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Drawn to New York: An Illustrated Chronicle of Three Decades in New York City
Author(s): Peter Kuper (Author), Eric Drooker (Author)
- Publisher: PM PRESS
- Publication Date: 30 May 2013
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: 1604867221
- ISBN-13: 9781604867220
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Kuper is extraordinary, a one-of-a-kind talent, and like the city it chronicles, Drawn to New York is beautiful, mutinous, kaleidoscopic, and essential.”
–Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“Drawn to New York is Peter Kuper’s New York, and anybody who’s spent any time here, physically or otherwise, will recognize the energy and architecture, the grime and crowds, the beautiful humanity, the foods, odors, and sights. Love it or not, there’s no place on Earth quite like New York City, and few people have captured it as effectively as Kuper.”
—Newsarama
“One of the strongest and truest radical voices to emerge from contemporary America.”
–Alan Moore, author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta
“As a cartoonist and graphic novelist, Kuper’s art reflects the sequential grid that is Manhattan. Each window tells a story, and the rows of squares and infinite right angles form a map of one man’s journey through the modern labyrinth. When viewed as a whole, Kuper’s concrete visions of New York amount to an epic love poem.”
–Eric Drooker
“The island of skyscrapers, the Mecca of cities, and well-known capital of the world, is the backdrop of this colorful odyssey of Peter Kuper and marks a triumph in his already successful career. Drawn to New York is a perfect choice while listening to ‘New York, New York, ‘ though not played by Sinatra.”
—Rolling Stone (Mexico)
About the Author
Peter Kuper’s illustrations and comics have appeared in Time, New York Times, and MAD where he has written and illustrated “Spy vs. Spy” every month since 1997. He is the co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated and has remained on its editorial board for over 30 years. He has produced over 20 books including The System, Sticks and Stones, and Stop Forgetting to Remember. Peter has also adapted Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and many of Franz Kafka’s works into comics including The Metamorphosis. Peter lived in Oaxaca, Mexico from July 2006-2008 during a major teachers’ strike and his work from that time can be seen in his book Diario de Oaxaca (PM Press).
Eric Drooker is a third-generation New Yorker, born and raised on Manhattan Island. His paintings are frequently seen on covers of The New Yorker magazine, and hang in various art collections throughout the U.S. and Europe. Drooker is the author of two graphic novels, Flood! A Novel in Pictures (winner of the American Book Award), and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad. He collaborated with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg on the underground classic, Illuminated Poems. His provocative art has appeared on countless posters, book and CD covers, and his hard-edged graphics are a familiar sight on street corners throughout the world.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Drawn to New York
By Peter Kuper
PM Press
Copyright © 2013 Peter Kuper
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60486-722-0
PREFACE
“Don’t you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we’re left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here.”
-Woody Allen
I first visited New York in the summer of 1968, when I was nine. My uncle had the role of Lazar Wolf, the butcher, in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.
He brought my family in from Cleveland, Ohio and put us up in a hotel steps away from Times Square. Here was my first Broadway play and we got to go backstage to meet all the actors – thrilling!
From there he took us to Maxwell’s Plum – a famous dessert joint (long since demolished).
After our ice cream sundaes, as we stood out front sweating in the humid night, my father pointed out an inebriated driver nodding in his car while waiting at a red light. In front of him was an ESSO gas truck, with “Highly Flammable” emblazoned on the back bumper. The light changed and the traffic began creeping forward. Only the drunk driver sat stationary, now passed out on his steering wheel.
Between gas truck and drunk was a man in a Pontiac trying to exit his parking space. Behind the drunk a line of taxis began beeping angrily. Roused briefly by the blaring horns, the drunk slumped forward and in doing so, slammed his foot on his gas pedal, plowing into the bumper of the Pontiac. His wheels spun and smoked as he pushed the Pontiac sideways, clearing his path towards the gas truck. My father flew into action, sprinted to the drunk, and dragged him out just before he could push past and meet exploding destiny.
Clearly New York was a dangerous place where terrible things could happen, but also a place that could turn ordinary people into superheroes. On that sweltering August night, amid the roaring swirl of Manhattan’s manic energy, I decided I wanted to move to this city as soon as possible.
It took ten years, but on June 22nd, 1977, I stepped off a train at Grand Central ready to become a New York animator. I had visited during spring break and gone door to door to animation houses offering to do anything art-related. This would be my entry point, which would quickly lead to me becoming a star cartoonist-animator. The plan wasn’t exactly formed, but amazingly I got a job offer working at Zander Studios that summer on a feature-length Raggedy Ann movie.
In the summer of 1977, New York City was bankrupt. Times Square was run-down and dangerous at night, subways were decrepit, with floor-to-ceiling graffiti and no air-conditioned cars in the underground roast. A garbage strike left mountains of uncollected trash and evil-looking rats scurrying underfoot. A serial killer, Son of Sam, terrorized the city and when a blackout hit in July, looters tore up the town.
I was in heaven.
When I finally got past the secretary at Zander’s to see the studio boss he looked at me with a blank expression. The job offer had vanished, since Raggedy Ann was completed and the animation industry was in a downward turn. He shook my hand and told me to call him in six weeks. I called him every six weeks until he stopped answering his phone.
Though I never did become an animator, New York opened the door to the world of illustration and cartooning. It wasn’t by accident that the earliest comic strip creators and illustrators migrated to New York and created thriving industries. This was where the work was, but just as important, this was where their inspiration bloomed, and so does mine.
New York has changed tremendously since I arrived, Something everyone who’s ever lived here could be quoted as saying – no matter when they came. This city is change. That’s its glory – it’s a perpetually unfinished canvas, offering up possibility to each successive wave of artists.
Drawn to New York is a portrait of this city I love, both its darkness and light. Instead of a chronological narrative I’ve juxtaposed the city’s surface glitter with its darker underbelly – homeless people in Times Square and skaters in Central Park, the devastation of 9/11 and the bustle of daily life. This book is a reflection of thirty-four years on twelve miles of island with eight million people in a city whose story is ever being written.
-Peter Kuper
November, 2012
(Continues…)Excerpted from Drawn to New York by Peter Kuper. Copyright © 2013 Peter Kuper. Excerpted by permission of PM Press.
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