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.

Review: Knight of Darkness: The Legend of The Shadow - Will Murray

Will Murray has written more non-fiction about The Shadow than anyone else, and whatever he wants to write about the character and his adventures, I’ll gladly read because it’s always entertaining and informative. Such is the case with KNIGHT OF DARKNESS: THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOW, the latest volume of Shadow scholarship from Murray.

This book collects a wide assortment of articles about The Shadow written by Murray at various times in his career. There are several behind-the-scenes looks at the creation of the pulp character, including an examination of exactly how the series was plotted by author Walter B. Gibson, editor John Nanovic, and Street & Smith executive Henry Ralston. I’ve read a bunch about The Shadow over the years, much of it by Murray, but I learned some things I didn’t know from these articles.

Murray also writes about Gibson’s very prolific career in comic book scripting and his work with various famous magicians. Other articles take a look at the different movie incarnations of The Shadow, from the Victor Jory serial all the way up to the Alec Baldwin movie in the Nineties. The radio show comes in for extensive discussions, as well, and I’m always interested in reading about that version since it was actually my introduction to the character. Murray covers all the comic book versions, most of which I remember reading. Well, not the ones in the Forties, although I have read some reprints of them. But I sure remember those from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties.

As always, all these articles are well-written and great fun to read. In addition to that, there are dozens of superb illustrations by Michael Wm Kaluta, the artist most associated with the Shadow comic books, and the great Frank Hamilton, whose fine work graced the pages of pulp fanzines for many years. This is an excellent volume all around and I had a great time reading it. It’s available on Amazon in a handsome trade paperback edition. I think there’s at least one more volume of Shadow non-fiction to come from Murray, and I’m looking forward to it.

Review: Gangland's Doom: The Shadow of the Pulps (50th Anniversary Edition) - Frank Eisgruber Jr.

I’ve been hearing about GANGLAND’S DOOM, the ground-breaking study of The Shadow by Frank Eisgruber Jr., for many years. By the time I got into pulp fandom in the early Eighties, the book’s original edition, published by Robert Weinberg, had been out for several years. It was reprinted later by Starmont House and Altus Press, but I never got around to picking up a copy and reading it.

When the fine folks at The Shadowed Circle decided to do a special 50^th Anniversary Edition, I got on board right away, knowing the quality of the work they do. And they certainly didn’t disappoint. I’ve just read the new edition of GANGLAND’S DOOM, and it’s fantastic.

This was one of the very first books of pulp scholarship. Eisgruber takes a good look at The Shadow’s true identity, the various false identities he employed in his war against crime, the many agents and helpers who also enlisted in that war, the great villains against whom The Shadow and his organization battled, and the multitude of settings used in the almost 400 novels in the pulp series. He covers as well the three main authors of the saga, Walter B. Gibson, Theodore Tinsley, and Bruce Elliott, and this new edition provides several appendixes, correspondence between Eisgruber and fellow Shadow expert Will Murray, and an interview with him.

Will long-time Shadow fans learn much that’s new in this volume? Well, probably not much. Numerous other books have been published that delve deeply into the history of the character, not to mention the many articles from the journal THE SHADOWED CIRCLE and earlier pulp fanzines. But is GANGLAND’S DOOM well-written, informative, and highly entertaining? It absolutely is. I don’t know of any Shadow fan who wouldn’t greatly enjoy this affectionate look at a favorite character.

And I did come across one idea I’d never encountered before, at least as far as I recall. Eisgruber discusses—and rightfully dismisses—Philip José Farmer’s speculation that the flying spy G-8, The Spider, and The Shadow were all the same man. I don’t buy that for a second, but Eisgruber mentions an alternate possibility, that following World War I, G-8 became the detective and master of disguise Secret Agent X, and I can believe that. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it seems feasible to me. (Using the word “true” loosely, of course, since we are talking about pulp characters . . .)

As for the book itself, it’s beautifully produced. You’d expect no less from editor/publisher Steve Donoso and his associates. I was a Kickstarter backer and got my copy that way, but it’s available on Amazon in a hardcover edition with a cover and illustrations by Joseph Booth (the edition I read) and a paperback with a cover by Marcin Nowacki. There’s also a Kindle edition. You can also buy the print editions and plenty of other great Shadow material directly from the publisher, which is always an excellent option. If you’re a fan of The Shadow, I can’t recommend this one highly enough. It’s a great book and one of the best I’ve read so far this year.

