#About
Lee Moder was not just an artist I worked with. He was one of my closest friends, someone who stayed at my house. He was Uncle Lee to my kids. He was an incredibly gifted artist and an amazing collaborator. He was an artist’s artist, a guy whom other artists looked at and wondered, “How does he do that?” There was such life and bounce to his characters, such fluid grace to his storytelling. Lee’s work did not look like that of anybody else, and nobody else’s work looks like Lee’s. He was one of one, and I miss him like hell.
Shinku was by no means our only collaboration, but it was probably the one that meant the most to both of us. Lee would always refer to her as “our girl” whenever we talked about the story. After the initial five-issue arc, Lee drew a sixth issue and part of a seventh before other distractions arrived. It was always our intention to go back to Shinku and tell the rest of the story. You always think you have more time. All the time in the world.
When Lee died – it’s honestly still hard to write that phrase so bluntly – all the Shinku original artwork eventually made it to me, including the unpublished pages and covers. It took me a while to muster the courage to face that stack of artwork, and then a while more to decide on the best way to honor Lee with it. Shinku Complete is the result. I hope it’s a fitting tribute.
- Ron Marz
SHINKU is the blood-splattered tale of a modern samurai hunting down a clan of ancient vampires in the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo. Created by writer Ron Marz and artist Lee Moder, SHINKU was hailed as an action-horror masterpiece, releasing an acclaimed five-issue collection.
Moder tragically passed away two years ago, leaving behind nearly two full additional issues of SHINKU, plus a wealth of covers, pin-ups, and designs. SHINKU COMPLETE contains the previous material, as well as all of Lee’s unpublished story pages, artwork, and explorations. It’s a bloody love letter to vampire tales, samurai stories, and a brilliant artist taken from us far too soon.
#Preview
Unreleased Stjepan Sevic wraparound cover:
#Bios
Ron Marz began his comics career with an acclaimed run on Silver Surfer, before moving on the Green Lantern, where he created the Kyle Rayner character. In this three decades of writing comics, he has worked for every major publisher and penned dozens of titles, including Thor, Superboy, Star Wars, Witchblade, the epic Marvel vs. DC crossover, Batman vs. Aliens, and many more. Ron teamed with Andy Lanning on DC’s recent Endless Winter crossover.
Lee Moder began his career at Malibu Comics in 1992. The following year, he took over as artist on William Messner-Loebs’s Wonder Woman run, before moving on to pencil Legion of Super-Heroes in 1994. He would continue to draw the title regularly until its 100th issue in 1998, collaborating with writers like Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Tom Peyer. He and Geoff Johns then introduced Courtney Whitmore in 1999’s Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., after which time Moder began to prioritize work for other companies, drawing Highlander and Painkiller Jane at Dynamite in the mid-to-late 2000s. He and Ron Marz teamed up on the 2008 Top Cow fantasy series Dragon Prince, 2011’s samurai horror Shinku, and the 2014 digital comic strip The Mucker: The Adventures of Billy Byrne, based on the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Other work by Moder included Red Sonja, the first issue of Barb Wire from 1994, 2001’s Captain America Annual, and a 2011 special revisiting his roots, DC RetroActive: Wonder Woman – The 90s.
#Stretch Goals
$7,000 - 5 additional pin-ups by a quintet of artists will be added to the back of the book!
#Timeline
The book is in production and should be ready to go to the printer within 2 months after the campaign is over. Printing and shipping should take another 3 months after that, so delivery of rewards is expected to be done around November 2025.
Zoop will always be here to communicate with supporters should any delays occur, if there’s confusion about delivery, or if any other concerns pop up.