Ben Sears’s Young Shadow is a plucky do-gooder in a fantasy-like sci-fi world, the sort of unabashedly good guy who would save a dog and tail suspicious looking cops. Framed as a sort of naive superhero, the character has been having adventures for about a decade, first in self-published comics and then in his debut trade paperback, released by Fantagraphics in 2021.
Fantagraphics
His latest outing, Young Shadow & The Watchdogs, sidelines the vigilante of the night-style adventures and dives, instead, into a goofy, spooky bit of fantasy baseball. In fact, Young Shadow himself takes a back seat for most of the adventure. The Watchdogs – a group of attentive children Young Shadow appears to utilize for his information network – need to practice up for an upcoming game against an uppity team of prep school kids; when one member, Elmore, discovers a cursed baseball glove, the whole team (and Young Shadow) are transported to a mystical world filled with monsters. There, a professional team of skeletons challenges them to a game. The stakes: their eternal freedom.
All of this sounds delightfully whimsical, and it is. Ben Sears packs the book with heart and charm, both narratively and artistically. The cartooning is top-notch, the world packed with rich, fantastical detail and supernatural sight gags.
Most notable, however, is the book’s color. The book feels luminous in its shades of black, white, and bright yellow, making it even more visually arresting than the already masterful pen, ink, and dingy shading work might be on its own. A lemon-yellow book filled with a lemon-yellow world certainly stands out on the YA comic stands.
Fantagraphics
It’s an adventurous and humorous book: the supernatural world the boys inhabit is filled with ghouls and jack o’ lanterns, ancient ruins, and Escher-like architecture through which the baseline leads our players. Small verbal gags proliferate, providing a delightfully dry humor that avoids the usual children’s comic simplicity.
Young Shadow & the Watchdogs expands the world established in the first book, and it does so by playing it straight. There are no continuity foibles, no need to read the first volume to enjoy this one. This is a wholly unique, wholly singular book, ready to hook a reader and start a lifelong fandom.
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