The Shadowed Circle #7 - Steve Donoso, ed.

THE SHADOWED CIRCLE, the excellent fan journal devoted to the iconic character The Shadow, is back with Issue Number 7, and as always, it’s a top-notch collection of articles and artwork featuring one of my favorite characters. Highlights this time around include Nicholas Montelongo’s article about the Big Little Books featuring The Shadow (I’m not a scholar or collector of the Big Little Books, but I read a bunch of them when I was a kid, but not the ones starring The Shadow, so all this was new to me); Martin Grams Jr.’s look at The Shadow’s agents and how they translated from the pulps to the radio version; and Arthur Penteado’s lengthy and compelling essay about how the theme of redemption figures heavily in several of the pulp novels starring The Shadow. All the contents are informative and entertaining, though, and if you’re a Shadow fan you’ll read them with as much pleasure as I did. Editor/publisher Steve Donoso and his cohorts have done another fine job of assembling this issue, which gets a very high recommendation from me. You can pick it up on Amazon or on the magazine’s website.

The Shadowed Circle Compendium - Steve Donoso, ed.

I’ve been a big fan of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE, a beautifully produced journal devoted to The Shadow, ever since it began publishing a few years ago. Now we have THE SHADOWED CIRCLE COMPENDIUM, an even prettier volume reprinting some of the best articles from the first seven issues of the regular journal, plus half a dozen new articles that make this book well worthwhile even if you’ve read the others in their original appearances.

The highlight of the new articles, for me, is “The Shadowed Seven”, in which editor/publisher Steve Donoso asked more than twenty fans and/or scholars of The Shadow to select their seven favorite Shadow stories, the ones they would take with them to the proverbial desert island. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I contributed to this article myself.) All the different incarnations of the character were fair game for this exercise: pulps, comics, movies, and the radio show. There’s a good representation of all of those, although the pulp novels dominate the lists. I didn’t make a count or anything like that, but it seemed to me that the very first novel, “The Living Shadow”, was mentioned more than any of the others, which makes sense. After all, it established the character and set the tone for everything that was to come after. Several of the other early pulp novels were very popular, too. Even now, more than 50 years after I read them the first time, I vividly recall the great action scenes, the incredible shoot-outs between The Shadow and the hordes of gangdom, and how enthralled I was by them.

Other new articles include a look at The Shadow’s appearances in various fanzines over the past 40-some-odd years, checklists of the novels and reprints, and “The Essential Shadow Reference Collection”, devoted to the various books that have been written about the character.

If you haven’t been reading THE SHADOWED CIRCLE, the compendium is definitely a best-of-the-best volume and is likely to send you scurrying to pick up back issues of the regular journal. If you’ve been reading it from the start like me, you’ll have a great time revisiting old favorites and taking in the new material. THE SHADOWED CIRCLE COMPENDIUM is available in hardback and paperback editions, and if you’re a Shadow fan, or a fan of the pulps in general, it gets my highest recommendation.

The Shadowed Circle #6 - Steve Donoso, ed.

The sixth issue of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE arrived at just the right time. I was in need of some sure-fire entertainment, and this themed issue devoted to the character Myra Reldon and The Shadow’s adventures in various Chinatowns really hit the spot. A great front cover by Joe Booth and a great back cover by Ron Wilber and Steve Novak bookend fine articles by Will Murray, Anthony Tollin, Tim King, Malcolm Deeley, Arthur Penteado, Darby Kern, Robert Kroll, and TSC founder and editor Steve Donoso. I’ve already paid my subscription for the next three issues, and you can, too, as well as buy back issues, at the journal’s website here. The new issue is available on Amazon as well. THE SHADOWED CIRCLE is informative, beautifully done, and great fun to read for a long-time Shadow fan like me. Highest recommendation!

The Shadowed Circle Compendium Kickstarter is Live

The Kickstarter campaign for THE SHADOWED CIRCLE COMPENDIUM is now live. As the campaign page describes it:

Our passion project Kickstarter Campaign is for The Shadowed Circle Compendium: a Large-Format, B&W, 8.5" x 11" volume, of at least 120 pages (more if we hit our 1st Stretch Goal), available in both hardcover, paperback, and high-res digital format. The book will feature some of the finest pulp, comic book, and radio episode articles, as well as art, from the first two years of The Shadowed Circle journal: the preeminent non-fiction publication about Walter B. Gibson's master sleuth, The Shadow. 

