Space Western Comics #45!

Space Western Comics #45 was published in 1953. It's the last round-up for Spurs Jackson. The art is by Stan Campbell and at least one story is by Walter Gibson. You can read it at this link. 

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Space Western Comics #44!

Space Western Comics #44 was published in 1953. Spurs Jackson strikes a blow against the Nazis on Mars in a story by Walter Gibson featuring art by Stan Campbell. You can read it at this link. 

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Space Western Comics #43!

Space Western Comics #43 was published in 1953. More Spurs Jackson adventures by writer Walter Gibson and artist Stan Campbell. You can read it at this link. 

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Space Western Comics #42!

Space Western Comics #42 was published in 1953. Walter Gibson and Stan Campbell return with more adventures of Spurs Jackson. You can read it at this link. 

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Space Western Comics #41!

Space Western Comics #41 was published in 1952. Spurs Jackson and his crew return in another issue by Walter Gibson. This issue is drawn by Stan Campbell. You can read it at this link. 

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Space Western Comics #40!

Space Western Comics #40 was published in 1952. This series was conceived and written by Walter Gibson, the scribe who wrote The Shadow for many years. The art in this first issue about alien invaders from Mars is by John Belfi. You can read it at this link. 

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Return Of The Shadow!

We wrap up a month full of The Shadow with Walter Gibson's final novel Return of The Shadow. This adventure was written and published in 1963, long after the Street and Smith outfit had retired the original magazine. Belmont was as paperback publisher and wanted to revive the character and engaged the original writer Gibson for the task. Sadly, the deal proved to be less lucrative for Gibson than Belmont originally promised, and he backed away after only a single entry, which was used to kick off the brief run of nine additional Shadow yarns. Return of The Shadow supposedly is only a single draft by Gibson, yet given his talents that still means a thoroughly entertaining outing. 

The story is set in the Hudson Valley to begin with, and we follow both Harry Vincent and Lamont Cranston as they try and track down the murderer of a successful businessman. His family and associates are of course suspect and much of the early parts of the novel are spend tracking down and establishing timelines. Harry for his part also finds himself driven off a road and seemingly killed early in the story for reasons which only become clear later when a larger plot to kidnap and replace United Nations members is uncovered. Much if not all of the Shadow team are called upon to contribute to the solution of this mystery which ends in a mad fracas. 

Here is a dandy graphic showcasing the covers of the various Shadow novels Belmont released. The Belmont operation was owned by the same folks who owned Archie Comics which was releasing a Shadow comic at about this same time. These goofy Shadow noveks look like fun, and I wish someone would reprint them all. After Gibson's departure from the project the editors employed the prolific Dennis Lynds who became the latest "Maxwell Grant". Note that the debut novel is by Walter B. Gibson and not "Maxwell Grant", the only time Gibson's name was used on the over three hundred Shadow novels he produced. And with that we wave farewell The Shadow. It's been a blast this past October month and I'm already looking forward to November when another pulp icon rears up to confront ancient evil in an antique land. 

Happy Halloween my fellow Shadow fans! 

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The Shadow Laughs!

"The Shadow Laughs" is the last of the original three Shadow novels penned by Walter Gibson in his initial surge to create some sort of context for the highly popular character on the radio who was just a fascinating voice. It's the first to get an original cover by Jerome Rozen. The story concerns counterfeiting and pits The Shadow once again against Isaac Coffran, a old and evil man set up to be The Shadow's arch nemesis, but who disappears from the annals after this encounter. Other baddies repeat from the previous stories.

New stuff is the first trip to the Cobalt Club where Lamont Cranston mingles with the rich and sometimes infamous. And Lamont Cranston himself puts in an appearance, the real one, as Gibson does a twist on his revelation from the previous novel that The Shadow's identity was Cranston. Instead, we learn that The Shadow merely assumes the guise of Cranston when the peripatetic Cranston is jet-setting around the globe.

Harry Vincent is back as he attempts to solve two murders, which only The Shadow thinks are linked. Harry spends a good deal of time in this one spying on different folks, but frankly seems to have little to do as The Shadow seems to increasingly dominate the story. The action is heady, and we see for the first time the matched set of .45 automatic guns come into play. And the hint of the "Yellow Peril" returns.

