Sticks and Stones

This wordless graphic novel is by the author/artist of THE SYSTEM and an adaptation of Franz Kafka`s METAMORPHOSIS. The story touches on environmentalism, resisting injustice, and how failing to respond appropriately to the first two can destroy apparently unconquerable civilizations. A stone giant tyrannizes over a town of small stone people, whom he directs to invade and destroy a flourishing village of wood people. As the stone army enslaves the wood people and completely strips the village of resources, it is heedless of the clouds slowly gathering overhead, and the threat posed by a denuded landscape. Many critics feel that Peter Kuper`s delicately shaded, blocklike stencilwork is reminiscent of woodcuts. The majority of the extraordinarily evocative art in the book is black and white, punctuated with a few effectively placed full-color spreads; e.g. the barren, oppressive regime of the stone town is contrasted with the happy inhabitants of the flourishing wood village. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.