The Compendium will also include 25 to 30 pages of Newly Written Articles Appearing Exclusively in this volume. The Introduction to the book will be written by Batman Film Producer, and Shadow Comic Author, Michael Uslan and the Foreword will be written by Shadow Historian and Pulp Author, Will Murray.

I've really enjoyed reading THE SHADOWED CIRCLE and look forward to this collection of some of the best material from it, plus all-new articles that I'm sure will be excellent, as well. I've already backed it, and if you're a fan of The Shadow, I don't hesitate to give it a high recommendation.

The Shadowed Circle #5 - Steve Donoso, ed.

The fifth issue of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE is here, and as usual, this journal devoted to the iconic character The Shadow continues to be outstanding. First of all, I love the front cover by Joe Booth. It’s as good a Shadow painting as I’ve seen in a long time and perfectly captures the feeling of the pulp, right down to the wear and tear along the edges. Booth also provides a couple of pieces of interior art that are excellent, as well.

Editor/publisher Steve Donoso has put together a fine group of articles about The Shadow. Some highlights for me:

“Shadow—and Substance, Part 2” by Dick Myers continues his examination of The Shadow’s organization, how it’s put together, functions, and is paid for. This is fascinating stuff to a long-time fan. Myers’ article was written a number of years ago but is being published for the first time in THE SHADOWED CIRCLE.

“Walter Gibson’s Mysterious Shadow Sabbatical” by Will Murray takes a look at an unexplained gap in Walter B. Gibson’s prodigious output of Shadow novels. Murray knows as much or more about The Shadow and Walter Gibson as anyone alive today and always produces great articles.

Speaking of Murray, Steve Donoso’s review of his latest book, DARK AVENGER: THE STRANGE SAGA OF THE SHADOW, is top-notch and highlights the differences between this volume and the fondly remembered THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW MAGAZINE that inspired it.

“Street & Smith’s World’s Finest” by M.J. Moran takes a look at the early novels featuring The Shadow and Doc Savage, focusing on their similarities and also their very distinct differences. Moran makes some interesting points that may run counter to the general impressions of long-time fans such as myself who have read extensively from all eras of the two series. But when you stop and think about it, he’s right.

In “The Shadow—Strange Creature in Black—The Comic Book Years: Part 2”, Todd D. Severin takes a look at some of The Shadow’s appearances in comic books that I actually remember this time around: the 1953 parody in MAD Magazine (I actually read this in a MAD paperback sometime in the early Sixties), the Archie Comics version (I bought some of these new and remember being unimpressed by them, even though I knew little or nothing of the character at that time), and the fantastic DC comics run in the Seventies by Denny O’Neil, Michael William Kaluta, and various other hands (I bought these new off the spinner rack as well and loved them, although like the change in artists from Kaluta to Frank Robbins was a real shock, an impression seemingly shared by most of the readers).

All the articles are good, but those are the ones that stood out most for me. As always, I sat down and read this new issue from cover to cover. I can’t imagine any fan of The Shadow not loving THE SHADOWED CIRCLE. I give it my highest recommendation. You can subscribe to it or buy back issues on the publisher’s website or pick up individual issues from Amazon. Next time around will be the first themed issue, devoted to The Shadow’s part-time agent Myra Reldon. I don’t know much about this character, so I’m very much looking forward to it.

Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow - Will Murray

One of the first books I ever bought about pulps was THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW MAGAZINE by Will Murray, an author/editor/pulp fan who I probably met through our mutual friend Tom Johnson. This was more than 40 years ago, so some of the details have slipped my memory. But I was a big fan of The Shadow, having listened to the radio shows, read all the original novels published by Belmont (having no idea at the time that they were written by Dennis Lynds, another guy who would become a friend years later) and all the reprinted pulp novels from Bantam, Pyramid, Jove, Tempo, Dover, etc. So I dived into THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW MAGAZINE with great enthusiasm and was well-rewarded. I loved it. It’s one of the all-time best books about pulps, in my opinion. Plus it’s a beautiful oversized paperback with a great cover by Frank Hamilton.

Of course, my copy was lost in the Fire of ’08 and I never got around to replacing it.

But now we come to today, and Will Murray’s latest book DARK AVENGER: THE STRANGE SAGA OF THE SHADOW. This is a greatly revised and expanded version of THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW MAGAZINE and includes all the information Murray gleaned from the past forty-some-odd years of research. I opened it with the same enthusiasm I felt four decades ago and wasn’t the least bit disappointed. This is the best, most exhaustive volume about a single pulp magazine ever written.