Nonetheless this installment is the weakest of the three novels. We learn about our hero, who seems to blend into the shadows and emerge from the darkness in an almost supernatural way, but the adventure itself seems rather humdrum after the lurid danger of the previous yarn. There are some weird torture devices, but they lack the verve of the previous threats.

One begins to notice the almost complete absence of women in the stories. We've had three adventures now featuring The Shadow and not a single woman of consequence has been introduced. That's peculiar.

I'll have more to report later today. Check back in four hours. 

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Eyes Of The Shadow!

Eyes of the Shadow is the second Shadow novel by Walter (call me Maxwell Grant) Gibson. One of his stated goals in this outing was to establish more about the nature of The Shadow himself and to that end he introduced the character of Lamont Cranston, the wealthy millionaire with an avid interest in wireless technology who seems at least to be The Shadow's alter ego.

This is a much more lurid and weird pulp story than the debut story. It concerns a dying man's attempt to share a treasure with six of his compatriots from long ago but his plan goes awry when dangerous men intervene before he dies. His nephew is charged with the mission but needs the extensive help of Harry Vincent and The Shadow to save not only himself but the other men as well. The villains are a heinous lot and among their number is a murderous "ape man" who lurks in the corners ready to pounce. An arch villain of sorts is introduced in the person of the aged and exceedingly evil Isaac Coffran.

I really enjoyed this story, one in which the details of The Shadow's work are just getting developed. We meet The Shadow's ace wireless man Burbank for instance. This isn't quite The Shadow we have become familiar with, but it's getting closer all the time.

One more installment later today. Check back in four hours. 

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The Living Shadow!

To celebrate the holiday, look for four installments today -- three focused on the earliest published Shadow yarns and one on Walter Gibson's final bow.  

Thanks to the lovely reprints from Sanctum Books, I've been dutifully filling my shelves with scores of Shadow novels by Walter Gibson, under his nom de plume of "Maxwell Grant" of course. Recently I finished once again the debut Shadow yarn, "The Living Shadow" which introduces the macabre world of the secretive crime fighter and introduces the audience to Harry Vincent, an operator plucked from his own untimely demise and literally owing his life to the mysterious Shadow.

Original Source for the First Shadow Cover

In this initial story, the Shadow uses his elaborate network of agents to plumb the mystery of a jewel heist. There is a distinct "Yellow Menace" angle to the tale as a Yang Foo, a fence for stolen goods get lots of attention in the story and is the inspiration for the cover which is borrowed from another Street and Smith publication. There is also a good deal of code breaking as The Shadow both deciphers and sends mysterious messages.

The Shadow in this story is different from the grim avenger we're mostly familiar with. He remains off stage a good deal more and there is not yet any hint of Lamont Cranston in the proceedings,he's just "The Shadow" a mysterious entity who battles crime for unknown reasons. Harry Vincent carries the action while The Shadow lingers in the background emerging from time to time to put his memorable stamp on things.

"The Living Shadow" is a satisfying yarn, but is apparently only one of a trio of stories Gibson cobbled together when given the brief to turn the famous laughing radio character into a viable pulp adventurer.

I read "The Living Shadow" many years ago in the Pyramid paperback format. Anthony Tollin has been thoughtful enough to publish in succession the first three Shadow novels as part of a anniversary celebration a few years back. I've been itching to read them through since and at last got around to doing so.

I'll have more to report later today. Check back in four hours. 

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Flickering Shadows - International Crime!

International Crime is the 1938 sequel to The Shadow Strikes starring Rod La Rocque ignores all that went before it and sets up a different premise. Lamont Cranston (now he is called "Cranston") is openly a reporter and radio personality called "The Shadow" who in equal measure assists and afflicts the police while trying to smash up crime in the city. In this one the assistants so important to a Shadow story do show up in the form of "Phoebe Lane" (no Margo here) who is a dithering wannabe reporter, Moe Shrevnitz who is Cranston's reliable cabbie transport and another guy named Burke who aides in various ways.

Not once does our hero don the hat and cloak. This is a fast-paced story of extortion and international intrigue. While there are a few shots fired this one, trots along without the aid of blazing pistols for the most part. Unlike its predecessor this movie dabbles in comedy quite a bit and La Roque's character is extremely quick witted and a very fast talker. The enemies are quite menacing, agents of a foreign power who are trying by various means to upset a financial arrangement. The whys and wherefores are a bit vague, but it's enough to power the plot of this little endeavor. 

