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First ever Millsverse Kickstarter smashes target in just three hours

By John Freeman on November 11, 2024

Sha 1 –The Shadow One © Pat Mills & Olivier Ledroit

2000AD creator Pat Mills has had an incredible start to the first ever “Millsverse” Kickstarter, with Sha 1 –The Shadow One featuring art by Olivier Ledroit, reaching its target of £5000 in just three hours after its launch last week.

Backing has now reached over £8000 to achieve the goal of delivering is a full colour deluxe graphic novel English language edition of The Shadow One to fruition.

“Thanks to all your incredible support for making this launch so enjoyable,” says Pat.

Sha 1 –The Shadow One centres on Sha, who, using her dark arts, kills the rulers of sci-fi city New Eden, pursued by Detective Duffy. Pat has outlined the book’s broader story on the Kickstarter project page, and provided a huge amount of background to the series here, here, and here, for example, on his Iconoblast Substack.

“I count it as one of my ‘lost stories’, and it never got the love it deserved,” says Pat. Well, it certainly is, now!

The series was the first collaboration between dream-team Pat Mills and Olivier Ledroit (Requiem Vampire Knight). Originally published in France, copies are hard to come by. It also had a short-lived, trade paperback release in the US with Heavy Metal, but is long out of print, and, bizarrely, has never been published in the UK.

If you’re a 2000AD reader, especially from the Golden Age, you will find much to appeal to you in Sha. It’s a chance to discover another Golden Age of wild science fiction/noir urban fantasy.

On offer is a 46-page story, complemented by a gallery and other material, the first in a three-volume series, the runaway success of this crowdfunder paving the way for two further campaigns to bring you volumes two and three.

A Kickstarter exclusive edition and standard print editions are on offer, and a digital edition, too, and backers can grab add-on prints and more as extras when they pledge support.

The entire dust jacket for the Kickstarter exclusive deluxe edition of Sha 1 - The Shadow One, showing the front and back covers, and front and end flaps, designed by Ken Reynolds, who also lettered Sha — The entire dust jacket for the Kickstarter exclusive deluxe edition of Sha 1 – The Shadow One, showing the front and back covers, and front and end flaps, designed by Ken Reynolds, who also lettered Sha

Fulfilment is being co-ordinated by UK based The 77 Publishing, the team behind The77, This Comic is Haunted, and more, who have worked on 30 Kickstarter campaigns, with clients including John Wagner and Ian Gibson.

• Check out the Sha 1 –The Shadow One Kickstarter here

• Get an insight into the story of Sha – here’s Pat talking Mark Baumgarten, Vicky Jakubowski and Ben Cullis on the MarkWho77 pod cast

About the Author
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John Freeman

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.