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Shade, the Changing Woman
Brand-new from DC's Young Animal comes another wild and psychedelic ride in Shade, the Changing Woman --the latest chapter in the radical reimagining of one of comics' craziest Shade, the Changing Man.
Shade has shed her alien identity. She's stepped out of her original Earth body and into another one. Now, free of the burdens of any past life, and finally on her own, she sets out to see more of her new home. But how does she cope when the madness takes all the human emotions she was forced to confront in the Milk Wars and turns them into a bouillabaisse of memory and confusion? And to make it even more challenging, Shade must also face her namesake, the original Changing Man.
From writer Cecil Castellucci and artists Marley Zarcone and Jamie Coe, Shade, the Changing Woman collects issues #1-6!
Shade has shed her alien identity. She's stepped out of her original Earth body and into another one. Now, free of the burdens of any past life, and finally on her own, she sets out to see more of her new home. But how does she cope when the madness takes all the human emotions she was forced to confront in the Milk Wars and turns them into a bouillabaisse of memory and confusion? And to make it even more challenging, Shade must also face her namesake, the original Changing Man.
From writer Cecil Castellucci and artists Marley Zarcone and Jamie Coe, Shade, the Changing Woman collects issues #1-6!
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2019
3 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Cecil Castellucci
220 books723 followersCecil Castellucci is an author of young adult novels and comic books. Titles include Boy Proof, The Year of the Beasts (illustrated by Nate Powell), First Day on Earth, Rose Sees Red, Beige, The Queen of Cool The Plain Janes and Janes in Love (illustrated by Jim Rugg), Tin Star Stone in the Sky, Odd Duck (illustrated by Sara Varon) and Star Wars: Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure.
Her short stories have been published in various places including Black Clock, The Rattling Wall, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine and can be found in such anthologies such as After, Teeth, Truth & Dare, The Eternal Kiss, Sideshow and Interfictions 2 and the anthology, which she co-edited, Geektastic.
She is the recipient of the California Book Award Gold Medal for her picture book Grandma's Gloves, illustrated by Julia Denos, the Shuster Award for Best Canadian Comic Book Writer for The Plain Janes and the Sunburst Award for Tin Star. The Year of the Beasts was a finalist for the PEN USA literary award and Odd Duck was Eisner nominated.
She splits her time between the heart and the head and lives north and south of everything. Her hands are small. And she likes you very much.
Her short stories have been published in various places including Black Clock, The Rattling Wall, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine and can be found in such anthologies such as After, Teeth, Truth & Dare, The Eternal Kiss, Sideshow and Interfictions 2 and the anthology, which she co-edited, Geektastic.
She is the recipient of the California Book Award Gold Medal for her picture book Grandma's Gloves, illustrated by Julia Denos, the Shuster Award for Best Canadian Comic Book Writer for The Plain Janes and the Sunburst Award for Tin Star. The Year of the Beasts was a finalist for the PEN USA literary award and Odd Duck was Eisner nominated.
She splits her time between the heart and the head and lives north and south of everything. Her hands are small. And she likes you very much.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
February 19, 2019
Meh. Castellucci has a way of writing that is just boring. This run focused too much on the metaphysical, trying to write the madness pieces as if it was poetry. Marley Zarcone's art is basic with too little detail especially with her faces. The coloring teeters back and forth from being flat and then colors that really pop. I did like the return of Roc Shade, but the summaries in the back of Kathy and Lenny just made me realize how much I missed Chris Bachalo's art from the original Vertigo run of the 90's.
August 3, 2018
A pretty great final chapter for a great series that ended too soon.
