“The Cold Hand of Death Has Chosen One Man to Escape the Grave” in Exclusive Trailer Premiere and Q&A for Nick Cagnetti and Daniel Ziegler’s New Limited Series SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS, Coming January 28th from Oni Press!

"The cold hand of death has chosen one man to escape the grave" in the pursuit of otherworldly vengeance in Spirit of the Shadows. A new limited series from writer/artist Nick Cagnetti and writer Daniel Ziegler, Spirit of the Shadows will summon the first of its five issues in comic book shops on January 28th from Oni Press, and we're thrilled to exclusively premiere the atmospheric trailer for the new series ahead of its anticipated debut, along with an insightful Q&A with Nick Cagnetti and writer Daniel Ziegler!

Below, you can check out the exclusive trailer premiere and our full Q&A with Nick and Daniel, along with a look at the stunning cover art and preview pages from Spirit of the Shadows #1!

To keep up to date on Spirit of the Shadows and other exciting releases, be sure to visit:

• https://www.onipress.com/

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us, Nick and Daniel, and congratulations on Spirit of the Shadows! How and when did you initially come up with the idea for this comic book series?

Daniel: This story and character has actually been with us for over a decade, first starting out as a film script I wrote out of high school before Nick and I adapted it into a very different, small-scale independent comic in college. After Pink Lemonade was released, Nick expressed some interest in perhaps giving Spirit of the Shadows a proper comic treatment, so we began discussing what the ultimate form of this story might look like.

Nick: Yeah, I was finishing up Pink Lemonade when Daniel and I started talking about resurrecting the character. It really morphed into a more evolved version of itself with different characters and concepts but some of the same core ones too. We’ve grown in our crafts and we wanted to find the fresh hooks that made it irresistible for us to return while also introducing it to the world at large for the first time. We found those hooks pretty instantly and it all fell into place!

What is the collaborative writing process like when you’re both working on the script? Do you go back and forth a lot, or do you each take lead on specific scenes?

Daniel: It started by just having a ton of conversations about what this story could be, what disjointed ideas we imagined and how they could all fit together in a way that made sense. I’m a big believer in structure and pre-planning, so I made sure we had a complete scene-by-scene outline we were both happy with before a single word was written on the actual script. After that, I took the lead on writing the scripts and dialogue, always leaving room for Nick to be creative with the page layouts and visual storytelling. Every step of the way we would bounce ideas back and forth if things got stuck.

Nick: It was really exciting being able to get to such a clear picture of what the whole thing would be right from the start. I think for me on Pink Lemonade there were the broad strokes planned out but issue to issue it was more seeing where it took me in part. Funnily I think some of that spirit is still here in Spirit where at times certain elements could be changed pretty late into the game, always after us just talking and working things out further—finding the most elegant solutions!

Nick, I absolutely love your artwork for Spirit of the Shadows—the vibrant color palette really draws you into the story and evokes the vibes of your previous Oni Press comic book series Pink Lemonade. How much fun did you have bringing your unique visual style to the Spirit World in this series?

Nick: Oh, so much fun! I really expanded on things I’ve tried before and tried plenty of new tricks as well. I loved giving more of a blacklight in-your-face palette to the Spirit World scenes. The “living world” has things sometimes a little more subdued and with washy textures. The flashbacks stick to a more rigid color palette and aren’t inked. The Sacred Realm has a real surreal pastel vibe. Not to mention all page borders change with all those as well, just really tried to make everything super clear and different where we’re at in the story.

Do you each have a favorite moment that you’re especially excited for readers to experience when they read Spirit of the Shadows for the first time?

Daniel: I think the first issue ends in a way that will surprise and excite people and set up what the rest of the run will be building towards. We show you two moments from this character’s life, one early and one near the end of it, and they couldn’t be more different. I’m excited for readers to fill in the gaps between those in the issues that follow, with every new revelation challenging your beliefs and assumptions.

Nick: I think every issue really ends on some juicy parts if you’re invested in the story (which you should be, it’s crazy good!) What’s exciting for me too is how that first read will be something completely different from when you revisit it, because it’s something that should be really rewarding if you’re paying attention, like there’s things that get revealed you can read into completely different the next time or things that are drawn in the world that you might not think twice about at first but are there for big reasons- we tried to think about it all to make it feel real!

From the first draft to the final version, approximately how long did it take you to write and illustrate this five-issue arc of Spirit of the Shadows?

