Review: The Shadowed Circle #8 - Steve Donoso, ed.

THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #8 is out, and it leads off with a fantastic cover by Joe Booth that ties in with Tim DeForest’s excellent article about The Shadow’s battle with the criminal organization known as The Hand that took five issues of the pulp magazine to wrap up. I’ve never read any of those particular novels, but after reading DeForest’s article, I may have to. I can’t say enough good things about Booth’s cover. I think it’s one of my favorite Shadow illustrations ever.

Elsewhere in this issue, Will Murray returns with a lengthy, informative, and entertaining article about the search for the identity of a previously unknown author who ghosted some of the novels about The Phantom Detective. What does that have to do with The Shadow, you ask? Well, quite a bit, as it turns out, since there are indications that this mysterious author may have also written a Shadow novel. It’s a great bit of pulp scholarship on Murray’s part, and for what it’s worth, I agree with the conclusions he comes to.

As editor Steve Donoso points out in his introductory remarks, this issue of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE covers just about all the various aspects of the character. Evan Lewis writes about The Shadow’s guest appearances in Street & Smith comic books other than his own. John Olsen tells us about one of his favorite episodes from the radio show. Robert Kroll examines some material that never made it into the 1994 movie, and I’m intrigued enough by this article that I might have to hunt up a copy of the novelization, which does make use of the scenes Kroll mentions. Nicholas Montelongo also writes about the various movie and television versions of The Shadow, Michael Stradford details the process of having some of the comic books featuring The Shadow bound into collected volumes, and Spencer Draper gives us the lowdown on something I never even knew existed, a pinball machine that ties in with the 1994 movie! There are tie-in pinball machines? I had no idea. The Shadow also makes a cameo appearance in “Dead Air”, a comic strip written and drawn by Ron Hill. Having worked at a small-market radio station myself, I know all about dead air.

Of course, there are fine illustrations throughout, as THE SHADOWED CIRCLE continues to be a beautifully produced journal. If you’re a fan of The Shadow, I’m sure you’re reading it already, but if by some chance you’re not, you should remedy that as soon as possible. THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #8 is available on Amazon or directly from the publisher, and you can subscribe or catch up on back issues on the journal’s website, as well. I don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood to read a Shadow novel now.