{"id":17518,"date":"2025-05-13T20:28:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T00:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17518"},"modified":"2025-05-13T20:43:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T00:43:04","slug":"episode-638-peter-kuper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-638-peter-kuper","title":{"rendered":"Episode 638 – Peter Kuper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 638:
\nPeter Kuper<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_638_-_Peter_Kuper.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“What I’m going for \u2014 without being message-y \u2014 is recognition of how much the world turns because of insects. As E.O. Wilson puts it, if humans were to disappear, the world would return to its natural beauty, and if insects were to disappear, it would collapse into chaos.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With his new graphic novel, INSECTOPOLIS<\/a> (WWNorton), Peter Kuper<\/a> brings us the 400-million-year history of insects in their own words as they take a post-human tour of the New York Public Library. We talk about how Insectopolis<\/em> began when he was around 4 years old and saw the 17-year cicada brood, how Peter needed a new mode of comics-making for this book, and how he made the NYPL a key character in the project. We get into mankind’s dependence on insects, the stories of forgotten entomologists (and why they were forgotten), his experience getting a Cullman fellowship<\/a> at the NYPL during COVID and how he found all the great & secret rooms while the place was near-empty, the INterSECTS exhibition<\/a> that evolved from the fellowship and how it grew in scale, and his realization that entomologists are like comic fans. We also discuss his wife’s great advice going into this project, the fun of getting experts to vet every chapter of Insectopolis<\/em>, the alchemy that happens when people’s passions overlap, how he harnesses the dread of imminent apocalypse to make his art, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read INSECTOPOLIS<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(And go listen to our past conversations: 2015<\/a>, 2019a<\/a>, 2019b<\/a>, 2020<\/a>!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“During COVID, riding my bike to the NYPL every day, I got to see New York in a different light.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n