Planetary crisis, mental health, and giant monsters: Top Shelf welcomes the inaugural title from artist Daniele Aquilani and writer Ricky Lima
JUNE XX, 2024, (PORTLAND, OR) — Time to defeat the invaders from beyond.
Top Shelf Productions is proud to announce UNDERGROWTH, the jaw-dropping YA graphic novel from rising star writer Ricky Lima and artist Daniele Aquilani, featuring colors by Yuliia Shevtsova, and letters by the Award-Winning Andrew Thomas (Quick Stops).
Packed with captivating character designs, epic-scale battle scenes, and thorny questions, Undergrowth is a story about kids who are trying to do the impossible… and just might pull it off.
The world is being ravaged by four terrifying robotic monsters. One fateful night, a group of friends venture out to watch a meteor shower and come face to face with doom… only to find that their story is just beginning.
Returned to life by a mysterious natural power, these young adults are chosen to bear the only weapons that might turn the tide against the invaders: ancient, towering forest entities which they can pilot from within! They’re enormously powerful… but when you’re struggling with the trauma of your own death, is that really the best time to become a living weapon of mass destruction?
“Every character in this book (even the robot!) is affected by trauma in some way and the way each one deals with it is different,” said Ricky Lima. “My goal was to have people read this book and enjoy the big action scenes, but also hopefully see a bit of themselves in one of the characters. I tried to present both good and bad ways of dealing with trauma. Not that the book gives anyone answers or tools to deal with their issues, but hopefully by having something outside of themselves a reader can start thinking about how they deal with trauma.”
“As soon as Ricky told me about the story he wanted to tell, I fell in love with the concept and all the characters, so I had a lot of fun designing the world and then shaping it, page after page,” said Daniele Aquilani. “I really hope I was able to translate how everything felt alive to me; how there is this constant sense of clinging to life when the protagonists face an actual threat but also in quieter moments when they interact with each other. This is what I was thinking while I was drawing Undergrowth, and this is what I tried to communicate.”
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