Shadecraft #2

Shadecraft #2

Image Comics 2021

Written by Joe Henderson

Illustrated by Lee Garbett

Coloured by Antonio Fabela

Lettered by Simon Bowland

As if surviving high school wasn’t hard enough, now Zadie has to contend with killer shadow monsters too. On the upside, her own shadow has come to life and is determined to protect her. So that should even things out…right? But what is up with the new school guidance counselor, who seems to know a lot more than she lets on?

I am a huge fan of this book even if it is only the second issue. The concept alone is fascinating and so far how Joe’s manage to convey so many different emotions and feelings that the characters possess and transfer them to the reader along with a few that the reader experiences that the characters don’t is pretty amazing. I like how we see this issue open with Zadie’s parents waiting in her room for her wake up, that’s pretty ballsy actually as most parents would wait until they were in the kitchen or downstairs to do what they did. I also find it interesting to learn about what happened to Ricky and the catalyst of is coming back.

I am immensely enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is perfectly laid out. The character development is sensational as we see the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter continue to further their characterisation. I am particularly fond of how Zadie and Ricky’s brother and sister dialogue continues to unfold and how much they actually mean to one another. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it is easy to see just bloody interesting the story keeps becoming.

I am rather fond of the way that this is being structured as the layers within the story continue to grow, strengthen and emerge. There are threads that keep popping up that really make the reader sit up and take notice of what’s happening. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it movies eh story forward that is achieved extremely well.

The interior artwork here is great to see. The linework and how it’s varying weights and techniques are utilised to create this level and quality in the detail work that we see is astonishing. The work with the shadows alone is utterly brilliant and with the different shades of black to dark blue being seen to really make this stellar impact is beyond what one should expect to see. I do wish we would see more backgrounds but we need the walls to showcase the shadows so it’s a fair trade off. Regardless, the way we see depth perception, the sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is extremely well done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is utterly bloody brilliant to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work showcase a stellar eye for how colour can work to change the perceptions in what we see.

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The story is already ever changing and evolving and I have to say that the revelation that comes with this stunning cliffhanger ending is the perfect example of that. There are a a lot books out there to read and I know a lot of folks are reading this one but this really is among the better titles you could be reading.