Behind the Shadows – Lady Mary in the Shadows

04/03/2014 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

With work on the one shot ‘The Lament of Lady Mary’ nearly complete writer Pete Roger looks back on his involvement with the project. Over to Pete…

Having read and loved the first novel, Fallen Heroes, I was honoured to become part of the wider creative team that Barry assembled. My first contribution to Unseen Shadows was a one shot called Fragments of Fate, centering on occult expert and adventurer Professor Napoleon Stone.

Napoleon Stone

When I was asked which other character I’d like to focus on for my next story, I knew it had to be cult leader Sir Oliver Cademus.

A knight of the first crusade and founder of the Book of Cademus, a cult it is said that continues to exert its influence today, long after Oliver’s supposed death. His return has been prophesied for several centuries by his followers.

The story I came up with was entitled The Lament of Lady Mary, and it focuses on Oliver’s relationship with his parents and in particular his Mother, the Mary of the title. Working on this one-shot meant I was able to read sections of the as yet unpublished second novel Forgotten Warriors, and it also meant I had the chance to work with artist Conor Boyle, who I’d been wanting to collaborate with since I first saw his work. It also meant I got to write a period piece, with the story being set around the time of the first crusade, which scratched a major writerly itch for me. I did lots of online research into the period, watched plenty of Game of Thrones episodes, sat in Cardiff Castle grounds making notes and listened to the Kingdom of Heaven and Robin of Sherwood soundtracks as I pulled the story together.

Cardiff Castle

I worked very closely with Barry, who edited the story, and it was great to be working with the person who created the characters and universe I was playing with, a bit like writing Spider-Man under Stan Lee’s watchful eye. Barry pushed me to ditch my initial quite obvious idea that skirted around some of the plot points raised in Fallen Heroes, giving me the confidence to dig deeper to find a more personal, and far more potent narrative that felt like an integral part of the Cademus legend. I proof read a PDF of the one-shot earlier this week, and I’m extremely proud of the story, it’s quite possibly the happiest I’ve ever been with my own writing. I feel I got the balance right here, offering a first time reader an interesting story, while also having the potential to have a real impact on someone who is already firmly immersed in the world that Barry and the other associated creators have developed. I can’t wait for it to be released, so people can see a different side of my writing and feast their eyes on Conor’s truly stellar work.

Bob Kelsey Investigates: The Return

27/02/201422/05/2016 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

Bob Kelsey is a reporter on the run from a centuries old cult he made the mistake of falling foul of. Unable to keep his reporter’s nose for a story out of other people’s business he now runs an underground blog investigating the weird, the strange and the downright surreal.

The Unseen Shadows web comic series Bob Kelsey Investigates is back in ‘The Return’ a one page story by Dan Thompson and Jake Rowlinson. Bob has faced murderous cults,monsters and all manner of dangers that lurk with the shadow in the pursuit of a great story for his blog. Today he must face the most deadly adversary he has ever found himself pitted against – The IRS.

Grab hold of your sanity and read on if you dare.

Continue reading →

Barry Nugent, Unseen Shadows Creator: The Interview

24/02/201422/05/2016 / sarawestropus / Leave a comment

The big boss and creator of Unseen Shadows has given an exclusive interview to Shared Story Worlds regarding everything from his upcoming novel to tips for a great working environment (hint…it’s whiskey).

Click the link below to read it in full.

http://sharedstoryworlds.com/2014/02/interview-with-barry-nugent-of-unseen-shadows/

Behind the Shadows: The Crusader and the Soldier

04/02/201422/05/2016 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

So here we are again with another peek behind the shadowy curtain of the our little transmedia project. This week Richmond Clements, writer of the Unseen Shadows comics Historia and Operation Solomon talks about the two lead characters from those stories – Steph Connisbee and Kathryn Monroe.

Over to you Richmond.

As I have written for both Steph Connisbee and Kathryn Monroe (with a little Victoria Sullivan thrown in), Barry has asked me to write a bit about them.

When I first came on board and was reading the novel and looking for a character to pitch for Kathryn and Steph were two who stood out for me. .

The Crusader

Kathryn Monroe

Kathryn’s nightmares were inspired by the real terrors of her former work; murder, rape, mutilation, they were not just headlines in the morning paper. Each headline brought with it past images that were burned into her subconscious. The faces of those she could not save. Kathryn saw them all, felt their pain, their frustration. Why? Why them? Each time the answer was different. A different craving that could only be satisfied with blood. – Fallen Heroes

I loved Kathryn’s entire attitude to life. The constant, vague level of disappointment she feels about humanity is something I can appreciate. But she also has a streak of hope in there that we can do better. And her willingness to do what is right, and not just what the law demands is something a writer can enjoy playing with.

Kathryn works as an investigator for a special section of the United Nations called T.O.R.C.H (Tactical, Operational Response and Control Headquarters ). Her greatest tools are her intelligence and her imagination. The way she sees a crime scene is something her colleagues cannot fully comprehend but neither can they argue with the results from her work. Kathryn has a quick mind, and a barbed tongue to match, and god help anyone who gets on the wrong side of either of them.

