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The first thing you'll probably notice about Chapter 9 is that it looks a little different to the previous chapters. This is because it's the first chapter of Shades to have been drawn by the new art team. Following Harsho's departure, we divided the responsibilities and the art team now looks like this:

Pencils and inks - E.C. Nickel
Colours - Muamal Khairi
Letters - me!

Personally, I love what the new guys are bringing to the project. I hope you will too!

Like the Prologue, Chapter 9 was added to Shades quite late in the day. I'd written the opening chapters and was close to completing the closing chapters, when I began to suspect there were some gaps in the middle. It all flowed logically in my head but, on paper, I wasn't sure that I'd joined all the dots between the various plot points!

Chapter 9, then, is all about exposition. If you don't like the long talky bits, therefore, the bad news is that, well … this one's even more talky than usual! The good news on the other hand is that, by inserting this chapter, I've been able to give a little more screen-time (page-time?) to the bad guys. Want to know why Bedlam's doing what he's doing? Or why on Earth Dominion is working with him? It's all in here!

There's a little treat for any fans of our numerous flashbacks, too. Yes, we have another one! This one takes us back two thousand years and completes the backstory for Bedlam and the Shaman.

As you'll know if you've been reading my notes on Shades, I recently decided to split it into two volumes and, as and when we ever produce a print version, Chapter 9 will be the first chapter of Volume 2. Looking back at it now, I think it's well-suited to that purpose. The talky sequences make this chapter a slow, measured introduction to the second half of the story before the action starts up again, while the focus on exposition serves as a useful re-cap of the main threads from the first half.

Enjoy!