Born out of a love for dark, gritty revenge thrillers like Sin City, Oldboy, and The Crow (particularly the comics series), a love for anything Tarantino (especially revenge flicks like Kill Bill and Django), and shamelessly raunchy and provocative crime-horror manga (namely, Ichi the Killer)…
Eat the Shadow looks to blend elements of action, gore, dark humor (heavy satire), mystery/crime, a touch of the supernatural, and even psychedelia. A bit ambitious, maybe… but we’re pretty damn confident we’re figuring it out.
While the main action of the book is illustrated in black/white (largely to evoke that same raw and sheer sinister mood you get from comics like Sin City and The Crow), the book will also be riddled with "trippy" sequences that are subsequently drawn in a cartoonish, graffiti-esque style - and in full color, naturally.
The idea here is to emphasize the psychedelic nature of Kenji’s bizarre and often hellish trip. By intermittently stringing together a series of scenes with intense hallucinations, it will allow us to do a couple things;
First, we’ll be able to literally jump into Kenji’s perspective and actually get to see what the world would look like through his eyes – doors of perception flung wide open for us. With this method, we could dive straight in and explore Kenji’s psyche in ways we couldn’t otherwise do (at least not in such an in depth and vivid manner). We'll see prophetic visions, suppressed desires, flashbacks to his past traumas and treasured memories, etc.
Then, it will also allow us to play with some pretty absurd action sequences – think insanely preposterous car chases, astral/space travel, provocative visions, ridiculous and gruesome fight scenes with giant robots (story takes place in Japan FYI, gotta sprinkle in some mecha), dragons, aliens, zombies, demons (of course).. and many other vicious entities. Some will surely be more ludicrous than others, but that’s all part of the fun.
However, most importantly, like any revenge themed story we have to answer the question – how much of your humanity are you willing to sacrifice in the name of vengeance? In Kenji’s case, he says fuck it all. So as his old self dies in order for his vindictive, blood-lusting shadow side to fully emerge, we’ll be able to shine a light on and actually get to SEE the true figures of the monsters lurking in his shadow.
These scenes will, at times, help lighten the mood with some playful (we think tasteful) satire, but at other times will be pretty damn dark and serve to terrify Kenji… possibly you too (or at least offensively disturb you in some fashion, we hope).
The story is meant to mess with our heads a bit. This blend in styles will make it a little easier for the audience to differentiate between what’s real and what’s imagined… maybe, but maybe not. You’ll have to figure that out on your own, just as Kenji will.
The Team:
Jhomar Soriano – Artist/Letterer
A longtime distinguished artist, Jhomar’s published works include MR. GRIEVES and ARKHAM WOODS for Seven Seas Entertainment – each receiving awards in the 2007 and 2009 International Manga Award of Japan – and LIAR'S KISS, a crime-noir graphic novel for Top Shelf Productions, plus many more. Jhomar is an avid fan of Jidaigeki and Zombie films.
Nico Sucio – Artist/Colorist
An indie comics illustrator with working experience in animation and video game projects, and also extensively involved in live street art activities, primarily graffiti work. As a self-taught artist versed in various trades of his craft, Nico’s unique visions defy conventional standards and stand in a class of their own, causing the artwork to not only hop right off the page, but also distinctly distinguish him from the crowd.
Pierre Martinez – Writer/Creator
A life-long passion for written word, visual art, and rendering useless daydreams into some form of communicable narrative eventually pushed him towards studying film, concentrating on screenplay writing – though he adamantly professes he learned far more from studying Tarantino’s film scripts than he ever did in school. With EtS, he's coupling his love for art and storytelling with his love for comics and manga to break into the creator-owned space in the industry.