This is a somewhat more entertaining movie than the first La Rocque effort, but less of a Shadow movie really. For that we'd have to wait for the movie serial. More on that tomorrow. 

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Flickering Shadows - The Shadow Strikes!

The Shadow was a tremendously popular character in the heyday of the pulps and radio. It's only logical that the folks behind this phenomenon would attempt to make the jump to cinema. As it turns out there were several efforts of varying degrees of success. I recently came into possession of a very nifty collection of all of these early efforts. 

Of special interest are two movies starring Rod LaRocque for Grand National pictures. These are two 30's adaptations of Maxwell Grant's The Shadow. Neither is particularly true to the source material, but it's still fun to see how other folks interpret the classic pulp stuff and its especially neat to see what these guys thought would sell in the theaters at that time.

The first movie from 1937 is called The Shadow Strikes and it's apparently an adaptation of Grant's pulp novel "Ghost in the Manor". But alas for Shadow fans, there's precious little actual screen time for the Shadow persona and what little there is pretty tepid stuff. Mostly it's Lamont Granston (that's not a typo, he was called "Granston" and not "Cranston" for some reason) pretending to be a lawyer who gets involved with a family inheritance situation with murderers and gamblers circling around.

Rod LaRocque is okay in the part as Granston, though the series of events that make him continue his charade as another man are pretty strained pretty quickly and become largely absurd by the end of the flick, as short as it is. The attempts to get La Rocque into a Shadow costume are pretty meager. And I'm not completely sure I got the ending, but I think Granston, who is the Shadow in this flick to find the man who murdered his father, does indeed do so, though that detail is underplayed. 

There is a sequel. Look for a quick review of that flicker later today. 

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The Sinister Shadow!

Since reading about this delightful crossover by Will Murray and weirdly Lester Dent (by way of a cache of unpublished materials) of the two most famous Street and Smith pulp heroes, I've been most eager to get my mitts on it and read it though. The Sinister Shadow from Altus Book's TheWild Adventures of Doc Savage imprint is a delight in many ways and easily something any fan of Doc Savage or The Shadow must have. For more from Murray on how it came together check this out.

Joe DeVito

The Sinister Shadow begins with Lamont Cranston going to see Doc Savage about the problem he has with The Shadow stealing his identity and (in his mind at least) threatening to kidnap him and extort money. He is in fact kidnapped along with Ham Brooks, one of Doc's five assistants, and that puts Doc and The Shadow both on the trail of a villain who calls himself "The Funeral Director" and has fashioned an elaborate organization of henchman dubbed variously as Morticians, Undertakers, Gravediggers, and Pallbearers. This large gang has made a business of kidnap and ransom of various rich men in the society, so much so that it has drawn the attention of the criminologist George Clarendon.

Dave Stevens

In this rousing and fast-paced but unusually lengthy pulp adventure, we at different times find Doc and The Shadow battling each other and even working in tandem to bring down the Funeral Director's vile gang. The Shadow's men include Harry Vincent, Clyde Burke, and Cliff Marsland. Doc is helped by Monk Mayfair, Ham Brooks, and Long Tom Roberts. Sadly neither Renny Renwick nor Johnny Littlejohn show up in this hair-raising war on crime.

Joe DeVito

Murray tells the story in precise short sentences and quickly paced paragraphs and the action rarely slows down and almost never stops. We get some very evocative descriptions of the characters, in particular The Shadow. If there is a big complaint about this one it's that the Doc fan gets slighted as The Shadow and his men seem to dominate much of the action. Each hero is showcased though and by the story's end the heroes appear to understand one another better.



The story, full of action as it is, needed a few more twists and turns. It does do a vivid job of drawing from the early stories of both characters, set as it is relatively early in the careers of both heroes. And we do get some neat switches for the fans. But maybe even more would've been nice. Not as well read in Shadow lore as I am in Doc, I felt most fortunate that I took the time last year to read the first three Shadow novels, they come in handy.

It's a pricey package, but a highly readable one. This one gets the Dojo's highest recommendation.

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The Shadow Laughs!