Anything you want to know about THE SHADOW MAGAZINE is in here. The authors are covered extensively (mostly Walter B. Gibson, of course, but there’s plenty about Theodore Tinsley, Bruce Elliott, and Lester Dent, as well), as well as the editors and illustrators and the Street & Smith executives who were involved in the magazine’s production. The entire run of 325 novels is broken down into distinct categories, and Murray explores how they were written, how the series evolved, and the various influences that caused that evolution. He touches on the various versions of The Shadow after the pulp ended, but this is mostly about the 18-year run between 1931 and 1949. Rightly so, as far as I’m concerned since the pulp Shadow is my favorite.

The cover of this new edition is by Joe DeVito, who has done great covers for many of Murray’s books in recent years. I really like this one because it captures The Shadow’s personality quite well and also includes Myra Reldon, one of The Shadow’s agents from the novels who usually isn’t featured in artwork about the character and the pulp. An excellent job all around by DeVito. The book also includes a lot of the interior illustrations by Frank Hamilton from the earlier edition. I always loved Hamilton’s work and am very pleased to see these illustrations again. They really bring back a bygone era of pulp fandom filled with printed fanzines and books like THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW MAGAZINE.

Even if you’re a fan of The Shadow and read the original version, you’re going to want to read the new edition, too. I raced through it, unable to put it down, having the time of my life reliving memories of the Shadow novels I’ve read and being reminded of all the great ones still waiting for me to read. Between the great journal THE SHADOWED CIRCLE and the books devoted to the character by Will Murray, this is the new Golden Age of Shadow Fandom. DARK AVENGER gets my highest recommendation. It’s available in both e-book and trade paperback editions.

The Shadowed Circle #4 - Steve Donoso, ed.

THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #4 is out and is available from the publisher and Amazon. This publication continues to be a very welcome return to the classic days of pulp fanzines. The issue starts out strongly with a great Rozen-like cover with art by Kevin Duncan and color and design by Steve Novak. This is my favorite cover so far and perfectly captures the feel of The Shadow.

Editor Steve Donoso has put together an exceptional array of articles, leading off with the first installment of a three-part article by long-time pulp fan Dick Myers, who passed away in 2005. This never-before-published article, written probably in the early Seventies, was found among his papers and deals with just how The Shadow went about financing his vast organization of agents and assistants. It’s clear that Myers put a lot of thought into this and the article makes for fascinating reading.

Will Murray muses about mysteries concerning The Shadow to which Walter B. Gibson never revealed the answers. Tim King tackles one of those mysteries with some very interesting speculation and makes a strong case for his conclusion, as far as I’m concerned. Todd D. Severin begins a series covering The Shadow’s appearances in comic books and concentrates on the Forties in this part. Since that’s an area of The Shadow's history which I’ve seldom read about in detail, I learned a lot and really enjoyed this article, as I did the following article by Daryl Morrisey that covers the comic book meetings between The Shadow and Doc Savage. John Olsen, the only person I can think of who’s read every single Shadow pulp novel, writes about the radio show this time around, in particular the final broadcast, and his article is both informative and poignant.

This issue also features the second part of a lengthy interview with writer and producer Michael Uslan, who has written several comic book stories and graphic novels featuring The Shadow. Uslan discusses several mini-series I’d never even heard of, so of course I had to go to Amazon and pick up copies of them. I’m looking forward to reading them.

The back cover features the two novels written by Will Murray that feature meetings between Doc Savage and The Shadow, THE SINISTER SHADOW and EMPIRE OF DOOM, with beautiful artwork by Joe DeVito. It’s a fitting wrap-up for what is, in my opinion, the finest issue of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE so far. If you’re a fan of the character, I give it my highest recommendation . . . and I suspect the next issue will continue that trajectory.

The Shadowed Circle #3 - Steve Donoso. ed.

THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #3 more than lives up to the high standard set by the first two issues of this journal devoted to the iconic character The Shadow. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a fan of The Shadow for close to sixty years now, and I never tire of reading not only his adventures, but also reading about the character in his many incarnations.