Daniel: We began toying with the possibility of a proper comic as early as 2021-2022, but the steady work began in early 2023. It only took a few months to get to a solid outline for the whole five issue run, then the final scripts took another two years, in between work on some film projects.

Nick: We really began fleshing it all out right when Pink Lemonade was finishing coming out in early 2023 and I started drawing pages in summer of 2023. I had some other short story projects and covers in between and some heavy life stuff, but it’s all done now and ready to be unleashed on the world!

Were you each influenced or inspired by any other comics, movies, books, TV shows, or video games while working on Spirit of the Shadows?

Daniel: There were so many influences every step of the way, from things we both love. The spark came from my desire to create a character in the style of the Universal Classic Monsters, and the world was further built out with a Gothic romance baseline. We wanted it to be spooky but not horrific, so we leaned into the light-horror media we love, such as Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction, and Scooby-Doo.

Nick: I think part of what makes Spirit of the Shadows such a unique comic is that blend of our influences and love of these classic horror archetypes. There was a lot of passing Jack Kirby’s The Demon around as a blueprint, I think bringing back the character for us required bringing more bombastic supernatural energy to it and that I think is the secret ingredient!

Spirit of the Shadows will initially be released as a five-issue series, but do you have plans to continue this story beyond the fifth issue if given the opportunity?

Daniel: I think the way this story wraps up is a very satisfying conclusion, but it places the characters in a new status quo so if there’s ever a desire to see more from them, I think we can certainly find some new angles to continue their stories without undercutting this limited series. And as I said before, this entire concept started out as a film, so my ultimate hope is to one day get to adapt it into a feature—I’ve already got a screenplay!

Nick: We’ve got this world pretty fleshed out and it should be a really tight and satisfying five-issue series, much like Pink Lemonade, it’s a story that stands on its own but there’s room for more of it. I think it’s left in a way that a continuation needs to be pretty different yet again, which I think is exciting. Lots of possibilities we’d love to tackle!

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Spirit of the Shadows?

Daniel: Most of all I hope they let their guard down and let us take them on this crazy journey. There’s a lot to engage with here on a deep level if they’re open to it, but there’s also a lot of fun to be had with the spooky atmosphere and supernatural action that leads the way.

Nick: Hopefully people engage with the questions the story asks about morality and forgiveness. There’s a lot of uncomfortable truths and I wonder who anybody will be rooting for at the end of the day, but I’m intrigued to see what everybody says! Yeah, also should just be a fun time as well because it’s told through a fun stylish lens that should be approachable!

What has it been like to work with the team at Oni Press as you prepare to summon Spirit of the Shadows into comic book shops?

Daniel: As the newcomer between the two of us, I can say they’ve been very welcoming and supportive. It really helps when you have people championing the book that seem to genuinely believe in its potential. The passion behind this story from top to bottom will hopefully shine through and set it apart from the other books on the stands.

Nick: They’ve been great—I think since I’ve started with them releasing Pink Lemonade they’ve been restructuring their whole approach and making some waves with the types of books they’re putting out. I appreciate that they’re so creator focused and I think my independent books work well there because they don’t fit cleanly into a box. They put out unique stuff and I’m confident this book fits that bill.

What advice would you give to comic book writers and artists who are just getting started?

Daniel: If you’ve got a creative itch, just start creating. Don’t wait for permission and don’t wait for perfection. Find some like-minded people who share your drive and your interests, and put your work out into the world in whatever way you can. And finish what you start, because something imperfect that exists is always going to be more helpful than something perfect that never sees the light of day.

Nick: Just make stuff, work on it as often as you can and eventually you’ll build a body of work that keeps growing along with you and your skills. I think Spirit of the Shadows is living (dead) proof of that because we literally made a rougher unpolished version of the character as a comic a decade ago hardly anybody saw. Because we’ve done so much different stuff since then we could come back to the character, and make it something completely different that was a lot more polished.

With Spirit of the Shadows #1 coming out on January 28th from Oni Press, what other projects do you each have coming up that you can tease for our readers?

Daniel: I hope to have more opportunities to work in comics after Spirit is released, but I’m primarily a filmmaker, and I have a new short film I wrote and directed called Horror Spell. That’s playing exclusively at film festivals right now, but should be available online at some point right around the same time as the comic’s publication run. Nick helped with the production design of that film too, coming up with some killer designs for our pumpkin-headed villain.