"The Shadow Laughs" is the last of the original three Shadow novels penned by Walter Gibson  in his initial surge to create some sort of context for the highly popular character on the radio who was just a fascinating voice. It's the first to get an original cover by Jerome Rozen. The story concerns counterfeiting and pits The Shadow once again against Isaac Coffran, a old and evil man set up to be The Shadow's arch nemesis, but who disappears from the annals after this encounter. Other baddies repeat from the previous stories.

New stuff is the first trip to the Cobalt Club where Lamont Cranston mingles with the rich and sometimes infamous. And Lamont Cranston himself puts in an appearance, the real one, as Gibson does a twist on his revelation from the previous novel that The Shadow's identity was Cranston. Instead we learn that The Shadow merely assumes the guise of Cranston when the peripetetic Cranston is jet-setting around the globe.

Harry Vincent is back as he attempts to solve two murders, which only The Shadow thinks are linked. Harry spends a good deal of time in this one spying on different folks, but frankly seems to have little to do as The Shadow seems to increasingly dominate the story. The action is heady and we see for the first time the matched set of .45 automatic guns come into play. And the hint of the "Yellow Peril" returns.

Nonetheless this installment is the weakest of the three novels. We learn about our hero, who seems to blend into the shadows and emerge from the darkness in an almost supernatural way, but the adventure itself seems rather humdrum after the lurid danger of the previous yarn. There are some weird torture devices, but they lack the verve of the previous threats.

One begins to notice the almost complete absence of women in the stories. We've had three adventures now featuring The Shadow and not a single woman of consequence has been introduced. That's peculiar.

Rip Off

Eyes Of The Shadow!

Eyes of the Shadow is the second Shadow novel by Walter (call me Maxwell Grant) Gibson. One of his stated goals in this outing was to establish more about the nature of The Shadow himself and to that end he introduced the character of Lamont Cranston, the wealthy millionaire with an avid interest in wireless technology who seems at least to be The Shadow's alter ego.

This is a much more lurid and weird pulp story than the debut story. It concerns a dying man's attempt to share a treasure with six of his compatriots from long ago but his plan goes awry when dangerous men intervene before he dies. His nephew is charged with the mission but needs the extensive help of Harry Vincent and The Shadow to save not only himself but the other men as well. The villains are a heinous lot and among their number is a murderous "ape man" who lurks in the corners ready to pounce. An arch villain of sorts is introduced in the person of the aged and exceedingly evil Isaac Coffran.

I really enjoyed this story, one in which the details of The Shadow's work are just getting developed. We meet The Shadow's ace wireless man Burbank for instance. This isn't quite The Shadow we have become familiar with, but it's getting closer all the time.

Rip Off

The Living Shadow!

Thanks to the lovely reprints from Sanctum Books, I've been dutifully filling my shelves with scores of Shadow novels by Walter Gibson, under his nom de plume of "Maxwell Grant" of course. Recently I finished once again the debut Shadow yarn, "The Living Shadow" which introduces the macabre world of the secretive crime fighter and introduces the audience to Harry Vincent, an operator plucked from his own untimely demise and literally owing his life to the mysterious Shadow.

Original Source for the First Shadow Cover

In this initial story, the Shadow uses his elaborate network of agents to plumb the mystery of a jewel heist. There is a distinct "Yellow Menace" angle to the tale as a Yang Foo, a fence for stolen goods get lots of attention in the story and is the inspiration for the cover which is borrowed from another Street and Smith publication. There is also a good deal of code breaking as The Shadow both deciphers and sends mysterious messages.

The Shadow in this story is different from the grim avenger we're mostly familiar with. He remains off stage a good deal more and there is not yet any hint of Lamont Cranston in the proceedings,he's just "The Shadow" a mysterious entity who battles crime for unknown reasons. Harry Vincent carries the action while The Shadow lingers in the background emerging from time to time to put his memorable stamp on things.

"The Living Shadow" is a satisfying yarn, but is apparently only one of a trio of stories Gibson cobbled together when given the brief to turn the famous laughing radio character into a viable pulp adventurer.

I read "The Living Shadow" many years ago in the Pyramid paperback format. Anthony Tollin has been thoughtful enough to publish in succession the first three Shadow novels as part of a anniversary celebration a few years back. I've been itching to read them through since and at last got around to doing so.

I'll have more to report later.

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