comics to do an adapation of Kafka. He's so good at dark, politically-charged, anxiety-inducing comics. Here he takes all his skills and applies it to adapting some of Kafka's best known short works.

It's good primer on Kafka and demonstrates Kafka's lasting appeal.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take on fourteen of Kafka's works.

This graphic novel format adaptation illuminates rather than diminishes.

Surreal illustrations work well with the mood and language of the original stories.

[Claudia Vázquez del Mercado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente interpretación gráfica de los relatos de Kafka

[maysmoske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het is zoveel makkelijker te lezen in strip-vorm wie had dat gedacht. Minder lezen en meer plaatjes! Mocht dit van Evan lenen, omdat ik mijzelf graag martel met Kafka. Nu nog Kafka on the Shore, als die ooit weer wordt gevonden in de bieb!

[Allie]

This rating/review is based on an ARC from the publisher.

Not for me. I hate Kafka, which I kind of knew before but I definitely know now.

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love graphic adaptations of Kafka. In part his stories lend themselves to it. And he attracts excellent artists as well. This is a collection of fourteen stories, including "The Hunger Artist", "In the Penal Colony", "The Burrow," and several lesser known fables. They are black-and-white and look like they were done on woodcuts in German expressionist style. The text is all drawn directly from the stories but highly abbreviated.

What I particularly appreciated in going back-and-forth between the full text of some of the stories and Kuper's adaptation is how he took turns of phrase that I had never taken literally and rendered them as such (e.g., the scribbles on the page of instructions for The Harrow in "In the Penal Colony" or a coal bucket rider flying through the air.

Of course not a substitute for the stories themselves, but definitely a complement.

[David Halada · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's beautiful 🥹

[✪ tata · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow ok

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kuper wonderfully illustrates Franz Kafka's short and inscrutable tales of torment, torture and death in his trademark jagged style.

Apparently, Kafka was an early adopter of flash fiction, as the original stories adapted here are often less than a thousand words, and at least one was basically just a single paragraph. Despite the length, they are packed with symbolism and unspoken depth that just left my poor head spinning.

Worth a look, but too dark and bleak to ever enjoy.

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appropriately strange. Kafka's brain must have been a dark quite place where whispers of dread came up from below the floorboards.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these clever Kuper interpretations, which captured the mood of inevitability, the odd dread that's all Kafka.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illuminated the work perfectly, would recommend for anyone wanting to understand Kafka or for general graphic novel fans.

[Stuart Coombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this. The menacing bold illustrations perfectly match the Kafka stories; the oppressors, the political system, social injustice, poverty, bureaucracy, surrealism.

Already looking forward to revisiting this and checking out more of Kuper’s work

[chaosinitial · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ce fut effectivement kafkaesque, maaaiis rien d’extraordinaire

[Pedro Birkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 ⭐️

[Jay Semeniuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

four beetles out of five

[Pirate Hat Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork is spectacular. However, many of the stories chosen were not easy to interpret. Perhaps a second read would help.

[Matin Moors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of those images are insanely cool. Can't wait to read more by this kafka guy

[Stephen Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a couple of collections of kupers Kafka and think he is a perfect graphic art interpretor of Kafka works the woodcut etch angst German expressionist black and white layouts are excellent! Also check out Sinclairs the jungle by Peter kuper.

[Barbara McEwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool to see how the stories are interpreted in the images. Some stories captured me more than others.

[Richard Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kuper seems to have a firm grasp on Kafka's messages, and his stylistic choice reflects them. The stories in this book are mostly from Kafka's very short fables, often only 3-4 pages long. (Two longest are "The Hunger Artist" and "In the Penal Colony").

Great adaptations make the readers see the points that he might have missed in the original work, and this book provided such an opportunity for me.

Kafka is type of a writer whose messages become more and more agreeable as one ages. I read his novels when I was much younger, and I'd love to revisit them. Reading this graphic novel adaptation made me more so.

[Miguel Soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una visión diferente de algunos relatos de Kafka, re-interpretados a través de la narrativa gráfica de Peter Kuper. Sobre todo rescato que no son los relatos ilustrados, sino realmente una re-narración a través de la visión gráfica de Kuper, que los hace diferentes, algunos los contextualiza de nueva cuenta, otros permanecen en su forma más clásica, otros más son llevados al límite fantástico.

Rescato especialmente "La madriguera" y "En la colonia penal". Aunque el libro está muy bueno, la edición tal vez desmerece un poco en la traducción, no por el idioma sino porque implicó modificar cuestiones tipográficas y se pierden algunos detalles. Kuper menciona que parte de su trabajo fue utilizar diferentes letras a mano para identificar personajes, cosa que me parece, en la edición en español se pierde. Por eso baja un poco las estrellas, ya que considero que en un libro eminentemente visual, es algo muy importante.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A creative and accessible version of a handful of Kafka's most famous stories, Kuper was a good illustrator for such, bringing the twinge of humor and the skepticism and cynical drawl of Kafka to the reader visually.

