Insectopolis: A Natural History

Eisner Award winner Kuper’s (Ruins) latest opens on a conversation between two insect-curious humans headed toward an exhibit about entomology at the New York Public Library. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the city shuts down, the world shuts down, and much later, humanity seems to have disappeared entirely. Then, in majestic swarms, a vast array of insects enter the library’s breathtaking halls to peruse the exhibits dedicated to them. This ambitious work’s central premise is an extensive cultural history of insects in their relation to, interaction with, and representation by human civilization. Kuper takes special care to tell the stories of women and scientists of color who did foundational work in entomology with slim recognition. Explicating humanity’s low regard of mosquitoes alongside the awe for butterflies and highlighting the unique life cycles of the less-considered dung beetle and cicada, Kuper’s ode to the insect kingdom is extensive without being exhausting and insistently educational without feeling programmatic. Rather, it flutters and skitters from page to page, concept to concept—at a pleasing tempo that leans largely on the strength of his illustration work. At Kuper’s hand, the architectural marvels of the NYPL, scientific illustration, and reproductions of historical imagery synthesize into something simultaneously rapturous and elegiac.