Peter Kuper

Peter Kuper (/ˈkuːpər/;[1] born September 22, 1958) is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations.

Peter Kuper
Peter Kuper in 2014
Born (1958-09-22) September 22, 1958
Summit, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Artist, writer
Notable works
World War 3 Illustrated
Spy vs. Spy
The System
Give It Up!
The Metamorphosis
AwardsSociety of Illustrators gold medal, 2004, silver medal 2009, gold medal 2010
http://www.peterkuper.com

Besides his contributions to the political anthology World War 3 Illustrated, which he co-founded[2] in 1979 with Seth Tobocman, Kuper is currently best known for taking over Spy vs. Spy for Mad magazine. Kuper has produced numerous graphic novels which have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Greek, including award-winning adaptations of Franz Kafka's Give It Up! and the Metamorphosis.

Early life

Peter Kuper was born in Summit, New Jersey, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was six years old, where he graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1976.[3] He lived in Israel with his parents in 1969–70.

In 1970 Kuper and his childhood friend Seth Tobocman published their first fanzine, Phanzine, and in 1971 they published G.A.S Lite, the official magazine of the Cleveland Graphic Arts Society. In 1972 Kuper traded R. Crumb some old jazz records for the right to publish some artwork from one of Crumb's sketchbooks in a comic titled Melotoons that lasted for two issues.

He attended Kent State University in 1976–1977, then moved to New York City in 1977, where he studied at Art Students League and the Pratt Institute[4] (along with Seth Tobocman). For a short period he acted as studio assistant for cartoonist Howard Chaykin[5] at Chaykin's shared studio space, Upstart Associates.[6]

Career

Comics
Kuper sketching at the New York Comic Con, October 10, 2010.
Kuper at Bangalore Comic Con, September 14, 2014

Kuper, Tobocman, and painter Christof Kohlhofer[7] founded World War 3 Illustrated in 1979.

Kuper has travelled extensively through Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, much of which he documented in his 1992 book, ComicsTrips: A Journal of Travels Through Africa and Southeast Asia.

Spy vs. Spy had passed through various hands after its creator Antonio Prohías retired, but Kuper's version has appeared without interruption since 1997.[2]

Kuper's Eye of the Beholder was the first comic strip to ever regularly appear in the New York Times, and his quasi-autobiography Stop Forgetting To Remember: The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz covers the birth of his daughter, 9/11, and other vicissitudes in his life from 1995–2005.

Though permanently based in New York City, Kuper and his wife and daughter resided in the Mexican state of Oaxaca 2006–2008, where he documented an ongoing teachers' strike and other aspects of Mexico in his sketchbook journal Diario de Oaxaca.[8][9]

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."[10]

Illustration

As an illustrator, Kuper has produced covers for Time,[10] Newsweek,[10] Businessweek and The Progressive.[11] He has done hundreds of illustrations for newspapers including The New York Times[12] and for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and The New Yorker.[10] Kuper has been co-art director of the political illustration group INX International Ink Company[13] since 1988.

Awards

Kuper won a journalism award from The Society of Newspaper Designers in 2001. His wordless picture story Sticks and Stones was awarded the 2004 gold medal, and his comic "This Is Not A Comic" won a silver medal in 2009 both from the Society of Illustrators. He won another gold medal in the sequential arts category from the Society of Illustrators in 2010.

Bibliography
Al Jaffee, Peter Kuper, and Sam Viviano, and Paul Levitz at a panel at Columbia University in early 2014

Comics work includes:

