Work is picking up on the Napoleon Stone adventure Ashfall by Dan Thompson, Paul Williams, Darren Brown and Paul Mclaren. Think I’m kidding? well here is a peek at the full colour version of page 1 for you to enjoy.
Comics
The Lament of Lady Mary is Complete
I am currently working hard trying to get Forgotten Warriors, the elusive sequel to Fallen Heroes, finished before we are all driving around in flying cars. However one thing I can say that is finished is ‘The Lament of Lady Mary’ which is the comic written by Pete Rogers with art and lettering by Conor Boyle. I’m very proud of the work the guys have done on this story, which focuses on Lady Mary Cademus, who is the mother of Sir Oliver Cademus. Fans of the novel will know that it was Sir Oliver who founded the Book of Cademus.
The comic will join ‘The Knights of Cademus‘ a story by Virgil Yendell and James Evans which, once the other stories, are complete will become the third Unseen Shadows anthology comic
Although we’ve not added the titles onto it here is a first look at the cover. Look out for a five page preview coming soon.
Behind the Shadows: Knights of Cademus
In this latest look at what’s going on in the world of Unseen Shadows we take a walk down a darker path with Virgil Yendell as he takes us through his work on the recently completed story ‘Knights of Cademus’ which will feature in the third Unseen Shadows trilogy.
Writing the Knights of Cademus
Finding Barry Nugent’s Unseen Shadows project at Thought Bubble one year, I was immediately intrigued by the modern take on the fantasy/pulp themes, and the different ways of accessing the story gave so much potential. After making my way through all the Unseen Shadows material I began to get a view of the mixed angles and characters from which to approach the Unseen Shadows world. In amongst the main and supporting characters that were already central to the novel and associated graphic novels I saw a chance to chase and expand on an idea I’d seen other writers touch on before. I pitched it to Barry and he gave me the green light to start work on the Knights of Cademus story.
There’s more to it but essentially the Knight of Cademus are Star Trek red shirts for the bad guys (as Barry would say) or are the Putties from Power Rangers (as my partner would say). They are the cannon fodder, the anonymous henchmen of the big bad. The red shirts have been the focus of their own novel by John Scalzi looking at how they view their cannon fodder status etc Grant Morrison paid his dues to his anonymous henchmen in The Invisibles series with a swan song story about the life that would lead someone into such a role. I loved Grant Morrison’s take and we have a few nods to it in our story but I also wanted to do more. I wanted to know how an army deals with the losses these henchmen always face in such stories. How do they deal with it personally and as strategic force? How is such a force developed?
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Behind the Shadows: The Crusader and the Soldier
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
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
Unseen Shadows 