Really fun comic about a witch PI living in London. I'm happy I discovered this series and I am eager to read more from them!

this book gave me black widow vibe.
badass, shadow magic, spy and women empowerment. what more do you want to enjoy a graphic novel?

it was enjoyable, refreshing and funny at points, can be percieved as a start to a new world building and a series.

when we start the book we are directly thrown into the world but also walking through the protagonists eyes as we are walking through the plot and the story. for my liking the story ended fast, faster than i would like it too. and the point where they left the novel is not right. its engaging, but not enganing enough which will make you forget it after a certain amount of time.

but i did like it and will suggest it to anyone who is going out for a day, to have this book around or enjoy this book in home, as it will end in a hour or so.

•Character development- 4☆
• Story Plot- 3☆
• Side characters- 3.5☆
• Flow of the story- 3☆
• Overall - 3.5☆

This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the backstory on the main character and fell into the story right away. When is volume 2 coming out? I need to find out what happens. MI666 sounds like an interesting place to work.

Shadow Service by Cavan Scott and Corin Howell (Colourist Triona Farrell, Letterer Andworld) is a new ongoing comic series – the first bind up volume was released in April. It centres on wirch Gina Meyers, a private investigator in London, and her encounters with London’s supernatural criminal underworld and the policing agency referred to as MI666. There is some interesting stuff in here, though it is grittier than I expected going in. It’s more of a Grimdark story than a cute witchy urban fantasy. To be entirely honest, I wasn’t blown away by this first volume, but the ending left me intrigued enough to pick up the second one and give the series another chance. I feel that the characters haven’t really had too much of a chance to develop yet as it’s very action focused and I would prefer to get a bit more down time and get deep and personal with Gina and the peeps from MI666 – and yes, even with Gideon…

3.5 Stars for Shadow Service Volume 1

Thanks to NetGalley for access to this wonderful graphic novel.
While I enjoyed the overall concept and the atmosphere this novel provided, I could not help but wish that things were developed more.

It felt like I was thrust into this and taken through things at such a fast pace that there was not much time to develop the characters or the overall world in the story. Tidbits were given and this seemed like a wonderful start to more series of graphic novels in this series, but the world seemed very interesting and made me want to know much more than I was given.

I enjoyed the way that the character's powers were handled and thought it was an intriguing way to handle a witch in a story. The concept of the words always being in her head throughout her childhood and the insomnia that it gave her. I hope that will get explored more in the future.

Overall this was a wonderful detective/supernatural story that gave me a mix of MIB, Supernatural, Charmed, and Jessica Jones for very different reasons. The illustrations were wonderful and the demon designs were truly horrifying to look at which was perfect for the circumstances surrounding the novel.

While I do not know if I will be picking up Volume 2 of this Graphic Novel, I did enjoy my experience with reading through my copy of Volume 1.

Did Shadow Service lure 'me in by having an incredibly similar title design as G.I. Joe? Yes
Do I regret picking it up? Not one bit.

This is a crazy read from start to finish, and it just got weirder and weirder as it went. Then the Cliff hanger had me verbally cursing because I need to know what happens. Also, more about what in the world is going on.

An really enjoyable graphic novel, very uk based urban fantasy, looking forward to reading more in this series. Hope I don’t have to wait too long before the next one in the series.

Jamie of Black Crow PR very kindly emailed out issue one of Shadow Service for her new mailing list to enjoy. This is to say, I read it knowing absolutely nothing – I just saw the cover and thought her design looks cool.

And so I read.

One of the best decisions I made this month. In fact, upon finishing issue one I reached back out to very calmly request volume one. It doesn’t help that the ending of the first comic is a cliffhanger.

So, let’s backtrack a little. What exactly is Shadow Service about? The easiest way to describe it is to ask you to think about Jessica Jones but if she was a witch, and if the story had stronger elements of horror and gore. What’s not to love about this?

Our main character, Gina, always knew the words to summon her magical abilities but it wasn’t until a time she felt her safety depended upon it did she give them life. But in a world where the supernatural aren’t commonly known about, you can imagine the difficulties placed upon her for being so different. Especially as a child.

You learn about her childhood as it’s weaved throughout volume one, and the more we’re shown the easier it is to understand why Gina does the work she does. Her powers are very handy to find missing spouses and complete a little bit of dirty work on the side for a mysterious man.

Before she knows it her two jobs are interwoven, she realises she’s not the only one like her out there. In fact, she learns there’s a LOT more out there than she realised – cannibals and demons to name a few. The variety of power and magic we see is what really hooked me, how it helped to place most key characters as morally grey individuals.

As I stated at the beginning I was drawn in by Gina’s design, she’s got a very casual gothic kind of vibe to her which I’m all here for. Plus, she likes the colour purple. I’m sure we’d get along pretty well, even if she is incredibly ill-tempered and acts impulsively. The art throughout Shadow Service paired well with the story – especially when exploring body horror and gore. Personally, I don’t think it was over the top or too much, but I do consume a lot of horror so I never feel like a good judge on whether something is too gross, y’know?

