Shadecraft #3

Shadecraft #3

Image Comics 2021

Written by Joe Henderson

Illustrated by Lee Garbett

Coloured by Antonio Fabela

Lettered by Simon Bowland

Zadie has discovered the source of the shadows…and that they can be controlled. Dare she try and wield this incredible power? HELL YES she dares. And she’s damn good at it, too! But when someone Zadie cares about ends up in danger because of her, the fun and games become a matter of life or death…

What an incredible issue this is. Zadie’s new school councilor is in reality an agent for the U.S. Government and she’s there to help Zadie control her abilities, abilities that were revealed last issue to the shadows she is unintentionally creating herself. We’re starting to learn a lot of information about Shadecraft and Zadie’s abilities though very little about what it is that enables her to create them. It would seem at the moment getting her to control what she can do is of the utmost paramount so that no one is inadvertently killed or harmed by them as they react more to negative thoughts and emotions than to positive ones. The is engaging for a myriad of reasons and it raises a lot of questions for the reader that we’ll have to wait to get our answers for.

I am thrilled with 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 being done spectacularly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter shape them into who they are and whom they are becoming is spectacular to see. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story as well as setting up what’s still to come is really nice to see come to life.

How we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story continuing to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. This is where we see a lot of things taking more shape like Josh and her friendship with him or how she doesn’t know the Karate Kid’s wax on wax off saying which add depth to the characterisation we see. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so well achieved.

The interiors here are bloody brilliant to see. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the impressive detail work that we see is magnificent. How we see backgrounds being utilised throughout to enhance the moments and how they work within the composition of the panels to create this depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the book is fantastic. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is bloody brilliant as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exceptional. The shadows and how we see the range of blacks is breathtakingly gorgeous and that alone would be stunning but then how we see light sources utilised throughout is beyond what we can expect.

​

This is an amazingly complicated and yet simple book. The writing is stunningly intelligent, immensely engaging and the characterisation is phenomenal. When adding into the mix the interior artwork, and make no mistake it’s art, and you’ve really taken this to a whole new level of incredible.