Reviews for "Give
It Up!":
"Nine
paranoid tales by Franz Kafka adapted to stark, black-and-white comics
by Peter Kuper, whose illustrations and covers appear regularly in
the New York Times ,Time and Business Week . More than just straight
adaptations, these clever interpretations of Kafka's tales bring out
the dark humor latent in Kafka's work, better known for its despair
and somberness. Heralded by Rolling Stone , Kuper's art is bold, powerful,
and perfectly suited for Kafka."
-Amazon.com
"...the ride from book to comic can be bumpy, but Kuper navigates the transition
with precision"
-
The New York Times
"Nicely captures Kafka's cityscapes... A worthy volume."
-
Kirkus Reviews
Comic-strip adaptations
of literature are nothing new--remember Classics Illustrated?--but
with
the recent proliferation of graphic novels aimed
at adults, they've acquired a certain legitimacy. For the latest entry
in NBM's ComicsLit series, Kuper is a highly appropriate choice for
interpreting nine short stories by Franz Kafka. Kuper's scratchboard
style, which resembles woodcuts, is reminiscent of the German expressionist
artists (Kafka's contemporaries), and his cartoony approach accentuates
Kafka's dark humor while it generally avoids the pitfall of depicting
Kafka's deadpan narratives too literally. The project doesn't break
new ground for Kuper, however, who has previously adapted Upton Sinclair's
Jungle and whose autobiographical Stripped included several unsettling
dreams that resemble Kafka's waking nightmares. In his introduction,
cartoonist-playwright Jules Feiffer compares Kuper's approach to jazz--" visual
improvisations on short takes by the old master" --and calls Kuper's
American take on alienation noisier and more raucous than Kafka's resignation.
Kafka holds particular appeal for alternative comics artists: R. Crumb
rendered his biography in comic strips that belong beside Kuper's adaptations
on adventurous libraries' shelves.
-Gordon Flagg,
Booklist
