SYDNEY 1989.
A mask of pulped comic pages. A $100 note. A quest to find someone whose life could be changed by it, as a ‘heroic act’. The sun descends, and the shadows lengthen
About the team
CONCEPT & WORDS
EMMET O’CUANA
Emmet O’Cuana is a writer and critic. He is an adopted Australian, originally from Ireland. He lives in a country village somewhere in Victoria with his wife Stevie and two cats. This comic is a tribute to his first home in Oz, the city of Sydney. He is still not used to seeing British royals on his money. You may find him on his website.
ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN
LYNORE AVERY
Lynore Avery is a versatile graphic designer and illustrator with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry. She studied painting and glass at the Australian National University, followed by design studies at the Canberra Institute of Technology. She has lived in Sydney since 2003. Lynore is a sole trader who works principally as a graphic designer, trading under the name ‘bild images’. Lynore explores ways in which ideas can be communicated visually – how narratives are conveyed by visual symbols and conventions. Her subject matter is often drawn from myths and legends, dreams and symbols – the stories which are common to all people. She has a strong interest in local history and the stories that make us who we are.
Prints of Lynore’s pages from The Shadow of Night are now available to purchase on Etsy.
SPECIAL MENTION
ALAN CHAPMAN
Alan Chapman is a Western magician, mystic, and writer, the founder of the Ordo Magia which is dedicated to helping anyone who wishes to take seriously the fate and destiny of their own soul through the transmission and mastery of Magia practice. He has appeared in the Fortean Times and Chaos International, and regularly contributes to Worp FM podcast and his Barbarous Words substack and website.
What’s being said
The Shadow of Night is much more than a slim comic book. As O’Cuana intimates, or is it Chapman (which Chapman?), it’s a palimpsest of shadow and light. Compelling, poetic, and uncanny, in a way that Franz himself might have recognized. I’ve never been to Australia. I don’t know Camperdown from Potts Point. But thanks to O’Cuana and his masterful collaborator Lynore Avery, I’ve walked these streets. I’ve seen these shadows, heard these echoes, made this resonant journey. And thanks to this magnificent, compressed, knock-out punch of a comic, it’s a journey I’ll take again and again.
Ken Krimstein, Author/Artist (Kenkrimstein.com)
A punch-drunk journey through Sydney’s occulted history. The harbour city’s burnished days and vibrant nights are exquisitely rendered, with meaning apparent in every garish niche or gaping lacuna. Not to be missed.
Jason Franks, writer of The Sixsmiths
