I’ve seen so many good graphic novels get put on Netgalley, but I hardly ever request them. The first ones I ever requested were The Damned Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Cullen Bunn. It was a weird experience, having to squint to read the text, and having to zoom in on the images so you could look at the illustrations in all of their glorious detail, but it was still enjoyable. So now, whenever I see a graphic novel that looks interesting, I request it.

Orphaned as a child and raised on the margins of society, Jack Boniface never knew his place in the world. Until he discovered it waiting for him… in a darkness far older than the reign of men…

Unbeknownst to him, Jack was fated to become the next in a long lineage of Shadowmen – mortals bound to violent voodoo spirits of immense power – that could safeguard our world against incursions from realms beyond. For years, he struggled to control the loa’s murderous urges – a battle he eventually lost. But now, after years of self-imposed exile, the man once known as Shadowman is returning home to sharpen the weapon within…and unleash a reckoning on the evils of our world that will soon send shockwaves through heaven and hell alike…

Collecting SHADOWMAN (2018) #1–3

I didn’t know this before I requested Shadowman, but it was a ‘thing’ before? Like… it’s already a story, it’s already been a graphic novel/comic book series, and when I found this out, THIS particular graphic novel made a little bit more sense. I got the feeling – when reading it – that I was missing something. And now that I know that it’s a storyline that has been done before, I got the feeling that I should have read a bit of background on Shadowman before starting this graphic novel.

The beginning of this graphic novel jumps straight into the action of there being other dimensions and there was very little backstory – hence my thoughts on how the reader should maybe be familiar with the story of Shadowman prior to reading this?

A big part of the graphic novel’s appeal to me was the concept of the world of voodoo magic. I don’t think that I have read a novel/graphic novel that deals with this type of magic, so it was interesting to explore this as a reader, and learn a little about voodoo. I googled the term ‘voodoo magic’ to see what came up, and I learnt that voodoo is a transactional type of magic. It’s a give AND take kind that was born of necessity from people who were enslaved, oppressed and forbidden to worship their own gods. I googled this AFTER reading Shadowman, but it was clear to me that Diggle had obviously done his homework on the magic and tried to steer the whole concept of the graphic novel away from mainstream ideas of voodoo.

When looking at the illustrations, it is AMAZING! There are so many vibrant colours that grasp you and pull you into the world. Even though it was on my phone, I spent a good few minutes looking at each panel to take in all of the detail that we were being shown. So props to Stephen Segovia and Ulises Arreola for creating magnificent pieces of work.

However, the one downside to this graphic novel was that it looked unfinished. Now, I know that this is the publishers fault and not Diggles or the illustrators. Or it might have even been a problem with Netgalley’s formatting team. But I looked on Goodreads to see if anyone else had had this problem, and it turned out that everyone who had downloaded it from Netgalley, had the same problem I did. When I say unfinished, I mean that the third issue of the graphic novel had no colour, no text and seemed to lack the last few pages. Issue one and issue two were perfect. Everything was intact. But issue three was just… nothing… Just blank panels.

Shadowman Vol. 1 definitely encouraged me to read more supernatural graphic novels and to branch out. It’s well-written, and exciting, with a mix of magic and horror. However, the thing that let this graphic novel down (not including it being unfinished) was the fact that I needed more backstory. I know that Shadowman has been done before, but you you still have to cater for new audiences (like me), and how are these new audiences supposed to enjoy the story if they don’t understand what’s going on?

So in the next volume, I do hope that a bit more backstory is added for new audiences’ benefit, and if I see this volume in Waterstones at any point, I’m going to have to read the last issue so that I can find out what happened at the end!

Disclaimer: this was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review