You can count on any comic book by Peter Kuper to be loaded with evil rich white men who exploit the downtrodden. While such stereotyping usually bores me, I never pass up a new Kuper title. His talent for telling a story is too good to ignore, and his blunt stencil art is just as wonderful.
The System, his latest title, published under DC's Vertigo imprint, is a three-issue story about what else? class warfare in the big city. Kuper's chunky, rich color drawings depicting the connected lives of crooked cops, corrupt industrialists, exploited sex workers, hopeless junkies, and fissionable-material smugglers give new life to this oft explored theme.
The System is told without words, and even though several interwoven plots unfold at once, Kuper's knack for cleverly segueing from one story line to the next made it easy to understand what was going on every step of the way, something I can't say for a lot of comics that have words in them.
The System, Part 1, by Peter Kuper: US$2.95. DC Comics, distributed by Diamond Comics: +1 (888) 266 4226.
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