2000-AD-Prog-1893-
Cover by I. N. J. Culbard

Black Shuck part two is out today in Prog 1893.  Written by us, with pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colours by Chris Blythe, and letters by Simon Bowland.

BLACK SHUCK // PART THREE
Scandinavia, 813 AD. A Viking raid on the settlement of Dunwich in East Anglia led to the warrior
known as BLACK SHUCK being captured. But he has washed up at the court of King Ivar the lone
survivor – what terrible calamity befell the others during the sea crossing? Now Shuck has been
dragged into the war between Ivar’s people and the monstrous Jötnar, thanks to a curse…

Order or download 2000 AD 1893 right now. If you have already read it,  join us for some extras (including spoliers!) below.

Track 3 on the Black Shuck soundtrack: Viking Pirates of Doom by Arkham Witch

So this week, in what is quite a plotty and atmospheric installment of Black Shuck, I’ve chosen a more revealing page to break down.

Page Four in the outline:

Flashback: A rough canoe has been fashioned to give their dead shipmate a burial at sea. Just as the ceremony is about to begin, the slaves who were thought dead return to the camp. They seem confused, almost delirious and then they begin to writhe and howl and roar in agony.

Leah’s roughs for Page Four:

Black Shuck three Page Four

Script based on Leah’s roughs:

Page Four

 

This is a five panel page with three tiers; one panel on the top, two in the middle and two on the bottom. This is a black and white, flashback page. EXTERIOR, MOONLIGHT throughout.

 

Panel One

            This tier wide panel shows a side view of Grim laid out in his coffin canoe on a bed of firewood, his head on the left of the panel. Grim has whatever possessions Brand managed to salvage (an axe, a sword, a shield?) lain out beside him. The canoe is in the shallows of the beach and we can see the midsections of Hak and Brand as they stand in the water beside the vessel. Brand, on the left, is holding a flaming torch in his left hand. A huge, bright full moon is in the sky. Brand has two balloons, Hak one.

 

Brand: Grim should not have died this way.

Brand: He should have fallen in battle, not been undone by some creature skulking in the fog.

Hak: Grim was a warrior. He will be remembered for his strength, and his bravery.

 

Panel Two

            Here we have a shot with the canoe and the Vikings in the central background and Shuck’s head and shoulders in the foreground. Shuck is turning his head to look to the right, reacting to a sound from the trees off in that direction.

 

Hak: We shall raise a mighty stone to him upon the shore when we reach our home.

 FX: KRAK

 

Panel Three

            This is a shot from quite a low angle. The three missing Vikings, and three missing Anglo Saxons, presumed dead by all are staggering out of the blackness of the tree line and into the bright light of the full moon. Eric is at the front of the group, his foot on a fallen branch which has cracked under his weight and which made the sound in the previous panel. The men are all bloody and badly wounded from the jaws of the beast that attacked them. They look vacant and confused as they stagger and stumble forward out of the shadows. Yeah, it’s basically a zombie panel so please make it as sinister and creepy as possible. There are two balloons from off panel bottom.

Balloon1 (off): Northman! Look about you!

Balloon 2 (off): Unchain us! Quickly!

 

Panel Four

            This is a small panel showing Shuck bellowing in anger and frustration. He has one balloon.

 Shuck: UNLOCK THESE CHAINS!

 

Panel Five

            Here we have a shot of (some of) the returned Vikings and slaves. They are writhing in the moonlight; their faces, bodies and limbs distorting as they begin to transform. We don’t want to show them specifically looking like beasts yet, just show the beginnings of the transformation in good old American Werewolf in London fashion. There is one caption.

 Cap: “Every man has his curse, does he not?”

Steve’s inks:

Black Shuck three Page Four inksAs you can see, Steve has altered the layout once again. He’s reduced the panel of Shuck shouting to an inset head-shot to maximise the size and impact of the others. Makes sense. Looks good. No complaints.

Finished Page:

Black Shuck three Page Four finishedOne thing which I’ve only just fully realised is that Simon’s balloons have covered up the full moon in panels one and two. I’m assuming this is because if they only overlapped the moon it would look weird (and possibly like a mistake). I’ll have to check with him…

This week’s extras have been rather rushed (and late) due to all kinds of boring stuff that I wont go into. For future Black Shuck posts I will probably stray from (or add to) the process stuff with more research and background material. If there’s anything you’d like to see in future posts, or any questions you’d like to ask about the series so far please do leave a comment here. Cheers.

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