110: Richard Ivan Jobs and Steven Van Wolputte Figure It Out As They Go

In episode 110 of the Drafting the Past podcast, Kate interviews historian Richard Jobs and anthropologist and illustrator Steven Van Wolputte. Rick and Steven teamed up to write, illustrate and create In the Land of the Lacandón: A Graphic History of Adventure and Imperialism. Part graphic history, part historical essay, part poetic commentary and more, the book not only tells the history of one moment in 20th century imperial exploration and anthropology but also takes apart the act of historical research and narration and turns it inside out for the reader. Rick and Steven discussed how they conceived of and developed the project and how they collaborated across countries. They also talked about the possibilities of historical narrative, and why the book would be a great teaching tool. And don’t miss the pretty amazing reading list they slipped in at the end.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Richard Ivan Jobs and Steven Van Wolputte, with Manuel Bolom Pale, In the Land of the Lacandón: A Graphic History of Adventure and Imperialism
• Richard Ivan Jobs, Backpack Ambassadors: How Youth Travel Integrated Europe
• Richard Ivan Jobs, Riding the New Wave: Youth and the Rejuvenation of France After the Second World War
• Manuel Bolom Pale
• Voyagers Without Trace
• Matthew Barrett and Robert C. Engen, Through Their Eyes: A Graphic History of Hill 70 and Canada’s First World War
• Joe Sacco, Journalism
• Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, The Secret to Superhuman Strength
• Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
• Michael Vann and Liz Clarke, The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam
• Nick Sousanas, Unflattening
• Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre
• Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller
• Louisa Passerini, Autobiography of a Generation: Italy, 1968
• Bonnie Smith, Confessions of a Concierge: Madame Lucie’s History of Twentieth-Century France
• Craig Thompson, Ginseng Roots: A Memoir