The crisply animated textures of illustrator Joshua Humphries in his freshly new graphic novel series, “BiggaDreadnauts,” delight the eyes while the range of his imagination may impress the human spirit.
The storyteller begins mysteriously with full-page panels lacking words until it is found to be the glimpse of a sinister pharaoh’s nightmare. Actually, Humphries describes his characters as archetypal while containing similarities of various pantheons, but “with a slant on the slave element of Atlantis.”
Also recognizable, are subtleties of the Rastafari path, which give life to his ancient “roots rebels.” Only this movement is happening in the ancient world in the time of Noah.
The sinister pharaoh is actually a fallen angel with clipped wings overseeing slave operations that mine crystal wealth. Another nonverbal interlude of mysterious dark pages takes the reader into the massive tree housing.
By Joel Brown,
Staff Writer
The crisply animated textures of illustrator Joshua Humphries in his freshly new graphic novel series, “BiggaDreadnauts,” delight the eyes while the range of his imagination may impress the human spirit.
The storyteller begins mysteriously with full-page panels lacking words until it is found to be the glimpse of a sinister pharaoh’s nightmare. Actually, Humphries describes his characters as archetypal while containing similarities of various pantheons, but “with a slant on the slave element of Atlantis.”
Also recognizable, are subtleties of the Rastafari path, which give life to his ancient “roots rebels.” Only this movement is happening in the ancient world in the time of Noah.
The sinister pharaoh is actually a fallen angel with clipped wings overseeing slave operations that mine crystal wealth. Another nonverbal interlude of mysterious dark pages takes the reader into the massive tree housing.
The roots rebellion, who have been snatching slaves from the mine while impervious to a crystal frequency, intended to keep them in control. His finely etched organic textures get even wilder in their shadowy wooded realm. He shows the visual vastness of the narrative locations with excellence and employs multiple perspectives in action-sequences that practically fly off the page.
Humphries’s intent is to really build the world around these rebels and the escape from the doomed pit below the crystal mine. He also develops the idea of an “Arcmeteor,” which he imagines as the remains of the vessel that bound the fallen angels. They are encased in the earth but still giving the roots rebels hope to get it to take off and fly—the idea of the root’s sister, “Orca Love,” who is an ancient time traveler who speaks whale!
Finding a more cleverly crafted storyline will be a steep challenge this fall. The quickest way to more information is Joshua Humphries’s personal webpage at www.myspace.com /biggadreadnauts.
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