Ruins: A Graphic Novel

by Peter Kuper

Overview

Author-illustrator Peter Kuper’s Eisner Award-winning graphic novel Ruins is a story of love, adventure, and politics—and two lives changed forever by Mexico and the monarch butterfly.

“Kuper’s art is, page after page, astonishing.” —Jules Feiffer

Samantha and George are about to launch into a sabbatical year in the quaint Mexican town of Oaxaca. For Samantha, their journey to this historic town is about fulfilling a lifelong dream; for George, it is an unsettling step into the unknown. As the couple embark on their adventure, a monarch butterfly begins its arduous migration south from the United States to Mexico . . . It is a challenging journey—a flight that requires remarkable endurance and a will to survive.

Beneath Oaxaca’s picturesque and serene veneer—the 16th-century architecture, the nearby ruins—it is a town shaken to the core by political unrest. As the monarch butterfly makes its challenging journey south, political events threaten to change the town forever. What’s more, personal events look like they will alter the paths of Samantha and George for good.

Ruins masterfully captures the shadows and light of a troubled country steeped in history and culture, weaving together personal, political and natural dramas into a thrilling portrait of life south of the Rio Grande.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781914224188
Publisher:	SelfMadeHero
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	595,228
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Peter Kuper’s work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad, where he wrote and illustrated “Spy vs. Spy” for 26 years. In 1979 he co-founded World War 3 Illustrated, a political comix magazine that is still published to this day. He has produced over two dozen books including Sticks and Stones, The System, Diario de Oaxaca, Drawn to New York, adaptations of many of Franz Kafka’s works including The Metamorphosis and the short story collection Kafkaesque as well as Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. Translations of his work have appeared in Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Slovenia, China, Brazil, Poland, Sweden, Israel, Turkey, Germany and Mexico. Peter has lectured and exhibited his work extensively throughout the world and teaches Harvard University’s first class dedicated to graphic novels. He was the 2020-21 Jean Strouse Fellow at The New York Public Library’s Cullman Center and received a 2022 Yaddo residency.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/07/2015
This magnificent graphic novel by Kuper (The Metamorphosis, World War III) follows an American couple who decamp for Oaxaca, Mexico, for a sabbatical and creative recharge, only to get far more than they bargained for. Samantha is excited to find a new, quiet locale for writing her book while unemployed painter George can barely contain his anxiety. Meanwhile, a wordless parallel story follows a monarch butterfly on its lengthy journey south from the U.S. to Mexico. The pairing somehow works, though the elegant, aching beauty of the endangered butterfly’s symbolic flight over a series of woeful disasters—from farm worker inequality to the devastation of post-Katrina New Orleans—can’t help but overshadow Samantha and George’s more mundane story, even after they’re caught up in political unrest and the temptation of adultery. Partly autobiographical, Ruins was inspired by two years Kuper and his family spent in Oaxaca during the long, bloody teachers’ strike of 2006, during which police killed several protesters and a U.S. journalist. Richly illuminated by Kuper’s trademark light touch with relationships and steely political acumen, it’s a beautiful, epic roman à clef about the importance of seeking the new and questioning the old. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Maybe you've never been to Oaxaca, Mexico before, or maybe you know it like the back of your hand - either way, Peter Kuper's beautiful, immersive graphic novel is the next best thing to being there. Gorgeous art, high stakes themes and a plot with a surprising twist combine to transform this pivotal moment in the lives of a culture, a country, a couple, and a butterfly into a timely and illuminating journey from North to South and back again"

author of The Jaguar’s Children John Vaillant

"Maybe you've never been to Oaxaca, Mexico before, or maybe you know it like the back of your hand - either way, Peter Kuper's beautiful, immersive graphic novel is the next best thing to being there. Gorgeous art, high stakes themes and a plot with a surprising twist combine to transform this pivotal moment in the lives of a culture, a country, a couple, and a butterfly into a timely and illuminating journey from North to South and back again"

author of The Jaguar's Children John Vaillant

"Maybe you've never been to Oaxaca, Mexico before, or maybe you know it like the back of your hand - either way, Peter Kuper's beautiful, immersive graphic novel is the next best thing to being there. Gorgeous art, high stakes themes and a plot with a surprising twist combine to transform this pivotal moment in the lives of a culture, a country, a couple, and a butterfly into a timely and illuminating journey from North to South and back again"

author of The Jaguar���s Chil John Vaillant

Kuper’s interplay between rich color palettes and stark monochrome pages bring to life both the lush landscapes and harsh daily realities of life in the country.

Tech Times

"Ruins is Peter Kuper's experiences living in Oaxaca, Mexico colliding with an abiding fascination with insects woven into an epic graphic novel. Kuper illustrates the remarkable ability of the Monarch butterfly to survive, beauty intact, in the face of astonishing hurdles and illuminates the equal perseverance of the Mexican people and their culture.

author of Adventures Among Ants Mark Moffett

"Ruins is a masterpiece of visual imagery and poignant storytelling. Kuper weaves an elegant tapestry of colorful human lives juxtaposed with the multi-generational monarch butterfly migrations. I recommend this extraordinary book to fellow travelers and everyone interested in the survival of the monarchs."

co-author of The Forgotten Pollinators Stephen Buchmann

"Maybe you've never been to Oaxaca, Mexico before, or maybe you know it like the back of your hand - either way, Peter Kuper's beautiful, immersive graphic novel is the next best thing to being there. Gorgeous art, high stakes themes and a plot with a surprising twist combine to transform this pivotal moment in the lives of a culture, a country, a couple, and a butterfly into a timely and illuminating journey from North to South and back again"

author of The Jaguar’s Children John Vaillant

With a monarch butterfly serving in the role of all-seeing observer flying poetically above it all, the constantly remarkable Peter Kuper details the travels and travails of a creative New York couple who move to Oaxaca to find inspiration and revitalize their lives. Kuper’s art is, page after page, astonishing.

Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer

Ruins is a book rich with beauty and important ideas, and it’s just a lovely book from cover to cover. . . . It’s a special work of comics art.

Comics Bulletin

His detailed and richly colored drawings of life in Oaxaca bring authenticity to the troubled relationship of Samantha and George.

Shelf Awareness

Sumptuously printed and designed, Ruins is a luxury book.

New York Observer

Touched with surrealism.

Entertainment Weekly