Horror stories have a very interesting place in popular culture, no matter what time period you live in. We use horror stories to process, confront, and talk about the things that scare us at this specific time and use them to accomplish a multitude of important psychological needs. Whether it’s a Medieval morality play or an eighties slasher flick, good horror knows how to reach deep into an audience’s brain and find the one thing that scares and thrills them the most.
With that said, let’s take a look at “Shadecraft” #1 and see what horrors lurk for us in the shadows.
Written by Joe HendersonCover by: Lee Garbett
Illustrated by Lee Garbett
Colored by Antonio Fabela
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Zadie Lu is afraid of her own shadow. She’s a teenager, so she REALLY should have grown out of it by now, right? But something weird is happening in her small town. Zadie could swear the shadows are coming to life. Watching her. Trying to KILL her. But how do you fight something you can’t even touch? And how does all of this tie into her FAMILY, of all things?From the creative team that brought you the Eisner-nominated SKYWARD, writer JOE HENDERSON (showrunner of Netflix’s Lucifer) and artist LEE GARBETT (Captain Marvel). Join Zadie Lu as she ventures into the shadows to face her fears and discovers a legacy she never knew she had.
Growing up can be a scary, awkward, and painful experience. For Zadie Lu, it’s especially awkward and painful. She doesn’t seem to fit in, she constantly worries about what other people think of her, and to top it all off her brother is in a coma for some unknown reason. And as if it wasn’t bad enough, there seems to be some sort of shadow monster hunting her. Why this is happening, we don’t know, all we do know is that the monster is real, there’s something dark and unknown going on behind the scenes, and nobody else seems to believe Zadie when she tries to tell them what is happening.
“Shadecraft” #1 is written by television showrunner Joe Henderson, and his storytelling chops are on full display here. Henderson shows a keen understanding of character development, setting, and laying the foundation of the story for future issues. There is a keen understanding that the horror of the setting is based on familiar and relatable fears, and Zadie feels very familiar and very relatable. Henderson does a very good job of showing just how alone and awkward Zadie is and how she doesn’t seem to fit in very well at school. She’s strange, quirky, and constantly stresses over her image and how her peers and friends perceive her, and any attempts where she tries to fix things just wind up making things worse. On top of the school drama, her home life isn’t the best either. Zadie’s family is going through an emotional rough patch with her brother stuck in a coma, and the stress of having to take care of a loved one who might not be coming back is starting to mount. It’s the perfect storm of stress and insecurity that is ripe for strange and scary stuff to happen, and while we don’t know exactly what is going on, the book does a great job of promising more fears and chills in future issues.
While the foundation of “Shadecraft” #1 is solid and Henderson has a keen sense of character development, there are some problems in the details of the script. While Henderson is keen on writing Zadie to be as awkward as possible, there are some places in the script where it feels like it could be pulled back a bit. This is a very roundabout way of saying that Zadie talks constantly throughout the story and there are times you just want her to shut up and let the comic breathe. Granted, this is a pretty small issue, and any annoyance at Zadie’s motormouth will vary from reader to reader, but it feels like the writer doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in the medium of comics and feels like he has to constantly explain what’s going on instead of letting the book tell the story on its own.
Continued belowLee Garbett provides the artwork for “Shadecraft” #1 and he has a fantastic style for young adult horror stories like this one. Garbett’s character work brings an interesting blend of western anatomy and movement while their faces look like they have traces of manga influence in their faces. It gives the characters a very natural sense of movement while allowing for simple facial features and deceptively complex expressions and emotions. Garbett also brings a very heavy and dark line to the book, which is further enhanced by Antonio Fabela’s deep and rich colors. It all comes together to create a beautiful book that is pretty to look at and drips with atmosphere.
Speaking of atmosphere, the greatest strength of “Shadecraft” #1 is when the horror elements come to play. The dark lines and rich colors do a brilliant job of enhancing the dark and brooding terror that lurks just outside of Zadie’s eyeline, and when it comes time to finally meet the monster Garbett and Fabela do some of their best work. Without spoiling anything that you can’t see on the cover, the monster is a creature of shadow and looks and behaves in different and interesting ways. In one panel it’s sharp and angular, like a well defined shadow close to a light source while in another panel, it looks like a formless blob of water color paint that is trying to kill you. It’s a wonderful bit of monster design that understands how to be scary and how to use the surroundings of the setting and the story to its advantage.
“Shadecraft” #1 is a great beginning to what promises to be an interesting horror story. It’s helmed by a creative team that understands how to tell a good horror story, and while there are some moments where it would probably be best to just let the art tell the story, the characters are interesting and the mystery monster promises to be a lot of fun.
Final Verdict: 8.3- While there are some moments where it feels like the story is talking too much, it’s still a well written, well paced story with some great art and creepy imagery.
