Sha: The Shadow One synopsis
We're thinking about a Kickstarter to bring you a deluxe edition
Yesterday I gave you some of the background on how Sha came about, the inspiration for it, how aligned it is with classic 2000AD, and how impressed I was with Olivier Ledroit’s sketches and ideas. I also briefly mentioned our idea – mine and Lisa’s, with Olivier’s enthusiastic blessing – to run a Kickstarter campaign for an English language edition.
Sha has never been published in the UK. Heavy Metal ran it in their magazine in the US over twenty years ago and they also published a rather poor trade paperback, but it is long out of print.
I count it as one of my ‘lost stories’, and it never got the love it deserved.
So our dream is to produce a really beautiful hardback edition with a dust jacket, foil detail on the cover and spine, end papers, and a marker ribbon. The trim would be 223mm x 297mm, which is a little larger than the ABC Warriors Mek Files collection for comparison
If we ran a Kickstarter campaign for a deluxe edition – exclusive to KS – would you support it? I need to get an idea of how much support this campaign would have, so Lisa and I can crunch the numbers and commit the time to it.
Before you decide, check out the synopsis and some of the pages, below. The artwork has blank balloons: we’ve included scans of my original scripts alongside each page of strip art so you can read along. And don’t forget to leave a comment – we want to know what you think! Many thanks!
~ Pat
SYNOPSIS
Sha 1: The Shadow One
France, the Sixteenth Century. A sixteen year old girl, LARA, is tortured and burnt as a witch. Her persecutors are: THE LORD, THE PRIEST, THE MONK, THE TORTURER and her best friend DOMINIQUE who betrayed Lara to save her own life. Lara accuses them all of being possessed by demons, vows vengeance, and calls on the Goddess to help her. In response, the steel band around her neck tightens involuntarily – ending her pain. We see her spirit ascend from the flames and travel through time and space.
Death has no power the immortal soul to slay
That when its present body turns to clay,
Seeks a fresh home; and with unlessened might
Inspires another frame with light and life
Ovid
Lara’s spirit descends through a break in the clouds into New Eden, an alternative New York. A nightmare, art-deco, science-fiction city in a state of civil war where criminals convicted of illegal cyber-sex – controlled by erotic robot gangster Sulfura - are sent to the electric chair on the Execution Show.
We meet arms dealer ADAMS, engaged in his unpleasant business, and recognise him as THE LORD who ordered the death of Lara. A beautiful female ghost – SHA – enters through an air-duct of his airship and materialises. She has been sent by the Goddess to kill him. Confronted by her, and aware they are both antagonists in an Eternal War, he cheats his fate by typing out a message “Taking Early Retirement” and throwing himself to his death.
LIEUTENANT DUFFY, an attractive hard-headed N.E.P.D. detective and WYLER, her psychic assistant, with a distinctive cyborg third eye, investigate his death. Adams was a member of New Eden’s covert rulers – the Destiny Foundation. Others may be at risk. Sha watches from the shadows.
Duffy decides to warn another member of the Foundation (Big Max) there is a killer on the loose. Driving through the streets, Duffy starts to see ordinary people as demons and thinks she is hallucinating. Sha appears to her in a vision and tells her she is not.
SHA: No. You are going sane, Duffy. You are seeing the demons who possess your world. It is this city which is insane. I am here to cure it.
Duffy ignores Sha’s voice inside her head. She has always blocked out psychic experiences.
Wyler quotes from the Talmud: ‘If the eye could see the demons that people the universe, existence would be impossible.’
The cops meet BIG MAX, a grotesque tycoon, whom we recognise as THE MONK from Lara’s past. He is convinced he is safe from any assassin – showing off his robot bodyguard and armoured car, complete with ejector seat. But Sha changes into a hare – a witch animal – and enters the car, turning back into a ghostly woman once the car heads away with Max inside. She kills Max, but the demon within him bursts out of his massive rear and attacks her.
During this, Duffy and Wyler pursue the car, trying to kill Sha, and save Big Max. The leering demon uses the ejector seat to escape, but is hit by the car’s auto-defences.
This Sha three-volume series follows Duffy’s pursuit of the occult avenger. The Shadow One tracks down and kills the demonic leaders of the Foundation as Duffy discovers the startling truth about herself. Could she be a reincarnation of Lara? And has Sha been sent to aid her? If so, is Duffy really responsible for the murders? Is the police lieutenant really hunting herself?
Yes, I will support it. As I commented on yesterday's post, the out-of-print French editions rarely turn up for sale and they pass hands for hundreds of euros. I suspect the demand is there. :-)
You’ll have my support.
Liked the synopsis.