Only John Freeman, the writer of this article, and co-creator Brian Williamson seem to remember Shadow Riders, but we’re darned if they’ll be forgotten!
Back in the early 1990s, just before Marvel UK went a bit crazy with multiple US titles with the word “Death” in them, artist and writer Brian Williamson and I co-created the Shadow Riders, who eventually were drawn by Ross Dearsley for a four issue US format limited series, published in 1993. The first issue sold 142,000 copies.
The story centred on a group of individuals (including former Warhead, Boot), all killed in violent skirmishes or accidents who were reanimated and given super powers by the alien techno-wizard Vorin, to help him in his war against the evil Mys-Tech Corporation.
One of many teams that resist the evil of Mys-Tech, a cabal of evil, immortal techno wizards, they ally themselves with the mercenary Cable to rescue a tortured mutant named Matthew Ryan from the company. However, Ryan has secrets of his own – that will come to threaten them….
The series, which co-creator Brian Williamson would have loved to have drawn, Paul Neary opting for Ross Dearsley instead, guest-starred a number of other Marvel UK characters, including the Warheads, as well as US Marvel characters such as Cable and Ghost Rider, even featuring a brief cameo from the Hulk.
While the adventures of Vorin, Roadie, Grunt, Stranger, Boot and Che and their non-human sidekick Goodfellow launched well with 142,000 sales on the first issue, the born-again bikers haven’t been seen since. And, to be fair, when sites like Comics Archeology describe the story as “virtually unreadable” (ouch), perhaps it’s no surprise no-one wants to touch the characters with a barge pole!
Anyway… What Marvel UK fans may not know is that the Shadow Riders team was cooked up in part with the aim of giving Marvel UK’s Overkill a, er, Boot, with characters more in line with rival 2000AD.
Toward the end of my time at Marvel UK, as the anthology title’s then editor, I planned out several issues of Overkill that would have seen the introduction of more UK-skewed characters.
The new strips were to have been prefaced with short “introductions” – two page strips at most, utilising Overkill‘s very limited origination budget beyond the reprinting of the US format books such as Warheads and Dark Angel.
Under the direction of Editorial Director Paul Neary, Alan Cowsill, who took over the title after I left MUK in early 1993, implemented a different content approach, capitalising on the introduction of Death’s Head to the fortnightly anthology title. Consequently, the Shadow Riders never made it into Overkill.
For posterity, here’s the two-page script I wrote, actually set after the mini series… which will only make sense to a few die hard fans of the series. I think I wrote more of these “introductory scripts” for new additions to Overkill, but only this script seems to have survived various computer purges.
You may think the script excessively “wordy”, and it would have been standard to cut the copy on sight of artwork. The character introduction boxes would probably have been typeset, like mini “data cards”, at a smaller point size than the balloon lettering.
Also featured here – an “outline script” only – is an undated six-page Shadow Riders story, discussed with Ross Dearsley, which also served as an introduction to the characters.
Enjoy! Or, better yet, break out your pens and start drawing…
Shadow Riders: Overkill Introduction
Click on the images for larger pics
THE SHADOW RIDERS
TWO PAGE ORIGIN STORY
Frame One
Establishing shot of the four SHADOW RIDERS blazing into action against a group of WARHEADS on their customised bikes (note — the bikes are constructed from a fluid metal that can be augmented to create additional weaponry or disguise the bikes as ordinary Nortons and Harley Davisons) All guns firing with the dissipating TRANSIT beam behind them as a background effect, signalling their sudden arrival.
Boot takes the lead, a manic grin on his face as the team plough into a group of Warheads at a wormhole location site. NB THESE ARE NOT THE WARHEADS FROM WARHEADS COMIC. One of the Warheads is clutching a weird-looking alien artefact which is in clear sight.
BOOT has changed one of his cybernetic arms to fit a nasty looking weapon, which blazes away at some very expensive-looking equipment.
GRUNT – huge guy, very strong is also firing.
ROADIE the girl is generating a psi-field which protects the team from laser attack, the beams bouncing uselessly off its field. She looks very determined, concentrating on the job in hand but also firing at the Shadow Riders assailants with a hand pistol.
