Shadowman 1 Featured Art Feature 

Exclusive: A Look Inside the Making of “Shadowman” #1

By | March 17th, 2021
Posted in Art Feature | % Comments

One of the classic characters for Valiant Entertainment is Shadowman. Despite his pedigree, the character, once the host of the greatest music/comics crossover of all time, has been missing from the publishing schedule since 2018. But Valiant is bringing the title back in a big way in April, led by writer Cullen Bunn (“Harrow County,” “The Sixth Gun”) and artist Jon Davis-Hunt (“The Wild Storm,” “Clean Room”).

Bunn, Davis-Hunt, and senior editor Heather Antos have graciously given us their time, as well as their raw materials, to walk us through the first three pages of “Shadowman” #1. We get Bunn’s script, Davis-Hunt’s layouts and inks, Jordie Bellaire’s colors, and Clayton Cowles’ letters, as well as commentary from Antos, to show our readers how this comic came to life.

Thank you for everyone at Valiant for making this possible, and make sure to pick up the issue next month!

Cover by Jon Davis Hunt
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Jon Davis-Hunt
Colored by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by Clayton Cowles

From the bestselling master of horror Cullen Bunn (Venom) and bone-chilling artist Jon Davis-Hunt (Clean Room) comes a shocking supernatural odyssey.
Jack Boniface is SHADOWMAN, a powerful protector who keeps humanity safe from the demons that claw at the fabric of our reality.
The forces of darkness are awakening and they are hungry for life. Will Shadowman be able to save us all, or will the darkness devour the world as we know it?

PAGE 01

CULLEN BUNN (WRITER): With the first page, I wanted to set up the Deadside, both for long-time readers and new readers, as succinctly as possible. This other realm is so vital to the series, and it has been portrayed in a number of different ways. But this was our way of establishing the mood of the series and of the Deadside right away. It’s dark. It’s dangerous. And — even though it is hidden from us — we all have a little of it deep inside. That idea plays to some of the themes presented later in the issue. It’s an idea that I play with in a lot of my work, this notion of our world just being a disguise over a much more horrible truth.

And speaking of disguises, the mask imagery is presented right away. First of all, it helps establish the setting. That mask screams New Orleans to me. It also ties into the theme of veils and disguises which runs throughout this issue.

The tone, the images, the blood and the nasty teeth, of course, lets us know without a doubt that this is a horror comic.

JON DAVIS-HUNT (ARTIST): What I immediately took away from this page of the script was that Cullen wanted to have this clear contrast, of flashing back and forth between the Deadside and our own realm of reality.

Because we would be jumping back and forth between two distinct places, (and between different elements within each of these), I wanted some way of orientating the viewer, so they had at least some grasp of what was going on. My first thought was to have the shots of the Deadside as a single point of focus, that was zooming in with each panel (centred upon that final shot of the ghoul beneath the surface of the water). With that idea in mind, I worked backward from that final panel, pulling the camera back and out with each previous panel.

Initially in the script, I think it only had the Deadside element as 3 panels and when I roughed that out, I was only able to raise the POV up to about the height of a building. I really wanted to have the opening shot be higher and more dramatic, so I asked Heather and Cullen if they minded if I instead, split the sequence into 4, (just so I could get that extra bit of height in the first panel), which they were cool with.

I also decided to make the Deadside panels full page width, which added to the panoramic feeling of the shot and helped differentiate between the smaller, tighter panels that were all from our reality.

Continued below

PAGE 02 – 03

CULLEN BUNN: Now that we know this is a horror book, we wanted to make sure readers knew it was a superhero book, too, so we have this great action scene where Shadowman is throwing himself at the demon. We know right away that Jack is a guy who will face these supernatural dangers head-on!

We get some more narration here, this time summing up Shadowman’s role in our supernatural world. By the end of this double-page spread, you might not know everything about the character, but you should have a pretty good idea of what he’s all about.

We also get to see a glimpse at some of his powers. We see that he can take some punishment and shrug it off pretty easily. We see the scythe. How could you miss it? And we see that it phases in and out of the world… like a shadow. We see that he has some control over shadows themselves. Some of these abilities are new. But we’re not spending pages and pages trying to describe them. We show enough that readers know how they work. We want readers to be immersed in the world right along with Jack.

And the demon! Let’s talk about that design! What a terrifying and unique beast Jon has given us here. And it’s just the first couple of pages. Everything that comes after is just raising the bar. And Jon set it pretty high from the start!

JON DAVIS-HUNT: This was a hard double spread to do initially, just because it was the first time I would be drawing everything on the page – the first appearance of Shadowman, first appearance of a demon, first use of powers etc. There was a lot going on, all in one double-page spread so it was quite daunting!

However, Cullen did a great job describing the action and the environment, so I just took it step by step. I never mind drawing lots of panels on a page (in fact, I quite enjoy it) and I think I even added a few extra? I believe the script says 8 and we ended up with 12? The key for this was the opening shot really, getting the Demon right and making Shadowman look suitably cool and lithe. I wanted plenty of movement and detail in there, so I kept the Demon hunched over, (so I could draw Shadowman larger than I intended in the roughs) and also tried to capture Shadowman ‘mid-leap’. I also added in the extra panels, just to get those little pauses in and illustrate early on in the series, exactly how Shadowman manifests his scythe from the shadows around him.

Designing the Demon was heaps of fun – I went with Cullen’s original suggestions, which provided some great ideas and just ran with them. I tried to incorporate some elements from Shadowman’s costume too (such as the bandages and rending of bone) just so that there is a subtle indication that their powers somehow originate from the same source.

HEATHER ANTOS (SENIOR EDITOR): There’s a saying that goes something like, “There are no small roles, only small players.” That may be well and true for the characters we encounter on the page… but one can argue that the first couple pages of a comic — especially a first issue — might be some of the most important of an entire series. No pressure, right? Luckily, with an amazing team of Cullen, Jon, Jordie, and Clayton, I knew Jack Boniface was in excellent hands.

Right from go, it’s important to introduce (or re-acquaint) our readers with WHO Shadowman is — a hero bonded with the abilities of a Voodoo Loa, responsible for protecting the world of the living from the world of the dead. No one can compete with Cullen Bunn’s mastery of writing horror comics, but where Cullen really shines here is also introducing us to Jack Boniface as a superhero in a horror story. And adding Jon Davis-Hunt’s amazing layouts and inks bring the nitty grisly detail (down to each window pain and drop of blood) mixed with superhero action, this first sequence really shows off Jack’s powers in a flashy yet realistic way.

But for me, the horror really sings in the colors of this series. And there are no colorists working today quite like the amazing Jordie Bellaire. I mean, there’s a reason she’s won two Eisners for her color work. Right away she sets a mood with her palette of the darkness of Shadowman’s world. Using the power of contrast and pops of red, the grisliness of this opening battle feels grim, horrific, and quite simply, bad ass.

Topping of the page are Clayton Cowles’ expertisely placed balloons and captions. Often an underrated craft, Cowles’ skills as a letterer should never go unremarked-upon. From the floating text on the opening page to ease us into the horror of the Deadside, to the battle exclamations on the double-page spread, a single misplaced balloon or poor choice in font could throw off the entire flow of the scene. With proper choices, what we ended up with is an excellent introduction into the harrowing journey Jack is about to find himself on…


Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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