World: The art is amazing, it's been amazing since the first issue of 'Shade the Changing Girl' and it continues here, the use of flat colors and the framing has been amazing and it's the same here. I love how Zarcone is able to express emotions with the characters, it's great. The world building here is good, it does fall into the norm of writers ending their runs with pulling all the pieces that they have created and putting them all into one final story and it's the same here. The world we see is everything Castellucci has created, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Story: Trippy, weird and unexpected just like the rest of the series. There is a lot of imagery that other authors would not take literally that this creative team does the resulting story and art is trippy. I love this final journey of Loma and her dealing with her bodies death and finding an identity and losing herself in the swirls of it. Add to that Rac Shade and all of Loma's friend from earth and even Meta characters and it's a pretty packed book that needs to take care of a lot of things. There are times I wish this book had maybe 2 more issues to flesh out the characters but being this trippy and how this book ended up I think it was fine. The meta narrative of what Loma is going through and what young women are going through with their life and their identity is pretty amazing here and this final chapter does that and more. I don't want to say anything else cause something and someone happens that comes back from the first issue to make this interesting (though that part I kinda wished had more time). An interesting end to the series that leaves the door open, this series ended too soon.
Characters: Loma is fun, she seems odd and mad but that's the whole point. If you look a bit deeper the literal things that she's going through is pretty common among young women, actually young people in general and the way she handles it is pretty great. The rest of the cast of characters is also pretty great, Teacup and River are also pretty complex and though some would feel what Teacup has been this entire run has been inconsistent, I think she's the most real teenager I've read in a while. Lepuck is always kinda squisky dopey and makes you want to give him a hug. These characters are fun and odd.
I liked this run, I wish there was more but the end was done well and leaves the door open for Shade the Transgender Human...I hope.
Onward to the next book!
*read individual issues*
World: The art is amazing, it's been amazing since the first issue of 'Shade the Changing Girl' and it continues here, the use of flat colors and the framing has been amazing and it's the same here. I love how Zarcone is able to express emotions with the characters, it's great. The world building here is good, it does fall into the norm of writers ending their runs with pulling all the pieces that they have created and putting them all into one final story and it's the same here. The world we see is everything Castellucci has created, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Story: Trippy, weird and unexpected just like the rest of the series. There is a lot of imagery that other authors would not take literally that this creative team does the resulting story and art is trippy. I love this final journey of Loma and her dealing with her bodies death and finding an identity and losing herself in the swirls of it. Add to that Rac Shade and all of Loma's friend from earth and even Meta characters and it's a pretty packed book that needs to take care of a lot of things. There are times I wish this book had maybe 2 more issues to flesh out the characters but being this trippy and how this book ended up I think it was fine. The meta narrative of what Loma is going through and what young women are going through with their life and their identity is pretty amazing here and this final chapter does that and more. I don't want to say anything else cause something and someone happens that comes back from the first issue to make this interesting (though that part I kinda wished had more time). An interesting end to the series that leaves the door open, this series ended too soon.
Characters: Loma is fun, she seems odd and mad but that's the whole point. If you look a bit deeper the literal things that she's going through is pretty common among young women, actually young people in general and the way she handles it is pretty great. The rest of the cast of characters is also pretty great, Teacup and River are also pretty complex and though some would feel what Teacup has been this entire run has been inconsistent, I think she's the most real teenager I've read in a while. Lepuck is always kinda squisky dopey and makes you want to give him a hug. These characters are fun and odd.
I liked this run, I wish there was more but the end was done well and leaves the door open for Shade the Transgender Human...I hope.
Onward to the next book!
*read individual issues*
February 3, 2019
Such a great end to a deeply strange story. This team knows how to tell a story about madness without ever giving itself over to heartless absurdity. I feel so much for these characters and their feelings for each other. If extraterrestrials ever invade, I will look not into the sky for Superman, but in the eye of another for that bit of madness that can excite us through the unknown.
July 9, 2019
A grossly disappointing finale to what had been a great series.
Whereas the two previous volumes were so successful because of their foundation in real characters and their real lives, this volume goes totally abstract, as Loma talks with Rac about pretty much nothing in the Madness zone. This also removes Loma from the life that we'd seen in the previous two volumes. We don't even stay that connected with her supporting cast, meaning that the comic generally founders in abstraction.
It's only in the last few issues that things really feel like they're happening (rather than there just being talking) and even that feels like a big misfire, because it's suddenly all about Rac and his supporting cast from his last comic, which I didn't even care about, despite loving the previous comic (and it was really all character assassination of those characters, for little purpose, anyway).
It's one of those cases where I feel like asking, "What did I read??" because this is so out of sync with what had come before.
