Insect Lands

[Triplicate]

As a child, my favorite creatures to anthropomorphize were insects, particularly grasshoppers. I drew them with all the trappings of human civilization. There was never interaction with humans to the level of Antz or even A Bug's Life. Sometimes, the insects were said to be on real continents, but after some time, I decided that they ruled their own places on Earth. My concepts were inconsistent and never fully realized.

What follows are some maps from the "Insect Lands Atlas", circa 1995-96, when I was 10. Like most projects I started, this one was never completed. Still, it stands as the largest effort I made to organize my concepts. Much of the geography didn't exist until I made it for this atlas (note the crossed-out location on one of the maps...)

Overall maps:
CCI16062012_00001.jpegCCI16062012_00002.jpeg
Some individual lands:
CCI16062012_00003.jpegCCI16062012_00004.jpegCCI16062012_00000.jpeg

And before you say anything about one of the names, no, ladybugs weren't Jewish.

[arsheesh]

Wow, this brings me back in time. I remember making maps like this when I was that age. Nice little trip down memory lane.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Veldehar]

I fear grasshoppers (bad guys) were at war with crickets (good guys) in my world round about that age, heh heh.

[occam99]

In my book "The Hoppery Sea" = Win. Thanks for sharing these.

[Lyandra]

I sometimes think that when we grow up we lose something of that priceless "spontaneity of expression" we possessed as children. I love your works for bringing it back to us. Thanks for sharing your past! I could just now see myself as a child doing those, completely entranced by the task at hand.

[Triplicate]

A few notes about how I saw these places:

Insect Land was a multispecies civilization, though grasshoppers were clearly dominant. It was here, not Grasshopper Land, that was my default setting.

I can't find it, but I had an earlier version of an Insect Land map that looked totally different. The regions had mostly straight-line borders like a colonial country. I only realized after drawing it that, since most of the external borders were also geometric, this meant it had land borders with other nations. Since that wasn't how I thought of it, I ignored that map when making the Atlas. Just as a reminder of how you don't realize why maps look the way they do until later.
Incidentally, that Insect Land map showed large (for the size of the country) oil fields. Yes, insects clearly used petroleum, but steam trains and sailing ships were still common technology.

As you may gather, tiger beetles were the Evil Empire (TM), with a totally militarized society and possessing many WMDs. I didn't do too much with them. Despite an early interest in military technology, conceiving whole wars seems to be beyond what I usually did at that age.