This issue starts off with a great cover by legendary comic book artist Steve Rude, with some modifications by Steve Novak. The first article, by Albert J. Emery, delves into The Shadow’s involvement with World War II and asks a simple but compelling question: Why didn’t The Shadow just kill Adolf Hitler? Emery does a fine job of exploring this subject. (This article also mentions novelist E.L. Doctorow, who, as a editor at Signet in the early Sixties, was the editor on the American editions of some of the Carter Brown mystery novels, a completely irrelevant fact that’s always interested me, anyway.)

Todd Severin and Keith Holt give us Part Two of their history of The Shadow’s pulp magazine, which covers that publication all the way to its end. It’s interesting and well-written and features an illustration by the late Frank Hamilton, whose great artwork has graced so many pulp fanzines over the decades. I’m always happy to see his work again.

Will Murray contributes an article about his experiences as a writer for Starlog covering the filming of the Shadow movie starring Alec Baldwin. I remember enjoying the movie overall, despite having some real problems with the script. The look of it was almost perfect in some respects, though, and Murray’s recollections are a lot of fun.

Tim King writes about one of the supporting characters in the pulp series, the communications expert Burbank, and speculates on how Walter B. Gibson came up with that name. King makes an excellent case, too, and I strongly suspect that he’s right.

There’s a fine interview with writer and producer Michael Uslan, conducted by Darby Kern, that sheds some light on the DC comic book series from the Seventies that featured The Shadow, a series that I bought, read, and enjoyed a great deal. Uslan seems like a really nice guy, as well as a top-notch writer.

It's hard to review a book of reviews, but Steve Donoso does so with his review of John Olsen’s THE SHADOW IN REVIEW. I was a fan of Olsen’s website where some of this material ran originally, and Donoso’s review of the book prompted me to order a copy.

Tim Hewitt rounds out the issue with a look at the Canadian issues of The Shadow’s pulp magazine, including some similar but different covers. I knew nothing about this part of the magazine’s history, so I was both educated and entertained.

All in all, editor Steve Donoso and his crew have produced the best issue so far of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE. I have a feeling they’re just getting started. You can subscribe on the journal’s website or buy individual issues on Amazon, and be sure to check out their Facebook page, as well.

The Shadow 1941: Hitler's Astrologer - Denny O'Neil and Michael Kaluta

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of The Shadow (mostly the pulp version) and have been for more than fifty years now. So it’s not surprising that I picked up a hardcover of this graphic novel when it first came out in 1988. THE SHADOW 1941: HITLER’S ASTROLOGER is by the writer/artist team of Denny O’Neil and Michael Kaluta, who produced quite a few excellent issues of The Shadow comic book series in the Seventies.

It's also not too surprising that I never got around to reading that copy I bought back then. I have the attention span of a six-week-old puppy, after all. However, I discovered a while back that Dynamite Comics has reissued HITLER’S ASTROLOGER in hardback, and there’s even an ebook edition that’s available on Kindle Unlimited. (Back in 1988 when the book first came out, none of that would have made any sense at all.) Anyway, I figured it was finally time for me to read it.

I’m glad I did. The script by O’Neil and Kaluta, which has The Shadow and his agents manipulating real-world events involving the Nazi Bund, Rudolf Hess, Joseph Goebbels, Operation Barbarossa, and Adolph Hitler himself, of course, is action-packed, intriguing, and moves along very nicely. It doesn’t quite capture the same feeling as Walter B. Gibson’s magnificent pulp creation, but as pastiche goes, it’s pretty darned good. Kaluta’s art, though, with inks by Russ Heath (a comic book legend in his own right) is just outstanding, a superb job of creating a blend between precarious events in the real world and the breakneck machinations of The Shadow and his crew of helpers. I had a great time reading this graphic novel, which, ultimately, is the most important thing to me. In the unlikely event that you’re a fan of The Shadow but haven’t read it, like me until recently, I give it a high recommendation.

The Shadowed Circle #2 - Steve Donoso, ed.

The first issue of THE SHADOWED CIRCLE, a new journal devoted to the iconic character The Shadow in all his forms, was excellent. The second issue is even better.

This volume kicks off with a look at HITLER’S ASTROLOGER, a 1988 graphic novel written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Mike Kaluta, two of the top comics creators from the Seventies and Eighties. I remember very well when this book came out and would have sworn that I’d read it, but after reading this fine review by Malcolm Deeley, I’m not sure I have. Now I have to find a copy and read it, for sure.

