PETER KUPER ON STOP FORGETTING TO REMEMBER AND MORE

[MattBrady]

by Michael C Lorah

There has been any number of revolutionary creators in the annals of comics history. Most are remembered for creating a popular character, or refining the story language of the form. If the EC “Preachies” created the genre of the “relevant” comic story, which was further explored by R. Crumb and his underground allies, Peter Kuper is undoubtedly the modern master whose work has refined the socially relevant comic to the highest point yet achieved.

He’s done politically motivated work in World War 3 Illustrated, which he co-founded in 1979. He’s adapted the works of Franz Kafka to comics form, raising the comic book adaptation to an art form that most other adaptations have failed to achieve. He’s continued to re-invent Antonio Prohías’ classic Spy Vs. Spy strip as a subversive look into the world of international intrigue, and his literately astute autobiographic comics have forced fans and other creators to expect more from the “life story” comic. He’s a highly respected magazine illustrator, whose work has appeared on the covers of and inside TIME, Newsweek, The Stranger and more. In short, Peter Kuper makes raising the bar seem like a minimum standard.

This July Crown Books will be releasing Kuper’s next book, Stop Forgetting to Remember. The book is described as the “autobiography” of Walter Kurtz, a semi-famous cartoonist, who sees his carefree youth evaporating as he faces the reality of parenthood.

Kuper found time to answer some of our questions.

NRAMA: Peter, how old is your daughter Emily now?

Peter Kuper: She recently turned ten.

NRAMA: She’s still fairly young, but has certainly given you plenty of parenthood insights by this point. How much of you is in Walter Kurtz?

PK: I think of Stop Forgetting as an auto-lie-ography. It contains a lot of my true experiences, but I put them through a filter that bends light and reality to suit my story.

NRAMA: I think everybody expects some major life changes when they take on the challenges of parenthood, but what were some of the unexpected changes?

PK: Nothing truly prepares you for the catastrophic transformation parenthood brings (I mean that in a good way). A child is like neutron bomb dropped into your life. All the structures are still standing, but many people and your personality as you once knew it is gone.

It’s the greatest experience in the world and I don’t casually recommend it to anyone.

NRAMA: The solicitation for Stop Forgetting talks briefly about the evaporation of “youthful, carefree days.” It almost makes the book sound as if the protagonist regrets having children. Thematically, are the pros and cons of parenthood a major piece of the story?

PK: Yes. Generally speaking, I hate children…other than my own perfect lil’ angel of course.

I’d like to think the book holds the whole experience up to the light; the joy, sleep deprivation, post-partum depression—warts and all. Parenthood is a complicated subject and comics are the perfect vehicle to express that. Also, besides parenthood the time period Stop Forgetting covers, 1995-2005, includes being in NYC during 9-11, the two Bush “elections” and lots of details that I was afraid I’d start forgetting to remember if I didn’t get to it.

NRAMA: Your first semi-autobiographical book, Stripped: An Unauthorized Autobiography, came out in 1995. What brings you back to the life story genre after a dozen years away?

PK: Stripped had gotten optioned by HBO back in 1997 and I spent a year and a half working with a crew of great people to turn it into an animated series. Unfortunately, the top brass got cold feet about the whole department and shut it down just before it took the next step. It was rather heart breaking since it got as far as choosing a cast, writing several scripts and starting production. Then Forrest Whittaker optioned it and I spent another year working with a director to produce a 3-minute piece of animation. That also had a Hollywood ending --it died. It took me a while to want to come back to the material, but I had so many ideas that were collecting dust and I felt like the subject matter was so rich I wanted to get it down on paper.

NRAMA: There's a lot of material in the book that is recycled from Stripped. Thematically, it works well, showing the experimentation, the confusion, the freedom of youth that all must be put aside in favor of being the “all-knowing” father. Did you worry, however, that some readers might be annoyed at the overlapping material?

PK: Sure, but given Stripped was seen by a very small audience and came out 12 years ago and has been out of print for years, this was a minor issue. There's 130+ pages of brand new material; also there's not one old page in the book that I didn't make some adjustment to, including a second color, redrawing, relettering and expanding of the stories. It was pretty frustrating to previously do so much material and have it barely seen. Given the groundswell of interest in graphic novels, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to reach the wider audience I'd always aimed for with all the material.

