Rampokan - English Edition

Indonesia declared independence on August 17, 1945. Driven from the Dutch East Indies when the Japanese landed in 1942, the Netherlands refuses to recognize this declaration and sets out to recover their colony. The Dutch government decides to send a contingent to fight those it calls ÒterroristsÓ. Among them, Johan Knevel, who was born Òin the IndiesÓ, hopes to regain the lost paradise of his childhood. He is faced with the reality of a war in which no oneÕs hands are clean. Born to a mother with Chinese Indonesian roots, Peter van Dongen set out to explore these roots and the stories of his family. He shared what he found in Rampokan, a graphic novel about the end of the colonial era and the changed relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Extensively researched and documented, and with love for Indonesian culture, Peter van Dongen has created a highlight in Dutch comic culture. ÑJoost Swarte, Dutch cartoonist, graphic designer, architect and illustrator for The New Yorker. ItÕs about time that Peter van DongenÕs masterful recreation of the Dutch East Indies was appreciated and acclaimed in English. Rampokan is much more than lived historyÑit is living history, emotive and immersive, rivetingly narrated and ravishingly illuminated. ÑPaul Gravett, comics historian and author of 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die