Shadowplay

by Christina Z., Ben Templesmith, Ashley Wood

This special collection presents the fantastic art of Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith under one cover. In "Demon Father John's Pinwheel Blues," Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Tara) and Ben craft a tale of a syndicate of vampire street children that is turned upside down by new recruit Pinwheel. In "Shunt," Christina Z and Ash present the tale of the perfect woman, who gives up the perfect life to uncover a heinous human slavery ring run by an elite group of vampires. Vampires who transform their beautiful female victims into the most sensually marketable product. Within the torture and depravity lies a twisted tale of obsessive passion and furious loyalty.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

104 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2006

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two equally uninteresting stories, two equally migrane-inducing art styles, One big disappointment.

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought it for Ben Templesmith and in that I was right. Although Ashley Wood's art style is nice, I just didn't like the story, sadly.

Ben though, as always makes up for it all.

[Paul Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two stories in this mini-series the first is Demon Father John's Pinwheel Blues with the artwork from Ben Templesmith and the story by Amber Benson which is about a young boy named Pinwheel who unwittingly gets sucked into the world of vampires. I enjoyed both the story and especially the artwork as it reminded me a little of why I liked the original 30 days of night story so much. The second story was by Christina Z with the artwork from Ashley Wood and this for me was on equal par with the first story I was impressed with the artwork which looked at first glance to be the same artist as Demon Father John's Pinwheel Blues but a little more risqué.
In summary the artwork was excellent, the story's not quite up to that standard.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the ashley wood half. The story made next to no sense, but I was there for the art. Dark, scratchy, sexy and disturbing. There's a full page dedicated to a beautiful vampiric version of klimt's "the kiss". Overall, not especially good comics, but goes well in my ashley wood collection.

[Damon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough one to rate, because while the stories were weak (one trite and one incomprehensible), they looked awesome.

The Templesmith half was the trite one, some vampire thing with kids. Probably the most interesting thing about the writing is that the writer played that one woman on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Nice artwork from Templesmith, though - not my favorite, not totally over the top. I guess he dials it back a bit when he's drawing someone else's stuff?

Not so Ashley Wood, though. His stuff, while beautiful, almost always seems like he just drew a bunch of pages and let someone try to piece a story together around them later. While there seemed to be an attempt at a cohesive plot I couldn't even really follow what was going on enough to say whether it was a good one or not (though my guess is not really).

In general, this didn't hit the shelves because of the strength of the narrative. No one should waste time on this unless they just want to look at the pictures.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed both of these stories but as a word of warning there not for the easily shocked or offended.

Ashley Woods art work is beautifully delicate&sets just the right mood&Ben Templesmith as always hits that mix of discomfort&horror note perfectly.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only bought this 'cause Amber Benson wrote a story for it. Turns out it was the only decent thing about it.

[Alnora1227]

Not for the squeamish or the prudish. :-)

[Geri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Highly unusual book, rather creepy...

[Elie · Rating 2 out of 5]

What. The. Fuck.