The major comic companies get enough reviews and press, it’s time for the creator-owned and indie series to get some love and judgment. Indie review takes up-and-coming indie and creator-owned series and puts them through the review process so you can confidently support the best of the small press and passion driven projects in the comic industry.

 

Project ShadowsThe Info Bit

Title: Project: Shadows #1

Genre/s: Sci-Fi

Writer: Alfred Trujillo w/ back matter prose by Cara Nicole

Art: Alfred Trujillo

Colorist: Milen Parvenov

Letters: Alfred Trujillo & Cara Nicole

Publisher: 183 Degree Studio

Number of Issues: #1 (on-going)

Page Count: 32

Price: 3.99

 

The Review Bit

project shadows-1“Where were you when the world ended?”

In the year 2050 the world has been devastated by war. The fallout from World War III between the United States and China has left the US seeing the worst of it, with death and destruction leaving the US in ruins. Forcing what few remaining survivors there are to take refuge within the skeletons of cities they once called home.

Amid the years of apocalyptic devastation, the Government saw fit to take evolution into their own hands and have created super powered being called Shadows. These individuals are hunted by every nation to be used for their own means.

One of these Shadows, an extremely powerful one named Samantha Welle, is heading back home, to try to forget what she is while seeking out a quiet existence. The story opens with Samantha waking up from a nightmare (or is it precognition?) and finding herself arriving at her destination…home. As Samantha walks through the ruins of where she grew up taking in and absorbing the visuals of what has become of society, she sees 2 men assaulting a woman. Samantha intervenes, as the men begin to overpower her she does something she vowed never to do again, tap into her wave energy. As she does so, she defeats the assailants, however this triggers the true nature of the young woman she was trying to save, and is revealed to be a humanoid designed to track down, dismember, and return the Shadows to Project 27.

project shadows-2A very interesting story with some wonderful art, both brought to you by Alfred Trujillo. Milen Parvenov’s colors well complimented Trujillo’s art. There were some panels that were simply gorgeous, nice soft colors with wonderful lines. Some of the ‘wave energy’ scenes for example just looked fantastic. Conversely, I will say that there were also some panels that I felt were shaded too darkly. It wasn’t any kind of distraction or anything like that; it just was something that stood out to me. Trujillo’s story includes some back matter written by his wife Cara Nicole, known throughout the Cosplay community as AZ Powergirl. The title of this prose is ‘WAR’, a 3-paragraph piece outlining the history of humankind’s association with war. I thought it was very well written, and was a nice way of closing out this first issue. The #1 includes sketch pages of Trujillo’s art as well as photos of Nicole cosplaying the character Jennifer Bliss. Trujillo and his 183 Degree Studio have put together a solid opening to a new sci-fi epic.

 

The Rating Bit

I was very happy with this book. Sometimes I get too jaded with major companies’ capes and tights books and just really seek the solace of a good independent title. Make it a creator-owned and self published title and I am even happier. This instance was no exception. The world that Trujillo has put before us has me asking what comes next, and how did this story get to this point. Questions I think that are important to any first issue, leave the reader wishing they already had #2 in their hand. This leads me to give Project: Shadows a solid 8 out of 10. If you would like to pick up Project: Shadows for yourself, both issue #1 and issue #2 are available at 183 Degree.