The Metamorphosis

September 22, 2003
Kuper has adapted short works by Kafka into comics before, but here he tackles the most famous one of all: the jet-black comedy that ensues after the luckless Gregor Samsa turns into a gigantic bug. The story loses a bit in translation (and the typeset text looks awkward in the context of Kuper's distinctly handmade drawings). A lot of the humor in the original comes from the way Kafka plays the story's absurdities absolutely deadpan, and the visuals oversell the joke, especially since Kuper draws all the human characters as broad caricatures. Even so, he works up a suitably creepy frisson, mostly thanks to his drawing style. Executed on scratchboard, it's a jittery, woodcut-inspired mass of sharp angles that owes a debt to both Frans Masereel (a Belgian woodcut artist who worked around Kafka's time) and MAD magazine's Will Elder. The knotty walls and floors of the Samsas' house look like they're about to dissolve into dust. In the book's best moments, Kuper lets his unerring design sense and command of visual shorthand carry the story. The jagged forms on the huge insect's belly are mirrored by folds in business clothes; thinking about the debt his parents owe his employer, Gregor imagines his insectoid body turning into money slipping through an hourglass. Every thing and person in this Metamorphosis seems silhouetted and carved, an effect that meshes neatly with Kafka's sense of nightmarish unreality.

Edoardo Ballerini's narration provides an emotionally sensitive, intelligent take on Kafka's famous novella that captures its disturbing humor. He exhibits an easy proficiency in managing the pace, varying voices to represent various characters, and achieving clarity of phrasing and emphasis. Beyond that, his precise diction mirrors the hyperrealistic detailing of Gregor Samsa's new life as a giant insect. Ballerini's deftness, brisk pace, and light touch not only keep the text moving but also help convey the anxious, querulous, submissive feel of someone far more eager to please and fit in than to question his absurd fate. The nervous energy of Ballerini's reading reflects the subtle hysteria underlying the tale. The artistry of the narrator is as satisfying as the story is disquieting. W.M. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine