“What becomes of a nation’s heroes, after they’ve won the war that lost an empire?”

Shades is a two-volume, action-packed graphic novel set in the UK in the closing years of the Twentieth Century. In a story spanning five thousand years of British history, it asks the question “What makes a hero?” and examines the characteristics and traits that have come to define the British national psyche.

In the first of the two volumes, illustrated by Harsho Mohan Chattoraj, retired tailor Stanley Miller is seeking only to heal the rift in his relationship with his daughter. However, shadowy forces from the past are gathering, and he finds himself instead trying to reunite a motley band of one-time heroes against the growing threat to the nation. Heroes that include the First Century warrior queen Boudicca, a World War 2 fighter pilot, and a prehistoric shaman!

The second and concluding volume, illustrated by E.C. Nickel and coloured by Muamal Khairi, opens with Stanley Miller and his motley group of heroes still reeling from the traumatic events of Volume 1. Meanwhile, assisted by his allies (the religious zealot Credo and a group of genetically enhanced mercenaries) the ancient mystic Bedlam makes his move to seize control of the UK!