{"id":20413,"date":"2026-01-16T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=20413"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:28:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T04:28:30","slug":"nick-cagnetti-spirit-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/nick-cagnetti-spirit-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Cagnetti on Unleashing the Spirit of the Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"coverNick Cagnetti of Pink Lemonade<\/em> co-wrote the five-part comic Spirit of the Shadows <\/em><\/a>with Daniel Ziegler and also took on all the artwork. The series takes the superhero genre into the world of horror, and the first issue drops on January 28. Cemetery Dance<\/em> spoke to Cagnetti about inspiration, The Phantom of the Opera<\/em>, working with his co-writer, and some of the crazy, spooky places the story goes to.<\/p>\n

(Interview conducted by\u00a0Danica Davidson<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

CEMETERY DANCE: What was the inspiration for Spirit of the Shadows<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NICK CAGNETTI: The character was always right down the alley of classic monsters and oldschool horror, things like the Universal Monsters or German expressionist films like Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em>. I think I ended up bringing more comic book influences to the character with my involvement like Jack Kirby\u2019s The Demon<\/em>. It really is just a total blend of types of horror at the end of the day, a concoction I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s expecting!<\/p>\n

With names like Erik Leroux, is it fair to say it was partly influenced or inspired by The Phantom of the Opera<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It certainly was! Expanding on what I said about being a blend, there\u2019s some big Frankenstein <\/em>influence as well. It\u2019s really inspired by the timeless trappings of such stories and hopefully presented in a fresh way you haven\u2019t really seen before just by the nature of it being a big melting pot of our eclectic influences.<\/p>\n

What was the process like working with Daniel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He took the lead on plotting and scripting the whole thing, really finding the structure and making sure the pacing was pitch perfect. I was there from the start with him bouncing ideas off back and forth, pitching sketches of characters and moments and they all found their way into it. We went back and forth refining elements of the story till the end, just cause sometimes you find those elegant solutions.<\/p>\n