“R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots.” Revised and illustrated by Kateřina Čupová. Trans. from the Czech by Julie Nováková. Written in 1920 by Karel Čapek. Lettering by Damian Duffy. Rosarium. $32.99. December 2024. 264 pages. All ages.
Thanks to Fables Books, 215 South Main Street in downtown Goshen, Indiana, for providing Commons Comics with books to review.
Check Fables out online at www.fablesbooks.com, order over the phone at 574-534-1984, or email them at fablesbooks@gmail.com.
Full disclosure: I contributed to the Backerkit campaign to help Rosarium release this book, and Rosarium’s founder, Bill Campbell, is a friend from college.
Karel Čapek is a foundational voice in the literature of the Czech Republic, but not as well known to most of the rest of the world. His main claim to fame is linguistic: he and his brother coined the word “robota” for his 1921 play, “R.U.R.,” or “Rossum’s Universal Robots.” The many versions and adaptations of this classic dystopian work include a 1922 Broadway production with young Hollywood film star Spencer Tracy, and a 1938 BBC television series, arguably the first science fiction show on television.
To Čapek, robots were not giant, clanking tin cans with monotone voices, but more organic beings. In his original vision, robots were much closer to humans, uncanny replacements for workers increasingly dehumanized by assembly lines and other pressures of mass production:
