The System

The System

It has been said that the flutter of insect wings in the Indian Ocean can send a hurricane crashing against the shores of the American Northeast, and such a premise lies at the core of The System, a wordless graphic novel created and painted by award-winning illustrator Peter Kuper. A sleazy stockbroker is lining his pockets, a corrupt cop is shaking down drug dealers, a mercenary bomber is setting the timer, a serial killer is stalking strippers, a political scandal is about to explode, the planet is burning, and nobodys talking. Told without captions or dialogue, this piece of art is an astonishing progression of vivid imagery, each brilliantly executed panel contains layer upon layer of information that forms a vast and intricate tour of an ominous world of coincidences and consequences.ReviewKupers brilliant visual novel, much like Fritz Lang, creates a comic noir of corruption and innocence in a city where the devil is always in the details. -Sue Coe, artist and author, Dead MeatA dark, dense, subtle portrait of the intricate continuum of urban life-and death-done in such bold strokes and shapes that you will never see the city in the same way again. -Kirkpatrick Sale, author, After Eden: The Evolution of Human DominationLike a slow-motion footage of a .45 slug drifting through a gun barrel, Peter Kupers The System gives urban tragedy an almost graceful inevitability. [It] intertwines the lives of several instantly identifiable New York City archetypes . . . into a dreamily suspenseful tale of corruption and ambition [...] utilizing his signature color-stencil-art style to depict a class-conscious saga superior in depth and emotion to a years stockpile of the New York Post. -Robert Morales, VibeThough it has no word balloons or thought bubbles, The System is filled with so much urban clatter, youll want to seal your windows shut. Kuper uses his trademark spray-paint/stencil art to send us careening through a kinetic New York landscape, jump-cutting from a crooked cop to a stripper, panning from a homeless guy to a cell-phone yuppie. The star of the story is the dark city itself, and the point is how money ties all its occupants-whether they know it or not-together. -Gavin Edwards, DetailsThis is our world, folks, as it exists right now, teetering on the brink of something we cant quite imagine, laid out by Peter Kuper as a flow chart of parallels and coincidences and connecting fibers so powerful and occult that a pin dropped in a back street creates shock waves that make skyscrapers tremble. -Luc Sante, author, Low LifeCartooning is an art that can be universally recognized and appreciated. The purest of this form is the wordless comic, where the cartoonist creates a strictly visual language. Over the years there have been a few geniuses in this specialized art form. One of them is Peter Kuper. Long may his pencil, pen and brush silently flow. -Al Jaffe, MadThe System is a beautifully-illustrated hardcover book. This is no normal graphic novel, really a work of art in publishing. -Zach Roberts, comicbook.comFrom the day-to-day laboratory of conflicts and coincidences, Kuper assembled The System, a wordless chronicle of the clashes and convergences of New York Citys populace. -Peggy Roalf, DARTAlthough told with a relative lack of text, The System has the heft of a literary novel and should be embraced by both comics fans and open-minded readers of literary fiction. -Thomas L. Batten, Library JournalClever, compulsive and breathtakingly engrossing, this delicious exercise in dramatic interconnectivity and carefully constructed symbolism is a brilliant example of how smart and powerful comics can be. -Win Wiacek, comicsreview.co.ukAbout the AuthorPeter Kuper is a cofounder and editorial board member of political graphics magazine World War 3 Illustrated and a teacher who has taught at New Yorks School of Visual Arts and Parsons the New School for De