nightshift

A man does spiritual warfare the way a tradesman does call-outs: at night, competently, without spectacle. His weapon is a declaration spoken out loud. The demons panic; he does not.

18 pieces

The declarations are Apostle Delmar Coward Jr.’s, from The Way of Fire, not invented for the pictures.

Anime illustration in near-black and warm gold. A small, tidy, almost empty room at night with a curtained window and a shut door. A man lies face down on a rug in the centre of the bare wooden floor, forehead to the boards, hands flat in front of him. The only light is a faint glow from a closed book on a low shelf behind him. — Face Down
Before any of it. A small clean room with everything unnecessary carried out of it, and a man on the floor with his face in the rug. Nothing is glowing. Nothing is drawn.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. Two men sit on the floor of a small tidy room at night, level with each other. On the left an older Black man in his seventies with close-cropped white hair, a white beard and a well-made dark jacket over an open collar sits with his back to the wall, knees up, reading glasses in one hand, mid-sentence. On the right a younger Black and East Asian man sits cross-legged on a rug, listening. Between them on the floor lies a closed worn book giving off a low golden glow that lights both their faces from below. — He Sits On The Floor
The man who taught him what he knows. He is seventy-odd and he does not stand over anybody. He sits on the floor, takes his glasses off, and talks.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. A man kneels upright on a rug in a small tidy room, eyes closed, head tipped slightly back, palms open on his knees. Golden light pours down from above and outside the frame, breaking over his head and shoulders, filling the room and catching the dust in the air. His face is calm and at peace. — It Arrives
The light comes down from outside and breaks over him. It never starts in his chest. That distinction is the whole theology of the series and it is the easiest thing in the world to draw wrong.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. In a small tidy room at night, a man rises from a rug with his dark overcoat on, a worn book held in one hand, turning toward a shut door. The last of a golden light from above is fading off his shoulders. His expression is calm and settled. — The Easy Part
Coat on, book in hand, the gold fading off him, turning toward the door. He has already done the part that mattered.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration in near-black and gold. A Black and East Asian man kneels on the floorboards of a dark bedroom, holding in one hand the rectangular section of floor he has just lifted clear, looking down into the opening it came out of. In the cavity lies a single plain worn book, and hard golden light escapes from between its closed pages, lighting his face and the ceiling. It is the only light in the room. — It’s Been A While
He lifts a floorboard in an ordinary bedroom. There are no guns under it, only a worn book with hard gold light escaping between its closed pages. His face is not excitement. It is a man who hoped he would not need this tonight.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. An ordinary suburban apartment doorway stands open at night with warm hallway light and coats on hooks visible inside. Dozens of small gaunt shadow-creatures pour out of it in a panicking torrent, scrambling over one another. A man leans calmly against the door frame with his hands in his pockets, not looking at them. — They Let Themselves Out
He has not drawn anything. He is standing to one side of the door with his hands in his pockets, waiting for them to finish leaving. They are going because he arrived.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration in near-black and gold. In a dark stairwell a man shoulders a translucent rifle made of golden light, his mouth open mid-sentence, a thread of light running from his mouth into the weapon. From the muzzle a lance of golden letters reading YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE streams up the stairs in perspective and bursts against a gaunt shadow-creature at the top. — You Have No Authority Here
The sentence is the ammunition. He speaks, the words leave the muzzle as a lance of gold, and the thing at the top of the stairs comes apart where they land.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration, close and low. A Black and East Asian man fills the left of the frame, mouth open mid-shout, shouldering a translucent rifle made of golden light. From its muzzle an enormous blast of gold fills the right half of the frame, carrying the letters GET OUT into a disintegrating shadow-mass. — Get Out
The loudest frame in the series and the shortest sentence in it.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. A man strides through a long flooded underpass in ankle-deep black water, shouldering a rifle of golden light, mouth open mid-sentence. From the muzzle the words I HAVE DOMINION stream the length of the tunnel in perspective, reflected in the water below, while gaunt shadow-creatures scatter along both walls. — I Have Dominion