NRAMA: The 9/11 sequence was extremely moving. You really conveyed your alter ego's sense of powerlessness to do anything, with his desperate attempt to redraw reality. His child’s arrival at his studio and joining in his drawing is a really beautiful moment in the book. Was your daughter as big a part of your coping with 9/11 as seen here?

PK: Absolutely. After a day at my studio, moving in and out of panic attacks, I'd go home, take a deep breath at the apartment door and enter her world. It was a great respite from my adult reality.

NRAMA: The use of a soaring bird to illustrate freedoms was very uplifting. Was finding the right symbol to capture the essence of freedom, particularly freedom with a child, difficult?

PK: If there are "magic" moments in a creative process, this was one of them. I had been wrestling with the book's opening and feeling blocked on getting started. I went up to the campus of Columbia University, which is in my neighborhood, and sat down on a bench with my notebook, hoping for a breakthrough. As I sat there, a ratty-looking pigeon landed next to me. I tried to shoo it away--I actually swatted it with my notebook--but it only moved closer and sat down. A lightbulb went off and I had my connector between chapters, as well as a running metaphor, and began furiously writing. Ironically, months later I came across the idea of using a pigeon the way I did in a very old idea notebook!

NRAMA: Asked with tongue in cheek, but do you worry that reprinting a Richie Bush strip in this book will prevent Stop Forgetting from getting into the country?

PK: I've done three Richie Bush strips over the years for WW3, and customs officials only nabbed one of them. So I figure the odds are pretty good it will slip by with the nuclear devices.

NRAMA: You’ve also been authoring the Spy vs. Spy strip in MAD Magazine for around ten years now, correct? I remember when you took over the strip, you expressed some concern that you weren’t sure you’d have enough to say using the strip’s format. Ten years gone now, what is your feeling for the Spies these days?

PK: I never thought I’d pass a decade doing it—hell, I didn’t think I’d pass a few years, but it’s a great gig. About the time I felt it was getting long in the tooth, Mad went to color. That created a lot of possibilities and kept it interesting. I’ve done my best to keep it fresh and open new doors on what the characters can be and do. Thanks to the wide parameters Antonio Prohías set up.

NRAMA: How much involvement do you have with World War 3 Illustrated these days? I don’t think that you were in the most recent issue (#37, this past winter), were you?

PK: I co-edited #36 and #34 and #32…hmmm I’m seeing a pattern here…Anyway, last July my wife and daughter and I moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, for a year, so I haven’t been around to edit. We are probably going to stay a second year so I will probably break my pattern. I will be doing something on the exploding political situation here in Oaxaca for the next WW3.

NRAMA: Given the political content of your work, the title Stop Forgetting to Remember seems ripe for some commentary on the mindset of America today. Is there anything to that thinking?

PK: I was looking for a title that described the book. It’s a 208-page story that examines, among other things, how we forget or dismiss our past behavior as we age, and how as the world changes around us, our history fades from memory.
That windy title seemed to sum it up.

NRAMA: You just wrote your first children’s book, Theo and the Blue Note, which came out last fall. How has reaction to that been? Did you enjoy the process, and is a children’s book something you’d like to create again?

PK: Yes, it was a fantastic experience and a antidote to gnashing my teeth over the Iraq war, Bush and global warming. After spending one summer with Kafka and the next with World War 3 and Sticks and Stones, it was like letting air into my studio. I’m still doing signings and getting invited to do readings of Theo along with the graphic novels, so it’s doing well and is another avenue I can walk down if an idea strikes.

NRAMA: What other projects are you working on currently?

PK: Actually I have another children’s book in the works called Wide Awake! that Viking will publish next year, and this fall Watson-Guptill will be publishing another Spy vs Spy casebook that will reprint my decade of strips, among other goodies. I’m just starting to formulate my next GN, which will be a follow up to Stop Forgetting To Remember. It will pick up where Stop leaves off and include the move to Mexico. Now all I have to do is finish having the experience so I can figure out how the story ends!

Stop Forgetting to Remember will be available in July.

[Sambo253]

I've rarely been enthralled by any artist as I have with Peter Kuper. I'm glad he's still putting new material out.

[Royal Nonesuch]

I picked up that adaptation of Metamorphosis a couple of years ago, not knowing who Kuper was at the time. I loved it, and have been looking back to see all the great work he did that I missed. I'm definitely going to get this new book as well.