  • 2019 – Heart of Darkness, graphic adaptation of Joseph Conrad's classic novella (W. W. Norton)
  • 2018 – Kafkaesque, graphic adaptations of fourteen of Franz Kafka's short stories (W. W. Norton)
  • 2015 – Ruins, a graphic novel (SelfMadeHero)
  • 2013 – Tercer ojo, collected Spanish edition of Mind's Eye (Editorial Robot)
  • 2010 – Alicia en el País de las Maravillas, Illustrated Spanish edition of Alice in Wonderland (Sexto Piso)
  • 2009 – Diario De Oaxaca : A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico (PM Press/Sexto Piso)
  • 2007 – Stop Forgetting To Remember: The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz,[14] hardcover (Crown)
  • 2007 — Le Sketch #04 (Le Sketch) – minicomic with sketches
  • 2006 – Theo and the Blue Note, children's book (Viking)
  • 2004 – Sticks and Stones, a novel in pictures (Three Rivers Press)
  • 2003 – The Metamorphosis, an adaptation of Franz Kafka's short story (Crown)
  • 2001 – Speechless, a retrospective collection, hardcover (Top Shelf Productions)
  • 2000 – Mind's Eye, a collection of syndicated strips, hardcover, (NBM)
  • 2000 – Topsy Turvy, a collection of political comic strips, trade paperback (Eye Press)
  • 1997 – The System, (collected as a single book) softbound, (DC/Vertigo)
  • 1996 – Eye of the Beholder, a collection of syndicated strips, softbound (NBM)
  • 1995 – World War 3: Confrontational Comics, co-editor of anthology (Four Walls Eight Windows)
  • 1995 – Give It Up!, graphic adaptations of nine of Franz Kafka's short stories (NBM)
  • 1995 – Stripped, An Unauthorized Autobiography, softbound (Fantagraphics)
  • 1993–1994 – Wild Life, comics by the author, comic format, two issues (Fantagraphics)
  • 1992 – ComicsTrips: A Journal of Travels Through Africa and Southeast Asia, travel-related comics by the author (Tundra and then re-issued by NBM)
  • 1991–1993 – Bleeding Heart, comics by the author, comic format, five issues (Fantagraphics)
  • 1991 – The Jungle, comics adaptation of Upton Sinclair's novel (First Comics' Classics Illustrated; reissues in hardcover by NBM in 2004 and again in 2010)
  • 1989 – World War 3 Illustrated, co-editor of anthology (Fantagraphics)
  • 1988 – Life and Death, collection of author's comics, magazine format (Fantagraphics)
  • 1987 – New York City, collection of author's comics, soft-bound (Fantagraphics)
  • 1984 – The Last Cat Book, illustrating an essay by Robert E.Howard, soft-bound (Dodd Mead)

Notes
  1. "Interview with Peter Kuper - The Comics Alternative"
  2. Neil Gaiman, ed., The Best American Comics 2010 (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), 321
  3. Kaltenbach, Chris. "MICA exhibit, symposium leaping from comics pages", The Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2004. Accessed February 20, 2011. "Peter Kuper. Birthplace Summit N.J. moved to Cleveland at age 6."
  4. Biography in HeightsArts: A Nonprofit Arts Organization. Archived May 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  5. Worcester, Kenton. "Waxing Politick," (an interview with Seth Tobocman) The Comics Journal #233 (May 11, 2001). Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  6. Irving, Christopher. "Diario de Peter Kuper": Peter Kuper interview from 2009, in Peter Kuper: Conversations, edited by Kent Worcester (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2016).
  7. ""A Magazine Rooted In The East Village" A New York Times Article by Colin Moynihan reviewing the New York City EXIT ART show "Graphical Radicals"". The New York Times. January 28, 2011.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 22, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. Lorah, Michael C. "Peter Kuper on Stop Forgetting to Remember and More" Archived July 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Newsarama (April 7, 2007). Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  10. Palmer, Tom Jr. (August 1997). "Kuper's Comics". Wizard (72). pp. 104–5.
  11. "Faculty: Peter Kuper," Archived October 3, 2017, at the Wayback Machine School of Visual Arts website. Accessed Oct. 2, 2017.
  12. Worcester, Kent, editor. Peter Kuper: Conversations (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2016).
  13. INXart official website. Accessed Oct. 2, 2017.
  14. Stop Forgetting to Remember official site, RandomHouse.com. Accessed Nov. 6, 2019.

Interviews
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