Shadowman #2 Spotlight: Penciling & Inking

 

Shadowman #2 Pre-Order Cover by Annie Wu

While we're always interested in our hero Shadowman, one intriguing aspect of this new series is the way he is teaming up with Baron Samedi. Penciler and Inker Jon Davis-Hunt admits he found the venerable Baron a challenge to draw. How does one imbue personality into a skeleton? 

On the inside-front cover, Jon treats us to a close up of Baron Samedi. Notice all those rough edges, irregularities and details Jon builds into the grinning skull. See how his hair seems to be billowing, as if the Baron is dancing. And how about that point of light in an otherwise dark and empty eye socket. 

If you ask me, Baron Samedi is having the time of his afterlife. 

Oh, and in case you're hungering for more Shadowman on this page, notice him hovering behind and above the Baron. He's watching the Baron...and you.

 

 

Is Jon Davis-Hunt indulging in a little misdirection in this next panel? We see nothing of the hitchhiker save his hand and arm. Yet the jacket reminds us of Shadowman. 

The eagle-eyed viewer could point out that the man is wearing no hand-wrappings. But shorn of his Shadowman trappings, this could be our man Jack Boniface.

 

This seems like a perfectly domestic scene, doesn't it? Yet the back of the childrens' heads are inked out, while the fading sunlight shines on the parents' heads. Why does the girl's hair look so wild?

The slightly tilted panel above begets the even-more tilted panel below. The girl's hair looks even more bedraggled. Such film noir visual touches suggest that this family may not be as ordinary as they seem.  

Perhaps the heat has made the girl and the hitchhiker's longer hair look straggly. Perhaps they've both sweated a lot. Still, what does the way it falls around the hitchhiker's face in loose strands, rather than in sheets, say to you?

While the mother's hair seems unaffected by the heat, her expression changes when the hitchhiker draws a knife. Her lips widen into a sinister rictus, reminding us of villains such as The Joker. Lines appear that almost transform her face into a mask. 

Her eyes change. Pleasing ovals become angled and warped. One pupil rises higher than its companion.

The children transform too. Are we really seeing them anymore? Or are other beings taking control of this once-so-appealing family?

At last, we have stepped from film noir into full-blown horror. Have we also stepped from Shadowman into "The Exorcist"? Jon Davis-Hunt suggests that two distinct sets of personalities ride inside the station wagon.

Need I go on, and show how Jon Davis-Hunt builds personality into vehicles, buildings, and every person you will meet in Shadowman #2, regardless of their outward appearance?

Dragon Dave