Not a boast. A statement of jurisdiction, made out loud, in a flooded underpass, to things that already know it is true.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. In an ordinary living room with a lamp on and family photographs on the wall, a man holds a rifle of golden light level, mouth open mid-sentence. From the muzzle the words LET HER GO cross the room and pass through a many-handed shadow clamped around a young woman’s head, blowing it apart into ash. She stands upright and unhurt, eyes opening, lit warm. — Let Her Go
The shot hits the thing on the person, never the person. She is standing there unhurt with it coming off her. That distinction is the whole ethic of the series.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. In a wrecked apartment corridor at night a man stands at the left holding a rifle of golden light level, mouth open mid-sentence. From the muzzle the words PAY THE DAMAGES recede down the hallway in perspective, lighting the ruined walls, as a shadow-creature flees away and comes apart into ash. — Pay The Damages
Apostle’s line, and the least intuitive one: do not settle for breaking even. The thief pays back what he stole, with interest.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration in near-black and gold. Inside a vast dark cathedral hall a man braces a rifle of golden light, mouth open mid-sentence. From the muzzle the words IT IS WRITTEN cross the whole length of the hall in perspective, lighting the stone columns and the wet floor, and strike an enormous coiled shadow-creature at the far end. — It Is Written
The oldest answer in the book, used the way it was first used: quoted back at something that wanted a different answer.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. On a narrow tenement stairwell landing crowded with gaunt shadow-creatures, a man braces a rifle of golden light with both hands, mouth open mid-sentence. From the muzzle the words I PLEAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS drive straight through the middle of the crowd, and the creatures along its length come apart into ash and golden sparks. — I Plead The Blood Of Jesus
A legal plea, not an attack. He is not fighting them. He is citing something that was already settled.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. In a derelict warehouse a man braces a rifle of golden light, mouth open mid-shout. From the muzzle the single word FIRE erupts across the entire frame in enormous burning letters, flooding the space with gold and blowing a mass of shadow-creatures apart in every direction. — Fire
One word. Apostle’s whole book is named for it.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration. A man stands in a dark hall holding a rifle of golden light, mouth open, head slightly back, his face open rather than commanding. From the muzzle pours a wide torrent of flowing golden script: dense looping letterforms that are clearly writing but belong to no language and spell nothing. Shadow-creatures dissolve wherever it touches them. — Tongues
The only picture here with no readable words in it. He has run out of English and has not run out of things to say.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Tall anime illustration in near-black and gold. A colossal many-limbed shadow entity the size of a weather system hangs over an entire sleeping city, blotting out the sky from horizon to horizon, its underside erupting into golden light and ash. Far below, alone on a small rooftop and almost lost in the frame, a man braces a rifle of golden light aimed straight up; a single narrow lance rises from the muzzle across the whole height of the picture and detonates inside the thing. — Over The City
The scale is the argument. The smallest figure in the picture is dismantling the largest, and it takes one thread of light and one sentence to do it.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration in ordinary afternoon daylight. A Black and East Asian man in a plain shirt and dark overcoat sits at a city bus stop among commuters who are all looking at their phones. Nothing supernatural is happening. A fine gold chain with a four-pointed star pendant catches a shaft of sun at his collar. — You Would Not Notice Him
The only daylight picture here, and the reason the night ones matter. No weapon, no shadows, nothing supernatural. A man at a bus stop among people looking at their phones.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Anime illustration at dawn. An ordinary intact street with the dark just lifting. Several people stand scattered along it blinking and looking around as if waking, one laughing, one crying with relief. A man walks away from them with his back to us, half a block off, hands in his pockets, as the last traces of golden light dissolve in the air behind him. — Nothing Is Broken
Dawn. Nothing is on fire, the street is intact, and people are standing around blinking as if they have just woken up. He is already half a block away and does not stay for the thanks.
Cinematic Anime Cel
Share this piece

Made in the Cinematic Anime Cel register.