ARROWHEAD
Here’s an exclusive look at Timothy and Andrea’s creative process. They split the work and one draws the entire backgrounds first. Then, the other draws the characters in the foreground.
Timothy Sparvero and Andrea Montano take us on a ride
Very simply, Arrowhead is ‘Moby Dick in space.’ That’s what it boils down to. The story is the same, the characters are the same, the structure is largely the same. But Arrowhead is set in the distant future where the sun has expanded and turned all the ice moons into watery moons, populated with huge mutant whales. I use lines from Melville’s novel as much as I can, and since Arrowhead takes place on a spaceship, I can still use all the nautical terms for the most part. But like any adaptation, I had to make changes. And the first thing I started with was the name of the ship, and the name of the book itself. Read more about what Arrowhead is all about.
I haven’t always loved Moby Dick. Melville’s most famous novel was assigned to me as a college student. I was an English major at Boston University, and the instructor asked us to read one novel a week for the whole semester. Moby Dick in one week! For a nineteen-year-old literature buff, it was certainly possible to read it, but not to absorb or actually understand it. Read more about how Arrowhead got started.
Moby Dick deserves to be retold
We all know the basic premise of Moby Dick. A mad captain, Ahab, embarks on a quest for revenge against the whale that bit off his leg.
But this isn’t just Ahab’s story. Ahab has fixed his fury on a massive white whale that roams the seas. Covered in scars and full of harpoon barbs, the monster appears to be almost supernatural, unkillable, and immense. Why anyone would go back to search for such a beast is the paradox at the heart of Moby Dick.
But Ahab can’t do it alone. An entire crew of sailors follows Ahab on the journey to oblivion, This is a tale that provides enless metaphors and opportuniteis for discussion and refleciton. There are still fathoms of depths left to explore in Melville’s timeless examination of the human heart. Something about the story is still beating, which is why I’m retelling it for young readers.
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