The Jungle

Starred review from December 13, 2004
Originally published in 1991 as part of a short-lived revival of the Classics Illustrated
line, this adaptation of Sinclair's muckraking socialist novel succeeds because of its powerful images. When Kuper initially drew it, he was already a well-known left-wing comics artist. His unenviable task is condensing a 400-page novel into a mere 48 pages, and, inevitably, much of the narrative drama is lost. Kuper replaces it, however, with unmatched pictorial drama. The story follows Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkis and his family as they are eaten up and spit out by capitalism (represented by Chicago's packing houses). Kuper uses an innovative full-color stencil technique with the immediacy of graffiti to give Sinclair's story new life. When Jurgis is jailed for beating the rich rapist Connor, a series of panels suffused with a dull, red glow draw readers closer and closer to Jurgis's face, until they see that the glint in his eye is fire. Jurgis, briefly prosperous as a strong-arm man for the Democratic machine, smokes a cigar; the smoke forms an image of his dead son and evicted family. Perhaps most visually dazzling is the cubist riot as strikers battle police amid escaping cattle. Kuper infuses this 1906 novel with the energy of 1980s-era street art and with his own profoundly original graphic innovation, making it a classic in its own right.

June 14, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Gehrmann's graphic novel adaptation of Sinclair's muckraking classic offers a simplified, character-driven version of the original's horrors. Yearning for a better life, a Lithuanian family arrives in Chicago's meatpacking district via Ellis Island. As naive as they are industrious, the optimistic newcomers soon find themselves swindled and exploited at every turn. Between nonexistent labor protections, rampant disease, a predatory home-buying agreement, and myriad injustices large and small, their path to the American Dream leads directly through the moral and ethical grinder that is the stockyards and terminates with a call for socialist revolution. Light on text and dependent on dialogue, Gehrmann's panels employ a limited palette. Her grayscale pen-and-ink illustrations, with occasional pops of red, burn and fade as characters triumph or suffer. This adaptation's key shift is away from sociological realism and toward psychological storytelling: empathetic individuals now fill roles initially conceived for stock characters, while impromptu speeches have replaced third-person polemics and expositions. The novel isn't so spotless as to seem sanitized, but much of its grit and gristle are scrubbed clean by the streamlined narrative. Key events from the source, including Ona's death in childbirth, Antanas's drowning, and Jurgis's prodigal roaming and crime spree, are among the episodes lost on the cutting room floor. VERDICT This solid introduction to Sinclair's classic text is a humanizing supplement to the at-times tiresome original. Though this work substantially differs from its inspiration, the central message-anticapitalist, pro-socialist, and morally outraged-still rings loud and clear.-Steven Thompson, Sadie Pope Dowdell Library, South Amboy, NJ

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