Whereas the two previous volumes were so successful because of their foundation in real characters and their real lives, this volume goes totally abstract, as Loma talks with Rac about pretty much nothing in the Madness zone. This also removes Loma from the life that we'd seen in the previous two volumes. We don't even stay that connected with her supporting cast, meaning that the comic generally founders in abstraction.
It's only in the last few issues that things really feel like they're happening (rather than there just being talking) and even that feels like a big misfire, because it's suddenly all about Rac and his supporting cast from his last comic, which I didn't even care about, despite loving the previous comic (and it was really all character assassination of those characters, for little purpose, anyway).
It's one of those cases where I feel like asking, "What did I read??" because this is so out of sync with what had come before.
August 24, 2020
4.5
The Young Animal label has been one of my favourite in the medium and it's sad to see Shade conclude. Shade, the Changing Girl plays out like Mother Panic and we're treated to an advancement in the character. Shade is now a woman and we have the luxury of moving away from the school setting. Cecil Castellucci has managed to maintain the strange storyline after the Milk War team-up. The book is still an acid trip through the Young Animal eye and this is what makes this book so much fun. It's not conventional or cliche, it is almost cerebral and leaves you with something unique.
Why the 4.5?
The first two books were some of my favourite to come out of the Young Animal label but this is slightly down from the earlier works. The issue I had was the soft landing conclusion and the characters. The original book had a lot of mystery and human connnections, but here it almost gets away from Castellucci. Mother Panic was an epic conclusion and Shade doesn't have that feeling. The book is open ended but it leaves us with an ending that doesn't really fit. I had hoped for more twisting narrative but they don't attempt a huge revamp like Mother Panic did. I still enjoyed the series and I hope they revisit this version down the line.
The Young Animal label has been one of my favourite in the medium and it's sad to see Shade conclude. Shade, the Changing Girl plays out like Mother Panic and we're treated to an advancement in the character. Shade is now a woman and we have the luxury of moving away from the school setting. Cecil Castellucci has managed to maintain the strange storyline after the Milk War team-up. The book is still an acid trip through the Young Animal eye and this is what makes this book so much fun. It's not conventional or cliche, it is almost cerebral and leaves you with something unique.
Why the 4.5?
The first two books were some of my favourite to come out of the Young Animal label but this is slightly down from the earlier works. The issue I had was the soft landing conclusion and the characters. The original book had a lot of mystery and human connnections, but here it almost gets away from Castellucci. Mother Panic was an epic conclusion and Shade doesn't have that feeling. The book is open ended but it leaves us with an ending that doesn't really fit. I had hoped for more twisting narrative but they don't attempt a huge revamp like Mother Panic did. I still enjoyed the series and I hope they revisit this version down the line.
February 16, 2020
Es una pena que Young Animal chapara y Shade se cancelara. Shade the changing woman es una historia aparte para cerrar definitivamente la historia de Shade y lo hace de una manera maravillosa. El dibujo de Zarcone sigue siendo súper chulo y en este tomo hay imágenes preciosas. Una gran serie muy pulp llena de amor, venganza y psicodelia.
October 14, 2020
Gorgeous art, combined with surprisingly cogent narrative for this story. That said, not sure that's always a winning proposition. It is paced very nicely and reads quickly, through persistent poetic narration from Shade. In some ways this helped me relate to the topic more than in the previous two volumes, but also meant a lot of the narrative surrounding the poetry resonated less. The structure of is more interesting than the substance it contains. It's a nice little story with wonderful art, but if I revisit this it will be for creative reference, rather than emotional enjoyment.
3/5 Saggy Madness Corpses
3/5 Saggy Madness Corpses
April 17, 2019
There's a decent story in here somewhere, and one that provides a fitting end to the series (and, indeed, connects more closely with Milligan's Shade back in the '90s than the prior two volumes did). But the weird trippy atmosphere is perhaps a little overdone, making this more strange than anything else. I'm not really a great fan of the flat artwork, either, although one can hardly call it bland, and it fits with the odd atmosphere.
