The Tusks Of Wusterim

The Tusks of Wusterim, at first read, presented a simple comic describing the rise and fall of an alien empire. Once the reader examines the comic, he will see the depth contained within the few panels. The author uses elements throughout the comic to prove that empires thrive when those who built its foundation take power. The comic begins with an empire which has built tusks as a symbol of their power. A man of high authority within the empire commissions the tusks and stands as the foreground of the panels to begin. As the story progresses, slave creatures begin to take the foreground. As the slave people come more into focus in the panels they also come more into focus within the empire. The reader soon discovers that the slave people
who revolt against the empire constructed the tusks. The empire falls to the slave people because they created the empire’s foundation.
The author plays out the theme by focusing on the use of color. In the beginning of the comic, the colors of the panel match the colors of the empire’s people. The background in the beginning focuses on browns, off white tusks, and hints of green grass in the back. As the story progresses, the colors of the panels begin to reflect the colors of the slaves. The author presents the grass more apparent and a deeper shade of green to match the skin-color of the slaves. The tusks take on a pure white form to symbolize the purity of having the people who built the empire rule over it.
The theme of oppressed rising to defend what they have created identifies with many elements in the comic. The foreground of the panels and the colors vividly displayed two major ways that the author demonstrated the theme.