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Shadowman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by Valiant Comics. The character debuted in ''Shadowman'' #1 (May 1992), and was created by writers Jim Shooter and Steve Englehart, artist David Lapham and inker Bob Layton. Shadowman appears in his own series as well as numerous other Valiant comics and also stars in the ''Shadow Man'' video game franchise by Acclaim Entertainment. Shadowman is a lineage and four characters have taken up the mantle thus far in the comics and video games. The series protagonist is Jack Boniface. Since his introduction, Shadowman has been a key character in the Valiant Universe and has been among the most popular characters created in the last 25 years selling over 5.3 million copies to date with 80 issues published. Shadowman comics have been translated into a number of languages including German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Filipino and Chinese among others. Shadowman is so tied to the city of New Orleans that New Orleans mayor Sidney Barthelemy officially proclaimed January 17 as “Shadowman Day.” Shadowman has also had great success in video games, selling over 2 million copies and garnering an IGN rating of 9.1/10 for the first game. ''Shadow Man'' also garnered a 93% rating for ''N64 Magazine'', the same score as N64 favorites Donkey Kong 64 and Mario Kart 64. ''Shadow Man'' was named one of the “Top 20 Black Characters in Gaming by BET. IGN.com named ''Shadow Man'' the N64 game of the month for August 1999. And IGN.com also named ''Shadow Man'' one of the three most important Black characters on the N64 saying "Shadow Man is one of the strongest, most uncompromising characters in any game on any platform." The Shadowman video game was released around the world and translated into a number of languages including German, Russian, Spanish, French and Italian among others. ==Publication history== ''Shadowman'' debuted in 1992 as a flagship title in the Valiant Universe and quickly became one of the industry’s most popular comic books. After just one year in publication, ''Shadowman'' was selling over 100,000 comics books a month. By its second year, ''Shadowman'' was outselling long-standing industry stalwarts from Marvel Comics and DC Comics including Batman, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Ghost Rider, and even the Justice League of America. ''Shadowman'' continued strongly with sales in the hundreds of thousands of books per month (ultimately selling more than 5 million copies altogether) until 1996 when Acclaim Entertainment, which bought Valiant for $65 million, started a new ''Shadowman'' series under the Acclaim Comics banner. Acclaim focused on adapting ''Shadowman'' for video games. In preparation for the leap to video games a new more action oriented Shadowman took up the mask in comics. The second series of comics (spelled ''Shadow Man'') featured the iteration of Shadowman that would gain huge popularity in the successful Shadow Man video game franchise. In 1999, ''Shadow Man'' was released on the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC formats to a tremendous critical and commercial response. The game is one of the video game industry’s most acclaimed, garnering a rating of 9.1/10 on the prestigious IGN website. Acclaim launched a third ''Shadowman'' comic book series in conjunction with the highly anticipated sequel to the first ''Shadow Man'' video game. The sequel entitled Shadow Man: 2econd Coming was a hit and a third game in the series began development. The sequel, ''Shadow Man: 2econd Coming'' was released in 2002 as a PlayStation 2 exclusive. In all the ''Shadow Man'' franchise has sold over 2 million copies and grossed close to 100 million dollars in revenues making it one of Acclaim's greatest success stories. The series proved so popular that Nintendo released a special ''Shadow Man'' themed limited edition N64 console that has become a sought after collectible. In 2006, a campaign was begun by fans to make the ''Shadow Man'' series of games available for download on the Nintendo Wii system. A tremendous roster of legendary creators have worked on ''Shadowman'' characters and storylines including current Marvel Comics Editor-in Chief Joe Quesada, former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, Sin City co-director Frank Miller, Garth Ennis, Rob Liefeld, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jamie Delano, Steve Ditko, David Lapham, Rags Morales, Fabian Nicieza, Jim Starlin, Bob Layton, Jimmy Palmiotti, Walt Simonson and Ashley Wood among many others. With issue seven Bob Hall took over writing chores and continued as the primary writer on the book until the first "Shadowman" run ended with issue 43. As of issue ten he took over penciling the book as well. Over 80 ''Shadowman'' comics have been published to date, selling more than 5 million copies. Shadowman also guest starred in a number of Valiant comics, most notably "Unity" and "Unity 2000". Acclaim shut down all comic book publishing in 2002 in anticipation of a bankruptcy filing of its parent company after suffering heavy losses from its licensed sports video games. Valiant Entertainment are the current owners of the Valiant catalog. Shadowman has had his likeness transferred to many other mediums in addition to comic books and video games including trading cards, posters, apparel, jewelry, lithographs, high end collectibles and more. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shadowman (comics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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