Nick: I wanna see Daniel working on some more comics, too! I co-created a character with Zack Quaintance called the Responsibili-Teen (which is an insane, timely Spider-Man parody, of course) and I’m drawing a new story with that character. I’ve got some super top secret projects I’m gonna be busy with in 2026 that I’m really excited about because it’s easily the biggest thing I’ve had the chance to do yet. I think Spirit of the Shadows is gonna knock people out compared to what most people have seen from me before.

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From the Press Release: OUTRAGEOUSLY OTHERWORLDLY AND BACK FROM THE GRAVE WITH A SCORE TO SETTLE! Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997, invites readers into a spectacularly terrifying new vision of the underworld in this extended excerpt from SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS #1, the arresting new limited series from the phantasmagorical minds of breakout cartoonist Nick Cagnetti (Pink Lemonade, XINO) and Daniel Ziegler (Elodie). Arriving in comic shops on January 28, SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS #1 features the first full-length artwork by Nick Cagnetti since his extraordinary debut with 2022’s PINK LEMONADE.

“I guarantee you're not going to find another comic on the stands right now quite like this one—from the story to the art, my friend Daniel and I really tried to create something cohesive and evocative in the way that only this medium can provide,” said co-writer and cartoonist Nick Cagnetti. “To achieve that, I put a lot of care into differentiating styles and techniques for each of the settings the story goes to make them each feel distinct. You're swept up in this dreamlike haze alongside the main character, and you go through all the emotions and revelations alongside him. The end result should really make for a rewarding experience you can reread and look at completely differently the next time, but I'm envious for readers to experience that ride for the first time here soon!”

Once, Erik Leroux was a mortal musician, selflessly devoted to his music and his true love, Katrina . . . until his sudden death plunged his soul into the carnival-like torments of the Spirit World beyond our own. Now, reborn as a phantom with fleeting memories of his life among the living, and forever cursed to bear the arcane costume his corpse wore to the grave, Erik will claw his way back from the infernal planes to uncover the mysteries of his own life . . . and avenge the dark sins that transformed him into the SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS!

“Introducing an entirely new world can be one of the most daunting tasks as a writer, so what better way to immerse the reader than to immediately place them in the shoes of the protagonist?” said co-writer Daniel Ziegler. “As Erik pieces together the forgotten fragments of his life, readers will also embark on that same journey of discovery and revelation, and may find themselves facing more than one moral quandary in the process. This extended preview gives you a taste of the various worlds and varying styles that Nick and I use throughout the series to tell this wholly unique parallel narrative of love, loss, and revenge that we couldn’t be more proud of.”

The artistically dazzling and emotionally gut-wrenching new addition to the canon of creator-owned superheroes rises into comic shops everywhere on January 28th, 2026, featuring covers by Nick Cagnetti (Pink Lemonade) David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-Man), Karl Kerschl (Gotham Academy), and Matt Lesniewski (Faceless & The Family). Don’t miss this day-glo hybrid of Jack Kirby’s THE DEMON, Mike Allred’s MADMAN, and Todd McFarlane’s SPAWN — with an eye-catching style and gripping narrative hook that’ll keep you searching the endless underworld for the next page of the story…

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SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS #1 (of 5)
WRITTEN BY NICK CAGNETTI & DANIEL ZIEGLER
ART BY NICK CAGNETTI
COVER A BY NICK CAGNETTI
COVER B BY DAVID LAFUENTE
COVER C BY KARL KERSCHL
COVER D BY MATT LESNIEWSKI
FULL ART VARIANT (1:10) BY NICK CAGNETTI
B&W VARIANT (1:20) BY MATT LESNIEWSKI
FULL ART VARIANT (1:50) BY KARL KERSCHL
ON SALE JANUARY 28, 2026 | $4.99 | 32 PGS | FC
IOD: 11/29/25
FOC: 1/5/26

Exclusive Trailer:

COVER A BY NICK CAGNETTI

COVER B BY DAVID LAFUENTE

COVER C BY KARL KERSCHL

COVER D BY MATT LESNIEWSKI

FULL ART VARIANT (1:10) BY NICK CAGNETTI

B&W VARIANT (1:20) BY MATT LESNIEWSKI

FULL ART VARIANT (1:50) BY KARL KERSCHL

SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS #1 INTERIOR ART BY NICK CAGNETTI