Take two Davids, mix them together for two years and what do you get?
Shadowgirls!  Way back in 2005, David A. Rodriguez of Starkweather and Dave Reynolds were attending Wizard World Chicago when they started discussing a concept Dave had for a book called Shadowgirls.  The two have a history together as Dave was the colorist for David’s first Starkweather book.  After reading over the documents and design concepts, David agreed and started to write scripts for what would become Shadowgirls.  After getting a few bites and offers from publishers that didn’t quite suit the duo, they decided to venture out on their own to bring their work to the world, displaying it on the web and offering print-on-demand to their fans.

Starting in July of 2007, the pair brought Shadowgirls to the web.  The story starts out about a single mother Charon (which, according to their website is pronounced Share) and her daughter, Rebecca.  From the first pages we are thrown right into the birth of Rebecca and as the pages unfold, the strip delves into Charon’s back story and how she came to be at the hospital she is at.  From there we are led through the tale of a broken person and how she is left to pick up the pieces, trying to put them together while being a parriah to her town, her friends and best friend.  The only person there to help her raise her child is her grandmother but as the story progresses, we find that option doesn’t pan out, through no fault of Charon.  The story jumps ahead to the present and then unfolds from there following Charon and Becka as they try to live their lives out as normally as possible, only, something unexpected is lurking in the shadows, a power, a transformation, a danger.

In between chapters there are little interludes of Shadowbabies by David A. Rodriguez and Misty Coats.  These are nice little diversions in a standard comic strip format as opposed to the comic book format the main story follows and serves as a nice break in the drama and tension. There are also Character Cards here and there that give you stats of the main characters, giving you a peek, an insight into what makes them tick.

The artwork is fantastic and has great flow.  There are backgrounds you can really sink your teeth into, rich and deep.  Above all, this webcomic does what all webcomics, heck, what ALL comics should do: act.  The characters actually act their parts and aren’t just poseable sprites.  You can actually picture them saying their dialogue and believing it is happening.  The suspension of disbelief, this is fantasy after all, is complete and allows you to lose yourself in this world of fantasy and magical powers, that there really is some shadowy creatures lurking in every dark place.

Do yourself a favor, visit this comic, bookmark it and hang around to see where the story goes.  In between updates, you can go through the deep archive and get yourself caught up so you know where the story has been.  You won’t regret it!