Following its huge Kickstarter success, Sha: The Shadow One, the first collaboration between writer Pat Mills and artist Olivier Ledroit is now exclusively available to pre-order in an English language edition from 77 Publishing, with books published by Millsverse shipping 1st July 2025. Here’s our video review…
“If you’re a 2000AD reader, especially from the Golden Age, you will find much to appeal to you in Sha,” says The77’s Ben Cullis. “It’s a chance to discover another Golden Age of wild science fiction/noir urban fantasy.” And I certainly won’t argue with that.
The 77 Publishing kindly sent downthetubes a copy of the book, the story first published in France, followed short-lived, trade paperback release in the US by Heavy Metal, now long out of print. It’s superbly illustrated, delivering a hard-hitting no holds barred SF action chiller, centred on a millennia-old witch seeking revenge on her persecutors… and she certainly gets it! Against that backdrop, Mills sows the seeds for future developments in the story which we’ll no doubt see made available to fans in due course.
Beautifully illustrated in full colour, Pat puts a new spin on concepts he touched on in the early days of 2000AD, particularly in “Nemesis the Warlock”, but here he’s unfettered by publisher caution in the wake of hostility toward comics post-Action, that impacted British newsstand comics badly in the 1970s and 80s.
Here’s a walkthrough review of the graphic novel…
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 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, as I said before during the crowdfunding cycle, it certainly is now!
This new hardback edition is now available with an exclusive bookplate signed by both Pat Mills and Olivier Ledroit.
An ultra rare set of A4 prints, limited to 50 editions only, signed by Oliver, are also available.
• Check out Sha: The Shadow One on The 77 Publishing online store
Our thanks to The 77 Publishing for providing a copy of the book
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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 - Current British Publishers, British Comics - Graphic Novels, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Reviews
I funded the Kickstarter.
It is truly gorgeous, and comes from the golden era of Pat Mills’ writing (an era that shows no sign of ending!).