R.U.R. is the abbreviation of a fictitious company and the name of a theatre play of the same name, which has been heard by every Czech. Karel Čapek's story of how man destroys his own species through his vision remains a timely warning for consumer society more than a century after its publication and has been adapted countless times. It is not just theatre productions that have been staged - among its various versions, Kateřina Čupová's comic book version stands out.
The author makes the most of the advantages of the comic form. Unlike a theatre play, which often depends on unchanging sets, thanks to illustrations she can show not only the room in which the action takes place in the original script, but also the environment of the factory, the arriving ships, the crowds of people who visit the factory's surroundings, and the clouds of robots that are its main inhabitants.
The illustrations also add to the dynamism of the story. As soon as you open the book, you're greeted by colour watercolour paintings - a rarity for a medium that nowadays mainly uses digital drawings. The colour changes, however, according to the mood that prevails in each scene. While those depicting light-hearted moments are dominated by warm shades of yellow and green, serious and suspenseful scenes are awash with more aggressive reds or cool blues and purples.
In this way, the book communicates to the reader how to feel during the story without having to "overwhelm" the illustrations with a bunch of words. This also makes it friendly for both older and younger readers. She also adapts the visuals of the ending of the story to them, which is truly spectacular in Čupová's rendition even though she doesn't show any explicit content that might be inappropriate for youngsters.
It is evident in the work that the author was really sure about how and why she was working with the comic form. The illustrations add a whole new dimension to R.U.R. that cannot be seen in the theatre. At the same time, it doesn't change its essence. It gives the piece a new form and readers can enjoy it in a completely different way.
Katherine Vašíčková
ČUPOVÁ, Kateřina. R.U.R. Praha: Argo, 2020.
The review was created at the Department of Journalism of FSV UK under the supervision of PhDr. Jana Čeňková, Ph.D.