[Tyska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this! Could've read on and on and on. Kuper managed to capture the essence of Kafka in every panel. Superb!

[Sophia K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a birthday gift and surely I loved it!

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a remarkable adaptation and presentation. Well done. Gorgeous art that does a remarkable job of adapting the material.

[Uri Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this brief review, I compare two graphic adaptations of some of Franz Kafka's stories: (1) Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, adapted by Nishioka Kyōdai in 2010 and translated from the Japanese by David Yang (Pushkin Press, 2023), and (2) Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories, adapted by Peter Kuper (W.W. Norton, 2018). One is good and the other is really good.

Externally, the Pushkin edition looks like a regular English book, but the first page from the left says "This is the last page!" It reads right to left like manga. Apparently Nishioka Kyōdai (hence NK) means Nishioka siblings, because it's the pen name of a brother-sister manga duo known for their surreal illustrations. (Surreal fits Kafka, but I didn't love the pictures.)

Interestingly, David Yang the translator explains that he needed to produce a hybrid translation of Kafka's German, Ikeuchi Osamu's Japanese (which NK used), and NK's graphics. That sounds tricky!

Peter Kuper is a very impressive graphic novelist (this is the tenth book I've read of his) who has previously written and illustrated his own books as well as graphic adaptations, including Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Kafka's Metamorphosis (he does "disturbing" very well). Kuper is so creative that every one of the 14 stories in this book has a different style. (Jules Feiffer called Kafkaesque "a series of riffs and visual improvisations.") At the same time, he does an excellent job conveying the nightmare feeling which fits Kafka's works so well. To see several pages from Kafkaesque, take a look at this interview with Kuper.

[Aslihan Yayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaçımız okumadık ki Dönüşüm, Milena'ya Mektuplar, Babaya Mektup, Dava, Şato ve daha nice kitaplarını... Biz Kafka'yı yazar kimliği ile tanıdık, kardeşlerini Yahudi katliamında kaybetmesi onun toplumsal meselelerden dolayı yabancılaşarak büyümesine neden oldu.

Yalnızlık onun vazgeçilmezi olsa bile hayatından çeşitli sevgililer geçti. Hukuk mezunuyken memur hayatına göz kırptı. Okuduğu dönemde edebiyatı her daim takip ederken tiyatro merakını eksik etmedi. İlk öyküsüyle daimi dostu Max Brod ile tanıştı. Ve eserler akmaya başlarken genç yaşta hayata gözlerini yumdu.

Kafka'yı nasıl bilirsiniz? Ondan esinlenen bir yazar ise Peter Kuper, 1988 yılından beri onu takip eden farklı anlatımlı çizimleriyle karşımızda. Tıpkı Kafka gibi içe kapanık, yaşam-mücadele-adalet(sizlik), toplum, zorbalık, karamsarlık ve ölüm üstüne resmedilmiş on dört öykü var.

Kafka'yı anımsatır mı? Okuduğum metinler zihnimde film makarası misali geçiş yaparken aklımda kalan tek kelime "belki" olur. Size hikayeler mutluluk bahşetmese bile aklınızda bir tutam Kafka kitaplarını gözden geçirmenize neden oluyor.

Bazı hikayeler sizi huzursuz edebilirken bazı çizimler duraksatıyor. Yazarın önsözünü çizgi romana başlamadan önce mutlaka okumanızı tavsiye ederim. Neden Kafka, nereden esinlenilmiş, ilk okuduğu kitap, kimlerle bağlantı sağlamış ve daha pek çok soruya cevap bulabilirsiniz. Farklı bir arayışı olanlara, Kafka'nın hayranından sıradışı kareler görmek isteyenlere tavsiyemdir.

#kafkaesk #peterkuper #metisyayınları

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just revisited this one and enjoyed the re-read just as much as the first time. This graphic treatment is of course not a replacement for the actual stories, but Kuper's gulp-able graphics make it a whirlwind trip where you can really appreciate what seemed to concern Kafka most:

the idea of being forgotten, insubstantial and misunderstood, of course

* the starving Coal Bucket Rider
* the Hunger Artist outshown by a ravenous wild animal
* the shoved aside Helmsman
* the stomped Wese of the A Fratricide whose incipient death isn't a quick enough dissolution into Nothingness for his killer)

but also the pervasive occurrence of one dedicating himself to the wrong idea

* A Little Fable's mouse
* The victim of a policeman's antipathy in Give It Up
* The philosopher from The Spinning Top, who can't see the simple flaw in his logic before he falls into a sickening obsession
* The narrator of Before The Law, whose patience is rewarded ultimately only with the grimmest of revelations (Kuper's art here really brings the story to a heartbreaking place that the original story couldn't/wouldn't have)
* The living Bridge who dares to engage with his travelers

Kuper has more than sufficient artistry as well as love for the source material to make all this stuff resonate anew with each reading.