I like a good one-shot. Comics very often have a made for trade kind of deal that tends to stretch a story out. Sometimes you just want to come in, listen to the story, and get the heck out. And I think Shady Lady did a wonderful job of doing this.
The Book
Shady Lady
Created, Written and Illustrated by David Whalen
Edited by Patrick Daniel
Published by Correct Handed Productions
Shady Lady is a revenge story, ultimately. It’s about a woman who is a vigilante doing random acts of justice throughout the city. The first one begins on the first page when she interrupts a white supremacist rally with a molotov cocktail and gets them to chase her.
Detective Bodach sees pictures from the scene and asks about the body. This scene sets the stage of the next couple of acts in the book. Shady Lady does all kinds of actions throughout the book and the detective reacts with more concern. The dialogue is carefully constructed to note that the detective knows who she is, and there’s a quiet undertone of fear.
This is illustrated in the third heroic act the Shady Lady does when she stops a girl from getting assaulted. He overreacts to her getting away as she did what a lot of women want to do when they deal with predators. The police tried to apprehend her but was shielded by all the women in the mall. He’s lost it. He knows who she is.
So he lures her out with a recording and there and then, the Shady Lady confronts Detective Bodach and makes him come face to face with what he did.
It’s a nice, short and sweet story. I wish I knew what her name was. It serves the story in two ways. One, it keeps her mysterious. While there was a personal motive with the detective, the fact that she came out of nowhere to make sure the right thing happened, But in one sense, the story wasn’t about her so much as it was about the detective getting his comeuppance. The water stand was an interesting choice for her second act. It was a step down from the protest and the assault that was in the next act. But it added a sense of randomness and unpredictability to her that otherwise wasn’t there.
This was a solid one and done story from Whelan. It’s a straight forward bare-bones story, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I enjoyed it, and I think you would too.
The Business
This Thursday I am hosting a quiz show with Author Suzy Vadori. Think you got what it takes to answer all things YA and see Suzy Talk about her book Wall of Wishes? Visit us Thursday night at 6 pm mountain time.
Suzy was also the feature on my last storytime podcast in which you can listen to right here.
The Cloud diver is still a thing. Check it out on Amazon. If you like it, give me a review.
In a couple of weeks, I review Far Sector. Until then, be good to each other alright?
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