Shadow expert and author Will Murray contributes an excellent essay about how he and Anthony Tollin decided which Shadow novels to pair up in their long-running series of Sanctum reprints. As always, it’s an interesting, well-written piece. I’ll read anything Will Murray wants to write about The Shadow.

In a lengthy article, editor Steve Donoso uses vintage photographs by Berenice Abbott to illustrate the haunts of 1930s New York where so many of The Shadow’s exploits took place. This is fascinating stuff. I always enjoy looks back into history such as this.

In another highlight, Todd Severin and Keith Holt tackle the history of The Shadow as a pulp character, beginning with his murky origins in radio. Long-time Shadow fans have read this story before, but even so, Severin and Holt present it in such clear, concise, entertaining prose that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Newer fans can learn a lot from this series, and I look forward to reading future installments of it.

There’s also a review by Steve Donoso of Will Murray’s MASTER OF MYSTERY, a book collecting a number of articles and interviews pertaining to The Shadow’s authors, editors, and illustrators, plus articles about The Shadow’s connection to the Explorer’s Club (by Julian Puga) and military heraldry (by Tim King). These round out the issue very nicely, along with art by Cristian Diaz, Alvaro Fernandois, Steve Novak, John Sies, Santiago Bojorquez, Luke Forster, Mike Hammen, David Hitchcock, and the late, legendary Frank Hamilton, whose fantastic work graced so many of the pulp fanzines I’ve read over the past four decades. Kudos as well to deputy editor Rebecca Robinson and website and Facebook page director Sam Oatley. As editor Donoso says, it takes a lot of people to produce something this good, and everyone involved deserves the thanks of Shadow fans everywhere.

Speaking of the Facebook page, it can be found at facebook.com/burbank1931. You can contact the journal at theshadowedcircle@yahoo.com, and the website is www.theshadowedcircle.com . Print and digital subscriptions are available, and you can also buy single copies on Amazon. I’ve been reading the adventures of The Shadow for close to 60 years now, and I’m really enjoying this look at the character. Highly recommended.

The Shadowed Circle #1 - Steve Donoso, ed.

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a long-time fan of The Shadow and have reviewed a number of the pulp novels over the years. I recently had a chance to read THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #1, an old-fashioned fanzine devoted to the character, and I had a great time with it.

Edited and published by Steve Donoso, with art and design by John Sies and assistance from deputy editor Rebecca Robinson, THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #1 is an impressive publication, starting off with a fine cover by John Jamilkowski. The contents include an essay by Will Murray about some of the female villains faced by The Shadow; this piece was squeezed out of the reprints from Sanctum Publications by a lack of space, and it’s great to have it available. As the leading expert on The Shadow, Murray’s work is always informative and entertaining.

John L. French takes a look at the Shadow novels by Bruce Elliott, who replaced longtime author Walter B. Gibson for a while late in the pulp’s run. These stories by Elliott are almost universally reviled, with a common criticism being that the character doesn’t even seem like himself. French comes up with an intriguing theory to explain that. I’ve never read one of Elliott’s Shadow novels, and I really ought to. I’ve read some of his other mystery novels that I liked quite a bit.

Craig McDonald contributes an article about the only villains who faced The Shadow in four separate novels, Shiwan Khan (created by Walter B. Gibson) and Benedict Stark (created by Theodore Tinsley, who backed up Gibson on the series for several years). I’ve read at least one of the Shiwan Khan novels, but I don’t think I’ve read all of them. I’ve never read any of the novels featuring Benedict Stark, and McDonald’s excellent article makes me think I need to do that, too. Ah, if only there was more time in the day!

There’s also an interview with James Patterson, co-author of the recent Shadow novel that puts a whole new spin on the character, and a lengthy review of that book by Henry Lopez. I’ve never met Patterson, although I’m acquainted with some of his co-authors, but everyone I know who has met him seems to think he’s a wonderful guy. That’s certainly the way he comes across in this interview, very affable, whether I agree with his take on The Shadow or not. (Brief personal story: I have been in the same room with Patterson several times without actually meeting him. At a mystery convention a few years ago, I happened to be in the hotel lobby at six o’clock in the morning, and there he was, sitting in a chair by himself reading a newspaper. I started to go up and introduce myself to him, but then I thought, no, he looked so grateful to be just sitting there with nobody bothering him, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I went on my way.)

