Rastaboyz.com - The Official Website

May 2010

Dread and Alive

A notorious poacher with a wide scar clean across his face corners a journalist who's written disparaging articles about him. The poacher is flanked by his armed and masked goons. It's late at night on the corner of San Francisco's Haight and Ashbury and there are no pedestrians in sight. Violence is imminent. Cut to a superhero in tights with fancy weapons coming out of his hands to make an entrance, right? Not in the inaugural issue of Nicholas da Silva's Dread and Alive. Instead the dreaded Drew McIntosh, in a particularly stunning illustration, flips through the air Capoeira-style from a Victorian home's rooftop, and beats back the would-be attackers with his bare hands. When the poacher has escaped, and the thugs no longer dangerous, their unarmed bodies heaped on the sidewalk, Drew places his hand on the journalist's wound and it heals instantly.

The first issue raises lots of questions, as it should. Is Drew McIntosh a normal man with military training? He was wearing combat boots, a T-shirt, and cargo pants when he made his rescue. Or does he have special powers? Perhaps he's an obeah or myal man, with knowledge of ancient African magic. And who is the poacher, and what does the journalist know? Some of these questions begin to be answered in the second issue and through the background story that's being added in installments on the website, www.dreadandalive.com. (Issue three should be available in the first week of June.) It's compelling stuff. We learn that Drew's a descendant of Jamaica's Maroons, the famous group of ex African slaves who beat back the British forcing a peace treaty with land and self-government rights that lives on to this day. When Drew was a child he lived for a period with the Maroons in the virtually inaccessible Cockpit Country near Jamaica's Blue Mountains. And it was there that chief Cudjoe gave Drew the sacred lion amulet.

Dread and Alive is a new type of comic, the first of its kind with a Jamaican protagonist, and it stands on its own, but it should also be particularly welcome by Reggae-lovers. It's no coincidence that Peter Tosh's birth certificate lists his last name as McIntosh, that he has a son named Andrew, and that one of his greatest albums is Wanted Dread and Alive. Nicholas da Silva is a huge reggae fan and he credits reggae with helping him through difficult chapters in his life, particularly roots rock reggae. He says that, "as I started to write the story I listened to a lot of reggae . . .so I wanted to continue to fuse that music and that message into the story". In the course of his research the author da Silva travelled to Jamaica and Cockpit Country making many friends and contacts. Jamaican characters will soon be speaking in true patois thanks to Ryan Fraser, who da Silva met on the island nation. Da Silva is not Jamaican. He comes from a mixed background. "My mom is Brazilian, my father is mixed with Cherokee, Arapaho Indian, African and Dutch." Da Silva says that when he was a kid "comic books didn't really have a lot of characters of color and so forth, you had your Luke Cage and your Black Panther." Although nowadays comics are more diverse, Dread and Alive is part of a new wave of comics challenging the insular roots of the art form. "One of my fans . . . he's a son of Maroons, they live in Seattle and we've been talking, and he comes home from school and he wants to draw Drew, you know, and that means a lot to me."

Dread and Alive blends the proud history of the Maroons with a love and respect for the environment. Drew McIntosh is a cultural anthropologist and his girlfriend Brandy is a zoologist and environmental activist. But this social activism isn't over-the-top. Nicholas da Silva doesn't forego traditional comic violence, superb illustrations, or a good old-fashioned battle between the forces of good and evil. "I was just wanting to come up with a cool story that kids could actually gravitate to, kind of give them a little bit of a lesson in life and so forth, yet not pound it over their head with it. But. . .[I also want my younger fans]. . . to be inspired by the character so that one day they could imagine themselves being that character as we do with Batman and Ironman and so forth."

Dread and Alive is also unique in that a generous percentage of its sales are going to the charitable foundation Help Jamaica. Da Silva vowed to erect a library or build a place of knowledge in his father's name. He says, "I spend a lot of time online looking for great causes and. . .[Help Jamaica] . . .was the closest one to me. Because one, it's in Jamaica, two, it's a place of knowledge. And I think. . .[many of]. . . the kids there need a place where they can go and escape. You know you pick up a book and you go and escape your everyday lives, and you're projected to another world basically, you know, and I wanted to help and be a part of that so that these kids they can go to this place, this educational center, learn and empower themselves so that they can do whatever they want to do. Have the confidence to be what they want to be."

Dread and Alive issues are available online, on iPod Touches and iPhones, as well as in traditional print. To view the comic on your iPod/iPhone you'll need to download the free Panelfly app. If your comic store doesn't carry Dread and Alive yet, ask them to order it through Haven Distributions.

A team of five illustrators and writers are responsible for each issue of Dread and Alive. The original story and concept, as well as the initial drawings, were created by Nicholas da Silva. Da Silva is best known as the founder and creative director of ZOOLOOK. Based in San Francisco, and founded in 1996, ZOOLOOK is a new media agency and studio that develops entertainment properties for the web, video, television, film and wireless. Da Silva is an also an award-winning graphic designer for hire and music producer. In 2007 Da Silva pushed the boundaries of traditional comics by launching digitally. His comic Hitless was the first to be available on Apple's original iPod, Sony's PSP, and Microsoft's Zune. Da Silva is credited with developing a method for allowing comics to be read, without sacrificing content, on handheld devices with different aspect ratios. For this development he was given an entire issue of Web Designer to give a tutorial, and for the past two years he has been listed in Web Designer's Hot 100. An expert in the use of Adobe's Creative Suite Software, including Flash and After Effects, Da Silva developed the seminal site "I Want my FlashTV", which in addition to winning awards, allowed storytellers from around the world to share Flash-generated short animations. Da Silva also produced the graphic novel Black Jesus, which is about to be made into a movie, and has launched websites for such celebreties as Wyclef Jean and Iron Chef Hubert Keller. Da Silva also creates original music, a self-taught keyboardist, his music is featured in the online version of Dread and Alive.

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