Shadecraft #4

Shadecraft #4

Image Comics 2021

Written by Joe Henderson

Illustrated by Lee Garbett

Coloured by Antonio Fabela

Lettered by Simon Bowland

Zadie discovers the truth about Shadecraft and what happened to her brother Ricky a year ago. Can Zadie pull off a desperate gambit to get her brother back? And does he even WANT to come back??

This issue is absolutely brilliant! With Zadie not trusting her parents enough to talk about everything she’s been going through she could’ve saved herself a world of hurt if she had just opened up. That however is what teenagers do right, think their parents would never understand, bottle it up and look for guidance elsewhere. Hindsight as they say is twenty twenty and while I understand completely where she’s coming from everything we see in this issue is one pound of crazy after another and from the looks of things there’s no stopping this from happening anytime soon. What Joe does with this story is keep the reader on their toes as there is no discernible way to even guess at what is going to happen next. This is phenomenal to me because it not only shows how talented and skilled of a writer he is but that he’s taken steps to write something that he wants to repeatedly wow the reader time and time again.

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 presented exceptionally well. The character development is bloody brilliant as well thanks to the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story and keeping us glued to the pages as we’re hit with surprise after surprise.

How this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, strengthen and evolve not to mention emerge depending on which avenues are explored is magnificent to see. The layers contain some intense characterisation and background information that works with or surrounds the main arc as they add depth and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well.

I love the interior artwork we’re seeing here as well. The linework is fantastic as it’s clean, crisp and with the varying weights and techniques it brings out the detail work sensationally well. Now I wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised, I get that the shadow of her brother needs a sleeker surface, or does it?, but when we see them being utilised they enhance the moments beautifully and the provide some nice depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The creativity and imagination that we see is fantastic as well and the shadows that are utilised to create things, creatures etc, are really inspired. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as gorgeous to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is impeccably rendered.

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The scene at the dinner table really sums up why left unchecked anger isn’t the solution to family squabbles, nope just best to get it all out in the open. Still it is the perfect catalyst for this family to finally sit down and actually talk to one another and finally be honest about what is happening. Better late than never right? Still with the way that this is being brilliantly written and with such amazing interiors it almost makes you wish that Shadecraft were a real thing one could possess.