Rounding out this issue are articles about Gibson’s work on a Batman story (his last published work), being a young fan of a pulp hero, short films featuring The Shadow from the early Thirties (I’d never even heard of these!), cover artwork from the pulp, and zombies in the radio show. It’s a very nice variety of material and all well-written and interesting.

Fanzines such as this have really fallen by the wayside with the rise of the Internet, but I read a bunch of them over the years, especially during the Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties. Reading THE SHADOWED CIRCLE #1 was a wonderful reminder of that time, as well as being an excellent publication in its own right. I had an absolutely wonderful time with it. It’s available on Amazon, or you can subscribe to it. All the details are available on the magazine’s Facebook page. If you’re a Shadow fan or a fan of pulp fiction in general, I give it a very high recommendation.

Master of Mystery: The Rise of the Shadow - Will Murray

This is the book that prompted me to read a Shadow novel, as I mentioned a few days ago. Will Murray has written a great deal about the character over the years, and MASTER OF MYSTERY: THE RISE OF THE SHADOW collects some of the best of it, including some updated material. Two lengthy interviews with Walter B. Gibson, a history of The Shadow radio show, interviews with Theodore Tinsley, who ghosted more than two dozen of the novels, John Nanovic, who edited the series for ten years, and Graves Gladney, one of the best known cover artists for the pulp. That’s a wealth of great Shadow-related material right there. Murray rounds out the volume with articles about illustrator Edd Cartier, Gibson’s involvement with the world of magic, and The Shadow’s influence on the creation of The Batman. I’d read some of this before but had a great time reading it again. MASTER OF MYSTERY: THE RISE OF THE SHADOW is not only informative but very entertaining, and I give it a very high recommendation.

Forgotten Books: The Black Falcon - Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson)

I was in the mood to read a Shadow novel, so I went for one of the early ones, “The Black Falcon”, from the February 1, 1934 issue of the iconic pulp. As the story opens, the mastermind who calls himself The Black Falcon has opened his campaign of crime already. He has kidnapped a wealthy banker, and plans are underway to kidnap another of New York City’s wealthy socialites. The Black Falcon is so arrogant that he informs Police Commissioner Ralph Weston of his plans and includes a dyed-black falcon feather with his missive.

But unknown to The Black Falcon, The Shadow is already on his trail, and even though the crime boss may pull off another kidnapping and murder or two, we know that eventually justice, in the form of The Shadow, will catch up to him.

Like many of the early Shadow novels, “The Black Falcon” has a fairly mundane crime plot at its heart. The true identity of the masked mastermind calling himself The Black Falcon is so obvious that author Walter B. Gibson doesn’t even try to maintain that mystery past the middle of the book, revealing that secret and explaining everything else about the plot in a rather awkward conversation between The Black Falcon and his chief henchman that serves as an info-dump for the reader.

However, I don’t think many readers then or now enjoy the Shadow novels solely because of the mystery angles. It seems to me that the two primary elements in the series’ appeal are action and atmosphere, and Gibson delivers on those quite well in “The Black Falcon”. There are several scenes where The Shadow appears unexpectedly, and Gibson always does a great job on those. The same is true of the shootouts between The Shadow and various hordes of gangsters. The bullets really fly in those, and I always enjoy them.

“The Black Falcon” is notable for a couple of other reasons: the actual Lamont Cranston makes one of his infrequent appearances and plays a role in the plot; and The Shadow reveals his true face to The Black Falcon, who is so horrified and stunned that for a vital few moments he falls apart like the narrator of an H.P. Lovecraft story. This story takes place well before The Shadow’s true identity was revealed to be that of aviator Kent Allard. The consensus among Shadow scholars is that Allard’s face was hideously scarred during World War I and still displayed those scars during the early days of his crusade against crime, but later plastic surgery repaired the damage. That seems plenty feasible to me.

While “The Black Falcon” isn’t in the top rank of Shadow novels as far as I’m concerned, I had a great time reading it. I enjoy Gibson’s style, I like The Shadow’s agents (Harry Vincent appears in this one), and the action scenes are very effective. If you’re a Shadow fan, it’s well worth reading.

Forgotten Books: The Salamanders - Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson)

I only read two or three Shadow novels a year, so at that rate I’ll never get through the entire series, but that’s all right. There are a lot of book series I’ll never finish. I try to read what I enjoy and enjoy what I read, and that’s all that matters.