Whenever I went to the pub with my old karate teacher he would always sit so he could see all the exits, never allowed friends or students to come up behind him. In any given situation he was the most prepared and most dangerous person in the room (even though he never looked it) and that is how I see Kathryn. I think readers of Fallen Heroes saw about twenty percent of what Kathryn is capable of but in the next novel you will see just how dangerous she really is. – Barry Nugent

The Soldier

Steph Connisbee

“I’m still not happy about this.”

Ben remembered the last time he had seen Steph unhappy. It was six months ago. She had broken her ex-boyfriend’s arm in three places after he had made the mistake of stealing from her. – Fallen Heroes

On my first read of Fallen Heroes, it was Steph who really made an impact. Strong physically and mentally and also very funny, brave, loyal and capable. And apart from that, she had a big hole in her back story that I was able to exploit for Operation Solomon! When we first meet her in the book, Steph is working as a criminal, but her life before (and indeed, what comes next) is equally exciting.

Steph used to be a pilot in the US Navy. She flew her helicopter on deadly night missions in some of the deadliest warzones in the world. She has coaxed it into manoeuvres that almost defy physics, and are well beyond courageous. She is not just a good pilot, she is a great one. Her skill and innate, instinctive ability are without question.

Steph is my Chewbecca…loyal to a fault but will rip your arms out of your sockets if you cross her. She is one of the most moral of all the characters in the book, despite her criminal profession. Hopefully readers who enjoyed her in Fallen heroes will enjoy her even more in Forgotten Warriors as she very much takes the centre stage when it comes to the plot. – Barry Nugent

You’ll notice when I listed the strengths/ character traits of both Kathryn and Steph ‘female’ is not among them. While it is very important that they are both highly capable female characters who work in the male dominated areas of law enforcement and the military, being female is not their character. It does not define them.

Barry knew this – he wrote people, not just men and women. It seems like a simple and obvious thing to say, but it really isn’t. Far too many writers seem to think being male or female is a character trait (Gone Girl, I’m looking at you). But people are first and foremost just people.

And Kathryn and Steph are two of the coolest people I know.

Behind the Shadows: The Colour of Vengeance

15/01/201408/12/2015 / Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

Dean opened the paper and began reading the contents aloud. “Despair for I walk among you, and I am the right hand of vengeance.”

“I don’t buy it, one man couldn’t do all this,” said Dean.

Beauford looked around as the crime scene investigators began the grisly work of processing the scene. “If you want my advice, start stocking up on empty body bags and making space in the morgue, I get the feeling this guy is just getting started.” – Fallen Heroes

In this week’s Behind the Shadows we hand the reigns over to Gat Melvin, the colourist on Wrath of God. In the development of the project Gat’s use of colour was instrumental in telling the blood soaked tale of The Reverend. So without further ado…over to Gat.

Greetings, Shadow-Reader.

If you’re reading this, it means you’ve come out the other side of the psychedelic-violence and tortured roller-coaster, that is the Wrath of God.

The decision to use colour, as a visual narrator was an idea to help break up the separate timelines and eras in the Reverend’s life, dreams of a troubled childhood, hallucinations violent actions, the simplicity and truth of happiness and the concept of, ‘Reverend Vision’

There are four timelines portrayed in the story, which are:
1 – The present day

2 – The Reverend’s training

3 – The Reverend as a boy

4 – ‘The Maria Chronicle’

The bright, white-washed dream effect for The Reverend as a boy. Childhood is suppose to be a time of happiness and innocence, but for the Reverend, life has dealt him a very different hand of cards. With the change of his face,The Reverend leaves his past life to his dreams and begins to see the world as ‘the monster’.

This is where the idea of ‘Reverend vision’ was born. Remembering the film, Predator and how the alien saw in an infrared spectrum, I wanted to do something similar with the Reverend. While he sees the
sky as blue and the grass as green, violence – death, brings life to him.

When we first meet the Reverend, he’s a man in his 50’s so his ‘Reverend Vision’ is strong, highly-saturated colours and strange mixes of tones, so it became a good tie-in.

However when we go back into his past and most importantly his training, the tones are much less saturated and obscure, that he is still learning this way of violence, still learning the ‘way of the dark side’.

Why then, is his time with Maria in a mono-chrome you ask?

The Reverend knows violence, utter, bloody violence. And what does one who knows only hate and brings destruction hope for? My opinion…love. A simple word, a simple desire, the simplicity of black and white.

‘If a bird lives its whole life in a cage and all it knows, is the cage, does the bird even know the cage exists?’

His time with Maria are the best times of his life, he doesn’t need anything else, life is simple and shown through the monochromatic feel of this time.

I hope you guys have really enjoyed the story and that I’ve given you more insight into everything that is Wrath of God.

Now, ‘Go get your orange on’
– Gat Melvyn

Wrath of God is available now on Comixology