But, I do really recommend Shadow Service! I’m pretty sure I’ll pick up a copy upon release and wait (somewhat) patiently for volume two to exist. I’m excited to see where Gina’s story goes as a lot of potential has opened up already.

Worried your partner is cheating? Need a missing person found? Gina Meyers is the Private Investigator for you. Sure, she’s a witch who worries that her powers make her more of a monster than the crooks she’s trying to catch, but it’s not like London’s criminal underworld is literally going to hell… is it? Spy craft meets black magic in the shadowy world of MI666.

---------------

What a fun and beautifully illustrated graphic novel! The blurbs also sound fine and can't wait for the next volumes! Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC

Some of my favourite Urban Fantasy is about a normal world that is unaware of the creatures that lurk in the night. Whilst we are all safely asleep, there is are demons and witches lurking around the corner. Most of us will never even know that these things exist, but what if we did require someone’s help? A witch Private Investigator could help if she can avoid getting herself killed.

Nina is special in more than one way. Not only is she being a witch, but she came across her powers naturally. The spells she casts just reside in her head. This makes her a great PI, but also extremely dangerous. Her main benefactor Quill is a fixer who uses Nina’s powers to find missing people. What happens to these people is none of Nina’s business until MI666 become involved. It appears that Nina may have spent the last few years helping some shady people and she is going to have to turn on them if she wants to avoid being trapped in an eternity of torture.

Shadow Service Volume 1 written by Cavan Scott and illustrated by Corin Howell, is a great example of a British Comic with its localisms and no-nonsense attitude. Nina personifies this as she is an anti-hero that does not trust anyone but herself. Want her to join the ‘good guys,’ try it and see what she does. Until you prove otherwise to her, MI666 are just as bad as any of the other scum she has fought against all her life.

This volume contains the first four outings of Secret Service, and it progresses a decent way down the narrative. The main story is set in the present as Nina is seeking a missing person, but also being used by MI666 to turn on her old employer, Quinn. Interspersed are flashback sequences. These mostly follow Nina and help the reader to understand why she is so mistrusting and quick to attack. They also follow other characters too and by the end of volume 4 you start to get an impression of who they are.

The remarkable thing about the world of Secret Service is that no matter how much you think you know, there is always a twist. This is a world of magic and demons so not everything is as it seems. Each section ends in a cliff-hanger and that is true of the final part found in volume 1. They do an excellent job of wanting to make you read more.

The story feels very British with local language and references to UK places. Manchester United get a cameo in the form of a football hooligan who may be a little more horrific than he first looks. It has a kitchen sink bleakness, married to high magic and horror that works brilliantly. This is all enhanced by Howell’s illustrations. The streets feel real, and they contrast against the horrific scenes of violence with the use of vibrant colours.

Shadow Service is a series that you come back to, not only because it looks great, but because the story is intriguing. There is the sense that a lot is going to happen, and that Scott will not run out of ideas anytime soon. Not only do we need to know what is going to happen to Nina and Quill, but there are so many other characters that we have learnt only a small amount about, and their backstories should prove interesting.

'Shadow Service Vol. 1: Dark Arts' by Cavan Scott with illustrations by Corin Howell is a graphic novel that tells an urban fantasy story.

Gina is a P.I. with an edge. She's a natural born witch and she has a rat familiar for helping out. When her case crosses paths with London's dark spy society, MI666, there is an initial mistrust, then they try to recruit her. Along the way, we get Gina's backstory.

This was engaging storytelling and it kept me interested from the beginning. The art is prett good too. I'd like to read more about this character and the creepy world she lives in.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Vault Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Gina Myers is a PI in London, but she has magic! She is not sure how it works and it gives her insomnia when she uses it, but she is making a living until MI666 comes calling. So think a twisted version of Harry Potter and James Bond crossed with Kingsman and the Laundry series. Gina has some strange friends that try to protect her, but will that be a help or a hindrance as she tries to survive? An nicely done intro to this world. It will be interesting to see what comes in the next volume.

I really liked the premise of this story and overall i was really intrigued by the story. But it also felt like it was too much too fast and i wished we had a bit more time to develop the characters and the story.

I really loved the illustrations and storytelling in this one. Unfortunately I was unable to finish it before it expired, but what I did read was super good. I think I need to get this one for my collection!

I received this eARC for free in exchange for an honest review, so thank you to the author and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Trigger Warnings: mentions and depictions of domestic abuse, drinking, violence, blood, gore, cannibalism, demons, death, murder, possession, rats.

I liked how this one started because I was directly immersed into the story, in the present day and we got to see the main character, Gina, at work in what she knows best. When I read this book had witches, how could I not want to read it? I loved the unique take on witchcraft, power, magic and the politics that are just subtly hidden in this book and that we start to see as the story evolves.

