Shadecraft #1 from Image Comics released on March 31.
Shadecraft is the story of Zadie Lu a teenage girl who’s life is not at all what she wants it to be. There are family issues and school issues, and for her, looking forward to college means her nickname “Crazy Zadie” might be edgy rather than pathetic.
I really want to avoid spoilers here since you really need to read this issue to get it, but let me just say that the ending panels had me going “what the what?” loud enough to draw my kids attention.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the title might have something to do with the evil shadows that are hell bent on eating Zadie. And again, that reveal…woooo. There are clearly some family issues that go even farther than you might originally think.
I was really interested in this story right from the first time I heard about it, well, saw it on twitter really, and I’m glad that it doesn’t disappoint. I’m not generally a fan of the “teenager saves the world” trope, so I’m actually a bit surprised I did like this so much. I’m hoping it stays in the Venn diagram of teen and cool and doesn’t take a sharp left into the decidedly cheesy area that I’ve seen some other comics hit in the past.
While I could go on about Henderson’s writing, what I really want to focus on the most is Lee Garbett’s art. His drawings make this story, and they really push the emotions here in the best way. I’m really excited to see what the pair of them do going forward.