STRANGER is at the rear, seeming to start to vanish even as the team arrives.
This is a really dynamic, full of action first panel.
LOGO: SHADOW RUN!
BX: MyS-TECH – – A WORLD-SPANNING EVIL CADRE – – HAVE ALWAYS FOUGHT DIRTY. AND IN A DIRTY WAR, EVEN THE GOOD GUYS TURN NASTY…
BOOT: UP AND AT ‘EM, MY BROTHERS! WE RIDE ZE WIND!
ROADIE: BOOT – – SPARE US THE ZORRO ROUTINE, HUH? IT’S WEARING A LITTLE THIN… AND I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE TO KEEP US FROM GETTING FRIED!
GRUNT: ROADIE’S RIGHT – – LET’S GRAB THAT ARTEFACT FROM THESE WARHEAD CREEPS FAST AND MAKE FOR HOME!
Frame Two
Boot leaps off his bike, bopping the nearest Warhead.
BX: THE SHADOW RIDERS GET BETTER AT PLAYING DIRTY EVERY DAY!
BOOT: YOU’VE GOT SOMETHING WE WANT, SCUM… AND WE’RE NOT IN THE MOOD TO ASK POLITELY!
BX: BOOT, TEAM LEADER – – CYBERNETICALLY ENHANCED, AN EX-WARHEAD. HE DIED TO BECOME A SHADOW RIDER… AS DID ALL HIS MAVERICK TEAM…
Frame Three
Roadie generating psi field, Warhead blasted back from it as s/he tries to attack the girl. Stranger also in shot, going intangible as he approaches the Warhead with the artefact
BX: ROADIE – – PSI CASTER. SHE JOINED THE TEAM JUST AFTER HER EIGHTEENTH UN-BIRTHDAY…
FX; ZZZZACK!
WARHEAD: YEAAARGH!
ROADIE: YOU’LL HAVE TO MOVE FASTER THAN THAT TO BREAK MY PSI-SHIELDS, PUNK!
ROADIE2 (linked): STRANGER – – DO YOUR STUFF!
STRANGER: ON MY WAY, BABE…
Frame Four
Stranger passes like a ghost toward the Warhead who is blasting away at him, heading for the wormhole location and an odd-looking instrument, clearly of alien origin.
BX: STRANGER – – A DEAD ROCK STAR TURNED AGENT OF VENGEANCE… HIS FAZING POWERS CAN TURN HIM INTO A LIVING GHOST…
STRANGER: MY – – YOU WARHEADS DO BRING SOME PRETTY TOYS BACK FROM OTHER DIMENSIONS FROM YOUR MyS-TECH PAYMASTERS, DONCHA?
Page Two
Frame One
Grunt banging two heads together in foreground, looking at Stranger who has picked up the well-weird alien device.
BX: AND FINALLY, GRUNT – – ANOTHER EX-MyS-TECH EMPLOYEE, FRIED ALIVE BUT FIT AND KICKING ONCE MORE…
GRUNT: STRANGER – – MOVE IT! WE HAVE TEN SECONDS TO GET OUT OF HERE!
STRANGER: HEY, DON’T WORRY! I’M ON THE CASE!
Frame Two
The four Shadow Riders are suddenly enveloped in the black TRANSIT FX, disappearing from sight, to the surprise of the one dazed Warhead still standing after this lightning raid.
BOOT: TAXI!
BOOT2: TA ,TA BOYS – – I’D SAY IT’S BEEN FUN… BUT YOU GUYS HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOUR!
BX; THE SHADOW RIDERS UNIQUE TRANSIT TELEPORT BEAM SPIRITS THE TEAM AWAY IN MOMENTS…
FX; KXXXXXZZZZCKMMMM!
DAZED WARHEAD: WH- – WHUT TH- –
BX2: – – LEAVING BEHIND SOME VERY CONFUSED MyS-TECH EMPLOYEES!
