Nick Cagnetti talks The Spirit of Shadows comic

An all-new 5-part miniseries is promising to be one of the superhero-horror hits of 2026. That’s Spirit of the Shadows, with Issue No. 1 coming soon. It’s from Oni Press and created by co-writers Nick Cagnetti and Daniel Ziegler (Elodie) and featuring the first full-length artwork by Cagnetti since his  debut with 2022’s Pink Lemonade.

Oni offers this official synopsis: “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!”

Cagnetti is a cartoonist based in Arizona and a graduate of Arizona State University with experience doing storyboards and commercial art. He credits a life-long love for comic books with spurring him into creating art. His work also includes books like Infinite Wonders.  

Ziegler is a writer and filmmaker who founded Black Box Films while still  in high school as an outlet to bring his writing to life on the screen. He went on to study Film and Creative Writing at Hofstra University. While still in school, he began shaping the idea of Spirit of Shadows.

Nick fielded a few Wicked Horror questions about the new project recently. We’ll share those here as well as some of the artwork readers can expect.

WH: How did the collaborative process with Daniel Ziegler take shape? The bios from Oni Press mention that the nucleus of the idea for The Spirit of Shadows had been with Daniel for 10 years. When did you begin seriously talking about developing the narrative and visuals for the five-part series?

NC: It first started as an idea for a short film Daniel wanted to make, and then it morphed into an independent comic we did together while we were in college! That was a rougher, earlier iteration of the character and his backstory. We even did end up making a short film with the character after that, but Daniel kept polishing the ideas in the intervening years. When I was finishing up Pink Lemonade we started talking more about what us doing a new comic with the character would look like, and we got really excited by the possibilities since we’d both come into our own.

WH: How did your visuals help shape things, and did your work change any directions? I know artists are usually sketching as ideas are growing and that can often trigger inspiration.

NC: The visual components were really a strong anchor for us both because we knew getting weirder and more supernatural with it was the direction to go. This is going to be the world at large experiencing the character for the first time, so we want it to be striking. Part of that included just a whole different approach to how I drew it all so it was fresh for us as well. But yeah, a lot of it started with us just talking about things we wanted to see and me just sketching random moments or characters and it all found its way into this in some form.

WH: What did you hope to create in the look for Erik and his ultimate incarnation. What about characters such as Helena Hextress?

NC: Erik himself was always a little bit inspired visually by Cesare from Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Like I mentioned, his costumed persona got a bit of a redesign for this new book. Some of that included a mouth that could open, more of a cape, green eyes, pointed boots/gloves, and a bit of a more stocky build that I thought all fit it being a bit more bombastic. I think my art generally has just evolved to that place so this all moved to fit into that as well. Helena is a character Daniel and I are very excited about, and excited for people to meet. She was one of the hooks for this whole thing, and we settled on giving her a crazy elaborate stylish outfit. Honestly a bit of Hex Girls vibes.

WH: Some basic influences have been mentioned including Jack Kirby’s The Demon. Can you tell us about what you loved as a comics reader that helped shape this story?

NC: I think that book in particular was a huge guiding light for us both. We were passing it back and forth to each other as a constant reminder of the type of thing we were trying to tap into. Just that whole supernatural meets superhero language was really appealing to me, because the kinds of comics I like to make are a blend of things usually. This book taps into those as well as just a heck of a lot of other things we’ve been influenced by that should hopefully lend to make it something just uniquely its own.

WH: What about musical influences? Since tunes are a part of things, what styles and specific music were in. your mind in creating the characters and the world?

NC: Classical music is really important to the character. It’s an anchor to his life and his love; there’s pieces they connect on that he uses. What I mean is that early on I pitched the idea of him having these ghost powers, and he could use his violin to blast monsters with music, so he’s using the music from his memories to fight for survival in the Spirit Realm.

WH: The colors are really interesting in the preview we received of the first issue. Can you tell us a little more about the thoughts on creating the palette and also what you were going for in some of the visual shifts like the flashback near the end of issue one?

NC: It was really important to me that each segment of the story would stand out distinctively so people could tell where we are at every moment, like you’ve got the Sacred Realm, the Spirit Realm, the real world, the flashbacks… it’s a lot! The Sacred Realm has no hard panel borders, it’s soft and dreamy with pastel colors. The Spirit Realm has black borders and a really in your face almost blacklight palette. The real world is more textured and washes and slightly subdued, with normal page borders. The flashbacks stick to a more rigid palette, yellowed pages and windy imagery.

WH: Can you give us some basics about the plot for the five-part storyline? What can readers expect as they dive in to Erik’s journey?

NC: It’s a winding journey as you start and Erik has just arrived in the afterlife, being ripped away from his love, Katrina, and forced to wear the strange costume he wore as he entered the afterlife. He has to confront his life in order to be reunited with his love, but forces in the afterlife and the land of the living may not be done trying to settle scores with him. That witch Helena for instance, has a very specific grievance with Erik and she doesn’t want him to rest in peace!

Readers can place The Spirit of Shadows on their pull lists and look forward to learning more in 2026! Here’s a look at the miniseries trailer: