This week’s spotlight is on Shaderunners by Alex Assan and Lin Darrow.
Updates: Wednesday and Saturday
Recommended if you liked:Legend of Korra, BACKLASH!, Newsprints, The Great Gatsby, Robin Hood, Firefly
Shaderunners ( @shaderunnerscomic ) is a webcomic that takes place in a world devoid of colour. Literally. It reminds me of that one Goosebumps book, The Haunted School, where the photographer sends the kids into a colourless world. Only this webcomic is a 1920s-esque alternate reality where the colour has become a commodity that only the rich can afford.
From the art deco design of the website, to the slang used by characters, this webcomic embodies 1920s style -- which is obviously fitting since it’s all about prohibition. Alex and Lin have brought the idea of prohibition into new territory, where, instead of bottling up booze and selling it on the sly, the characters are Robin Hood’ing colour. (We like it a lot!) The use of spot colour and the shift in art style to tell the story of the past also add texture to the story. I particularly like how the appearance of colour after panels of greyscale really makes not only the page but the premise of the story itself ‘pop’!
I also really love that this story of “a band of characters in a 1920s prohibition style world” is also pushing back against the typically whitewashed environment of other prohibition era inspired stories. Even with a greyscale art style, the cast have clear facial features that set them apart from each other. While I can’t assume that they are direct representations of our world’s different ethnicities, since it’s set in a fictional world, I think it’s safe to say that this story shows a range of ethnicities through the characters that come from the different fictional countries.
What’s that? You want a one sentence summary? Well, this is written on the Shaderunners comic “About” page and I couldn’t say it better myself: “One part Prohibition fantasy, one part Robin Hood, and a whole lot of epic heist, Shaderunners follows a group of ragtag bootleggers and bohemians who band together in an effort to steal colour from the wealthy echelons of Ironwell’s high society.”
So what are you waiting for? Make some mischief and start reading Shaderunners!
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