Something that I also really enjoyed and that helped me better understand the current events, character personalities and their feelings were the little flashbacks we got from Gina’s perspective back to when she was a child. I felt so sorry for her, but I was really intrigued about her past and I think this addition made the backstory much more solid and helped me to understand Gina’s current feelings.

The writing style and dialogue were quick and clean, nothing was added that didn’t need to be there and I just whizzed through the pages. I also really liked that the speech bubbles were kept fairly short as it made it feel even more fast-paced. The drawing style was incredible in my opinion. Very violent, bloody or gory, but I was able to really appreciate the art style which I found very accessible and I was completely lost in the drawings on each page for several minutes.

I gave this comic 4 stars and I really enjoyed it. I think it was a great choice since it has witches, magic and a lot of uniqueness that I wasn’t really expecting so it definitely took me by surprise. I didn’t mention it before, but this also has a mystery side which I loved and can’t wait to see more of! If you love witches, magic, mystery, a great and complex main character and you don’t mind violence, blood and gore or the other TWs I mentioned above, then this is the comic for you! I highly recommend it!

My full review will be up on my blog soon!

This was a decent enough read but ultimately not really anything unique enough to keep me invested. It started out fairly well, I liked the main character and I thought the way her magic worked was interesting with how it caused her to have insomnia etc, but then this is all pretty much thrown by the wayside to do a very cliched 'she gets recruited by a secret government agency' plotline. None of the other characters really stand out to me in any way at all [except for the leader of the group being a pretty blatant ripoff of Number 5 from The Umbrella Academy] and the few mildly intriguing parts [like what he's doing talking to the angel of death] are far overshadowed by how paint by numbers the rest of it is. I guess it's good if you just want a fairly simple and mindless read and I did enjoy it well enough to give it a 3 out of 5, but definitely not enough to read volume 2.

I'm grateful to the author and publishers for an advance preview of this collected volume of Shadow Service, which I'd been following as the separate parts were published. I don't often review comics on here - my mind runs on verbal rather than visual lines and I find it hard to do them justice - but this is one that really deserves some attention, so I will do my best!

This volume collects issues 1-5 of Shadow Service, introducing Gina Meyer, private investigator and witch. Gina walks the mean streets of London, where her speciality is finding the lost. The opening panels see her alone in the moody streets, before getting involved in a fight in some dive... but they also introduce a sense of pervasive surveillance when we realise that somebody is watching Gina.

That early fight leads into pretty much non-stop action, as you'd expect with Gina discovering that her apparently straightforward occupation has led to her becoming involved in a complex and fraught battle touching on organised crime, demonic powers and blackmail - and that a department of Government, nicknamed MI666, are also players here. (I loved that fact that their HQ was in "Carnacki House").

The story operates on two timelines, jumping back (mainly at the start of each issue, if you are reading them that way) to show Gina's earlier life and how she came to be a witch. Or perhaps I should say, how her powers manifested - because she states that they were always there, as words in her mind, words she learned to deploy as weapons or tools but never understood before that. Hers is a powerful and raw emotional backstory which explains why she is something of a loner (she has one friend - the talking rat called Edgar, though he may not be quite what we imagine). That accounts, I think, for Gina's reluctance to sign up with the spooks once they reel her in - though she is impressed by their powers and resources, she definitely doesn't trust them and prefers to do things her own way. It's only going to lead to trouble, I think.

Overall, a turbulent, twisty story which covers a lot of ground. Gina is a determined and resourceful protagonist who perhaps acts a little impulsively but whose heart is in the right place but there is a mystery about her true nature.

The overall visual tone of Shadow Service is sombre - it's often night time, the story dwelling on scruffy alleyways, empty offices, bars and gyms whose greyness often ends overwritten with blood and gore. Allies here are provisional, and sometimes the best way forward is to offer up one's very soul for trade...

At the time of writing I hadn't seen Issue 6, which leads into a new story arc, and I have to say, I am very impatient for that - here's hoping that with lockdown lifting I can get back to favourite comic shop and pick that up!

This was such a fun book! With quite the interesting premise! I really liked the characters and the chaotic vibe this book gives off! I look forward to the next one!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I read and loved issue 1 of this graphic novel. The art style is bright and interesting and I really like witchy graphic novels. It's a little different from my usual graphic novel picks, but is absolutely fascinating. The idea of a witchy private investigator is fantastic, and I really liked Gina's character and am looking forward to seeing more of the witch meets spy aspects.

I was accepted for the full volume 1 on 22/02/2021 but unfortunately I then became ill and by the time I was well enough to read, the download had archived, so I can't speak for issues 2 through 4. However, if they're on par with issue 1, I'm sure they're just as enjoyable and once it's out in paperback I'll be sure to look out for it so I can finish this volume!

This comic was amazing! This is not my typical style of genre but throughly enjoy my time reading it and was surprised when I saw I was almost done! I can’t wait to read the next volume already! Thanks again for the eARC!