The legendary Peter Kuper (Spy Vs. Spy) utilizes his lifelong fascination with insects and takes readers on a nearly half a billion years of history of the impact bugs, bees, beetles and butterflies have made on planet earth.
Kuper bases Insectopolis on the hallowed halls of the New York Public Library. The human race has mysteriously disappeared, leaving insects as the dominant species. Free to roam about, a number of arthropods enter the library, eager to learn more from an interactive exhibit about themselves and how the human race loved and loathed these marvelous creatures.
There's a ton of history contained in this more than 250 page graphic novel. I'd conservatively estimate that I knew beforehand less than 10 percent of the data on entomology presented in this book. The writing is a mixture of vignettes, concise facts and in-depth theories on insect behavior. Do not expect this to be a safe book. While Kuper humanizes the insect narrators by giving them speech and a sense of humor, mankind's damage to the earth and nature's method of survival of the fittest is very much front and center in Insectopolis. The twist ending of 'The Cicada and The Tree' was heartbreaking, while what happened to the dragonfly cousin was extremely shocking.
Peter Kuper utilizes mixed media when crafting Insectopolis. You've got pencils, markers, watercolor and photography just like you would encounter if you were traversing a museum exhibit. Being set in the 21st century, there are even QR codes peppered throughout the exhibit that really work; expanding the immersive nature of the exhibit. I thought Kuper's bibliography section was so brilliant, set up to look like the library's bookstore gift shop with his sources on display instead of a boring old list of works typed up on plain white paper.
While Peter Kuper reveals the wonders of the insect world to the reader, he also crafts a mystery that is just too intriguing to be left unsolved. At the beginning of Insectopolis a pair of human siblings discuss the evolution of insects while on their way to the New York Public Library. Just before they enter the athenaeum, everyone's phones declare a terrible emergency and that all citizens must return to their homes. A few weeks later, New York is an abandoned metropolis showing signs of a terrible tragedy. As I said earlier, all of humanity is just gone. What the heck happened? I understand the irony of humanity's extinction instead of the insects who have been endangered for decades due to climate change, pollution and the introduction of cancer causing pesticides. But I really want to read the hidden story about the end of the human race, and I feel like Kuper is holding on to that for the time being.
Not exactly a book for all ages. There is a section on the sex lives of insects and some really thought provoking parts about evolution, the environment and use of bugs as food and everyday objects like silk. Did you know that silk worms are boiled alive while in their cocoons because when the moth hatches, it secretes a chemical that dissolves the threads? It's a terrible fate that has sworn me off of silk. But if adults read Insectopolis with their children, it might develop the next generation of insect researchers who might discover a way to have healthy moths and silk threads more humanely.
Definitely a read for the whole family to explore.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
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