Frame Three
Establishing shot of the SHADOW RIDERS Transit Arrival Bay (see SHADOW RIDER #1 Strip Page 12 for reference (starts with “I love it coming in half way through a movie”) VORIN and GOODFELLOW are waiting for them. A crackle of majickal energy emanates from one of Vorin’s hands, the complex TRANSIT spell still in operation.
BX: SHADOW RIDERS BASE, LANCASHIRE, NORTHERN ENGLAND…
BX2: AND THE ONE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATING THE SHADOW RIDERS — FOR LITERALLY BRINGING THEM BACK TO LIFE AT THE POINT OF DEATH WITH HIS INCREDIBLE MAJICKS – – RECEIVES HIS CHAMPIONS…
BOOT: HEY, VORIN! NICE OF YOU TO MEET US…
STRANGER: YOWZA! THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME…
VORIN: DID YOU GET IT? DO YOU HAVE THE DEVICE?
Frame Four
Impressive shot of Vorin in his garb, eyes blazing, his hands still crackling with energy as he holds the mysterious alien artefact. Goodfellow at his side, sticking his clawed finger in his ear. Boot also in shot.
BX: THE HI-TECH WIZARD, VORIN… AN ALIEN ONCE CAUGHT IN A TERRIBLE TIME PARADOX THAT SAW THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS PLANET AT MyS-TECHs HANDS…
BX2: ALONG WITH HIS FAMILIAR, THE MYSTERIOUS GOODFELLOW, HE HAS WAGED A SIX HUNDRED YEAR WAR OF ATTRITION WITH THE EVIL IMMORTALS IN MEPHISTO’S EMPLOY!
BOOT: SO — IS IT WHAT YOU THOUGH IT WAS?
Frame Five
Vorin examining the strange device, the Shadow Riders grouped around him.
VORIN: YES – – THIS IS FURTHER PROOF THAT, THOUGH I DO NOT KNOW WHERE, MY PEOPLE STILL LIVE, DESPITE MyS-TECH’S ATTEMPT TO DESTROY US ALL…
VORIN: – – AND THAT HOPE DRIVES ME ON… TO CONTINUE THE WAR WITH THOSE EVIL IMMORTALS…
VORIN3: A WAR, ONE DAY, THAT WE WILL WIN…
Shadow Riders: A Six Page Introductory Story
At some point during my time writing freelance for Marvel UK, I kicked around some ideas for a longer Shadow Riders introductory tale. I can’t find any correspondence relating to this, so I’m unsure what title it was intended for, but it’s clear from a photocopy of a Shadow Riders commission for an American fan that Ross and I discussed it, around the time he was working on another MUK project, Officer Outbody, created by Glenn Dakin.
The story was purely a pitch, intended, perhaps to whet appetites for a second mini series, but if I sent it to anyone at Marvel UK, I don’t have any correspondence to suggest it was never acknowledged.
Here it is, written “Marvel style” and outline plot with art direction that would be scripted based on art received…
Click on the images for larger pics
Head downthetubes for…
• Marvel UK: Things That Might Have Been
• “Genesis ’92”: Looking Back and What Might Have Been
• If you’re looking for information on Marvel UK history and unpublished comics by the company, then you need to check out the brilliant “Starlogged” blog, which documents so much of it
• Marvel Fandom: Shadow Riders Guide
• Brian Williamson’s Official web site is at brianwilliamson.co.uk
Brian Williamson is a comic book illustrator and artist based in London, UK. He specialises in comics, graphic novels, and licensed character design. He has worked for clients such as Marvel, DC Comics, Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Aardman plus Doctor Who projects for the BBC and Titan Comics.
• You can find Ross Dearsley here on ArtStation | Instagram
Ross Dearsley is a concept artist and illustrator with over 30 years experience. His career began as an illustrator and storyboard artist, which naturally broadened into his passion for production design and concept art and established my ability to tackle most visual design challenges of a project. His credits include work on the Harry Potter video game series and, more recently NFS Unbound.
This article was first published on downthetubes on 30th June 2018, and republished on Thursday 26th March 2026, adding additional visuals, information and background on a Shadow Riders six-page story
Shadow Riders ©️ Marvel
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features
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