August 21, 2020
i read this over a few months during quarentine, so i honestly don't remember the story as much as i should. each panel is otherworldly, i would get so lost in the art that i'd stare at pages for minutes at a time. changing characters and themes of love and hmm. it all felt very surreal and floating but in exactly the right way. the colors and the art are really just so fun its such a beautiful book
June 12, 2021
This series was just okay. The art was good and the premise of madness as a kind of power was cool, but with that in mind, I was hoping the use of “madness” by a female protagonist would have had more feminist angles, since there’s such a large body of work dedicated to women’s complicated relationship to madness. Was it entertaining? Sure. Did things always make sense? No. But I guess that does make sense since madness is a key player.
April 24, 2019
It's the finale. I found it to be the least satisfying of all the volumes. Things are wrapped up rather quickly in several cases. I feel that it's all due to the series getting cancelled and Castellucci not wanting to deviate from the intended story. Overall, I'm glad that the story, quick as it may be, is all there for readers to experience.
June 15, 2019
Seda lugesin 2018, aga panen lugemismuljed ühtekokku:
#1-4: Veel segasem, aga endiselt meeldib. Nagu Seme Amacemilt või midagi.
Ja Beatlesid ja mis veel on hästi kirev ja LSD-hõnguline?
#5-6: I really like both "Shade, the changing girl" and "Shade, the changing woman", I really do.
Armas hullus.
#1-4: Veel segasem, aga endiselt meeldib. Nagu Seme Amacemilt või midagi.
Ja Beatlesid ja mis veel on hästi kirev ja LSD-hõnguline?
#5-6: I really like both "Shade, the changing girl" and "Shade, the changing woman", I really do.
Armas hullus.
November 29, 2019
I get that certain fanboys don't care for this and to be fair, Shade has always been a bit more open about sexuality, drugs and unique human constellations. Yes, this series is tamer than earlier series but I am enjoying the mature way that Shade deals with issues while still remaining inside the DC Universe.
May 10, 2024
This one's about learning to cope with grief and love and all the sucky emotions that come with being a human. Darker than the previous two and more painful. It's about being let down by the things you love and finding your way back to them, finding ways to ask for help and accepting the parts of you that make you feel like a monster. It was great I loved it - the first remains my favorite, but I think I probably needed to read this rn.
January 31, 2019
This is incredible. I doubt it would make sense without the Changing Girl comics but they are incredible too. I hope lots of people discover them. The art is amazing and the story is intense. It's a satisfying conclusion to an outstanding series. Maybe even some potential for a sequel?
April 4, 2019
DNF. The first 2 graphic novels were a struggle for me to get through. This one just gave me a headache. It's so confusing and the story line is all over the place. Got about half way through but just couldn't finish it.
April 17, 2019
Kind of confusing, but we are dealing with madness here. Loma finds that being human is a bit too hard...yep. Lepuck becomes a Green Lantern, which is awesome. And there are a lot of callbacks to the early days of Shade the Changing Man. It was a fitting end to both series.
July 1, 2019
Profoundly strange and wonderful. A decent end to the best of the Young Animals line. I think there was an urgency to wrap some plot into the proceedings but it was too abbreviated to be anything but a distraction. Excellent color work here.
August 1, 2018
i'm gonna miss this weird little comic
August 28, 2018
The story has a nice flow but the ending is really rushed (like most of YA titles I feel). Maybe the storytelling is a bit too ambitious to fit in a 6 issue arc.
January 29, 2019
Outstanding!
February 4, 2019
One of the best series running. Complicated and wonderfully exciting/connective.
March 4, 2019
I just don't connect with this.
April 16, 2019
A fitting end to a great series.
April 24, 2019
not sure why I bothered with this one. I liked the first volume, the second was dumb and this is worse.
there's nothing good about this.
there's nothing good about this.
June 13, 2019
Read most of this in issues. Still love it! One of the best non-manga comics I've ever read, and I'm glad I own all 3 volumes now.
August 1, 2019
Interesting story line
August 26, 2019
i'm gonna miss this weird little comic
September 22, 2019
Finished strong, which I appreciate, but never reached any great depths.
October 31, 2019
I really enjoyed the ending but the journey there felt a tad...bumpier and less relevant than I had hoped for in the conclusion.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews