written by Peter Kuper

I have made a point of reading just about everything that Peter Kuper (Speechless, World War 3 Illustrated) has written and drawn over the last 15 years, so I was surprised to learn that I had missed this book when it first came out in September 2009. But once I discovered my oversight, I quickly resolved it, and I'm glad I did.
 
Diario de Oaxaca is an unusual book: part graphic novel, part political treatise, part travelogue, and part art book-slash-sketchbook. The book grew from the two years Kuper and his family lived in Mexico, from July 2006 to June 2007, where they fled to avoid life under the Bush administration, America's consumer culture, and Kuper's own workaholic schedule. But their arrival in Oaxaca City and nearby San Felipe del Agua also coincided with a massive teacher's strike that, in the coming months, would boil over into violence and bloodshed.
 
The book is "told" chronologically, if "told" is the right word, starting with a preface by Kuper, then the first of several sketchbook pages drawn as they arrived in Mexico, along with Kuper's written commentary on the illustrations. (The text throughout the book is presented in both English and Spanish, in a manner similar to most art books.)
 
Although the violence of the teacher's strike is still a couple of months away at this point, the tension can already be felt as early as page 24 when anti-government posters and sign-carrying protestors start showing up in the backgrounds of the scenes Kuper draws.
 
Kuper and his family settle in peacefully, but it doesn't take long before tensions grow. Federal troops show up in October, and Kuper's sketchbooks are suddenly full of soldiers in riot gear, military vehicles, and barricaded streets. Rocks are being thrown (by both sides), vehicles burned, and helicopters flown overhead. On November 2, the first gunshots rang out.
 
Strangely, by the turn of the year 2007, all signs of the protest have been erased. Some of the teachers' demands had been met and they returned to work. Minus a few hundred wounded and arrested protestors, of course.
 
With most of the tension eased, Kuper is able to settle into being an artist in Oaxaca. He draws the local flora and fauna, the architecture, the Dia de los Muertos skulls that pervade the culture, and the people. The family travels to Mexico City, the ruins at Teotihuacán, and other cities. Meanwhile, the US State Department lifts its ban on travel to Oaxaca, freeing up the local economy. Through it all, Kuper learns to most important skill: how to relax.
 
The rest of the book is full of sketchbook drawings, observations, short comics stories, essays on street art and bugs, and more, all punctuated with Kuper's keen eye and sometimes keener wit.
 
Diario de Oaxaca could very well be Kuper's most accomplished work as an artist. Most of his comics work has traditionally been completed with nontraditional materials, like stencils, airbrushes, and collage. Here he eschews most of those techniques and instead turns to ink, watercolors, colored pencils, mixed media, and even photography. It's a vibrant book, as colorful as the culture Kuper is depicting.
 
Around the middle of the book, Kuper writes, "I've discovered that by observing and drawing my surroundings, I'm slowing the passage of time." The same thing happens while reading it. Crack the covers and immense yourself in another world.

-- John R. Platt

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