Yes, the first episode of the new series of Black Shuck starts in the new issue of 2000 AD today! Are you excited? We’re excited!
Written by us, with pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colours by Chris Blythe, and letters by Ellie De Ville.
And that’s a hell of a cover, isn’t it? Bizarre to get a glimpse of how different Shuck might look in the hands of another artist
Order or download 2000 AD 1983 right now. If you have already read it, join us for some extras below.
- Track One on the Black Shuck 2 soundtrack: Black Curse by Navajo Witch
We were thrilled when Tharg asked us to pitch a second series of Black Shuck. The first draft of the pitch got a bit over complicated (and had a kind of side thing going on with a group of were-boars) but the second draft turned out to be a really good balance of stuff we had in the first series and extra English weirdness.
So, would you like to see some process stuff? First of all let me just say that you’re getting some of my own roughs here as opposed to Leah’s, so brace yourselves.
Here’s the script for those first two pages:
BLACK SHUCK 2
#1 “Hunter’s Moon”
Page One
This is a three panel page with three tiers.
EXTERIOR, SUNSET for Panel One, EXTERIOR, DAYLIGHT for Panel Two, EXTERIOR, MOONLIGHT for Panel Three.
Panel One
This is an atmospheric shot of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk showing the ruined portion. The sun is sinking behind the ruins making the whole thing seem very magical and eerie. There are three captions.
Cap: Saint Mary’s Abbey was founded by Ranulf de Glanville, Lord Chief Justice to King Henry II, in Suffolk, England, in1182 A.D.
Cap: Some say the abbey was built upon a site already occupied by a place of worship for many generations.
Cap: By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, almost four centuries later, Leiston Abbey as it was then known, was crumbling.
Panel Two
This is a shot of the archaeological trench dug at the Abbey which was found to contain the bones of a gigantic dog. There are plenty of online sources for the image but feel free to re-imagine the whole thing to make it a bit more exciting or dynamic. They are the bones of a big dog with big sharp teeth, not the bones of anything else though. We can perhaps see a measuring stick laid down next to the trench and some downed tools and paraphernalia nearby. The are three captions.
Cap: A campaign of thorough archaeological investigations of the by now ancient ruins began in 2013.
Cap: Then, in May 2014, a startling discovery was made.
Cap: The grave of a gigantic canine – more than seven feet tall, had the creature stood upright – was uncovered.
Cap: Within hours the UK media had dubbed the trench “The Grave of Black Shuck”.
Panel Three
This is a shot of a non-specific bit of flat, east Anglian countryside (though it might be close to the Abbey). It is dark, a large and luminous full moon in the sky. Outlines against the moon we can see the shaggy form of a huge black dog, baying at the moon. We can’t see anything of the creature’s eye or features, just it’s outline, which could just possibly be mistaken for that of our own Black Shuck. There are three captions.
Cap: England, and East Anglia in particular, has a rich folklore concerning dog-things – huge, shaggy, creatures said to haunt the lonely moors and coastal pathways.
Cap: Further north such legendary beasts were (and sometimes still are) referred to as Barghests or “Bear-ghosts”.
Cap: On the eastern coast they have long been known as Black Shuck, however; a name that goes back as far as the 9th century, and some say even further…
Page Two
This is a three panel page with one tier wide panel at the top, one squarish panel below that on the left, and one large not-quite-two-thirds-splash taking up the rest of the page. Just a note to you, Steve, to say that I’m thinking of this entire three page sequence very much in terms of a Hellboy monster fight with that kind of pacing and structure – big wide open action to show the monsters in all their glory. EXTERIOR, MOONLIGHT throughout.
Panel One
Here we have a great big full moon in the sky once again but we’re looking out across the treetops of a Scandinavian pine forest. If you wanted to add a bit of extra texture we could have an owl flying towards us or a distant flock of birds disturbed from their roost taking a sudden and panicked flight. There is one time/place caption and one slimy, monster-y FX.
Cap: Fyrke, Scandinavia, 815 A. D.
FX: SKREEEEE
Panel Two
This small squarish panel is a shot of Black Shuck – in his were-beast form – being hurled bodily into the trunk of a mighty tree with incredible force. Shuck has been lifted not just off his feet, but clean off the ground to slam into the tree, and we can see that it is the tail of some huge beast which has struck him. One detail I’d like to add here is that, when he is human, we’d like Shuck to be a little bit more shaggy looking then previously – longer hair and beard and a bit more of a Viking now he’s naturalised. I don’t know if that would or should effect the look of the beast-Shuck too much but maybe he’s a bit shaggier? There is one FX the blow from the tail.
FX: THWAK
Panel Three
This panel shows us what Black Shuck is up against. It’s a Lagarfljótsormur or legless dragon/wyrm, and it’s head is in the top right of the panel. The creature’s slime dripping mouth is open wide as if it’s about to strike towards us/the bottom left foreground of the page. We want this to be something like a horrible huge eel, or lamprey, or indeed one of the Graboids from Tremors as much as an actual dragon so lets try to make it a monster to remember with some weird characteristics. We’ll be seeing its skull again later so that needs to be distinctive and interesting. I’m thinking it’s probably eyeless. The creature’s head is as big as a car and it’s tree trunk thick body is easily 60 to a 100 feet long. The oily looking serpentine body is coiled, it’s tail whipping violently. The creature is already cut and bleeding with Shuck’s sword (an oversized one from the Troll King’s horde) sticking out of it’s head. It has come out of some icy lake nearby (which we might even be able to see in the background if there’s room). Shuck is visible as the back/side of his head in the left foreground. There is one drippy FX from the creature and one ballon from Black Shuck (in his usual monster style).
FX: SKRAAAW
Shuck: My blade!
Shuck: So, you hungerrr, Lagarfljót?
Here are Steve Yeowell’s inks:
And here are the final coloured and lettered pages:
One thing you may have noticed is that most of what’s on that first page is true. Well, sort of. This time last year in 2014 The Daily Mail (and soon the rest of the world) ran the story about a gigantic skeleton discovered at Leiston Abbey, Suffolk.
As it turned out, the dog’s bones were found to date from 1650-1690, 1730-1810, or post 1920, but let’s not let that get in the way of a good story. Something that you’ll see in this second series is a lot more reference to UK folklore, especially that surrounding the Black Dog legends. There on page two however, we have a good old Norse/Icelandic monster (which Steve has added some brilliantly weird details to) – the Lagarfljótsormur, or Lagarfljót Worm. Back in 2012 an Icelander named Hjörtur Kjerúlf filmed one of these supposedly mythical creatures… or maybe it was just some rope or an old fishing net caught in a current beneath the ice… Anyway, yeah, it’s all basically true, even the stuff about were-beasts (obviously).
Forget about Old Stinker though, because Black Shuck is back!
[Edit: Steve Yeowell’s full inks for this first part are now online at http://www.2000adonline.com/post/465]