My latest venture into the world of The Shadow is THE SALAMANDERS, which was published in the April 1, 1936 issue of THE SHADOW. This yarn is even more action-packed than usual, and that’s not an accident. Walter B. Gibson, who wrote 282 of the Shadow novels under the name Maxwell Grant, was under orders from the editor and publisher at Street & Smith to put even more action in the novels in order to compete with the success that THE SPIDER was having over at Popular Publications.

So THE SALAMANDERS begins with a huge fire that destroys a hotel in the town of Riverport, which is somewhere in “the South”. Gibson never gets more specific about the location than that. Not only is the hotel burned to the ground, but it looks very much like Harry Vincent, one of The Shadow’s chief agents, is killed in the blaze. For a good half of the book, it appears that Harry is a goner.

Of course, long-time fans know that he has to survive, and sure enough, later on The Shadow rescues him from the clutches of the bad guys. By this time, there have been more fires, some deadly explosions, an avalanche from which The Shadow barely escapes, shoot-outs with minions who have names like Sloopy and Jink, and creepy encounters with bizarre figures who are able to walk unscathed through infernos—the Salamanders of the title.

As often happens in Shadow novels, the big master plan behind all this actually turns out to be pretty mundane. But that doesn’t really matter, because the numerous fast-paced action scenes are the true appeal of this yarn. Gibson approaches apocalyptic levels in some of the scenes, and the final showdown in a burning mansion is great stuff.

Harry Vincent is the only agent who plays much of a part in this one, and oddly enough, The Shadow never makes use of the Lamont Cranston identity. He employs a couple of disguises, but nothing special. It’s almost like Gibson shoved all that aside to make room for the shooting and the running and the burning up and blowing up. That’s okay with me, although I kind of missed some of the usual touches. Still, THE SALAMANDERS is the best Shadow novel I’ve read in a while. If you’re a fan and haven’t read it yet, you definitely need to check it out.

Forgotten Books: Bells of Doom - Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson)

I was in the mood to read a Shadow novel, so I picked up a reprint I have of “Bells of Doom”, the 74^th entry in the long-running series, which was originally published in the March 15, 1935 issue of THE SHADOW. That’s a great pulpish title and promises lots of sinister goings-on.

This one starts on an ocean liner bound for New York from England. One of the passengers is Lamont Cranston. Who, as we all know, is really The Shadow . . . only The Shadow isn’t actually Cranston . . . No, that’s too complicated a story. Those of you who already know it, fine. Those who don’t, it’s not really important in the context of this novel. Let’s just say that Cranston sits in on a poker game with three other travelers, one of whom is a rich guy who’s gotten hold of a rajah’s valuable jewels and is afraid that crooks are after them. Well, of course they are, and when everybody is back in New York, the other two players in the poker game, young wastrel Milton Claverly and smooth crook Hatch Rosling, conspire to steal the jewels.

Wait a minute, you say. This is a jewel theft book? What about the bells? We’re getting to them, because after The Shadow foils the robbery, Milton Claverly (who has covered up his part in it) travels to the small town of Torburg, where he inherits his father’s estate, which includes a mansion, a creepy crypt, an equally creepy bell tower (there are the bells!), and four enemies who swindled Milton’s dad out of a fortune. Before you know it, those four swindlers are being knocked off one by one, and every time one of them is killed, bells peal out from the tower, which is locked up tight and no one can get in to ring them. So this novel is sort of a locked bell tower mystery.

The Shadow is around, and so is his agent Harry Vincent, and everybody seems to have a hidden agenda, and the murders continue, and honestly, the whole thing is a little on the bland side until a dizzying bunch of double-crosses and hidden identities and plotlines that appeared to be long since abandoned, and while I figured out some of it and had a hunch who the hidden mastermind was, author Walter B. Gibson had me fooled on some things. It all wraps up with a nice shoot-out in that crypt.

Gibson’s Shadow novels are notorious for their padding, and that seems a bit more obvious than usual in this one. But hey, the guy was writing two mystery novels a month, so I’m willing to cut him some slack on that. “Bells of Doom” also could have used a little more action (some of The Shadow’s epic gun battles with hordes of mobsters in other stories are great). This isn’t in the top rank of Shadow novels . . . but you know what, I got a lot of enjoyment out of it anyway. I’ve been reading The Shadow for more than 40 years, ever since Bantam started reprinting them in the Sixties, and then when I was in college I was a big fan of the Jove reprints with covers by Jim Steranko. So the series has quite a bit of nostalgic appeal for me, and there are some nice creepy scenes in this yarn. Probably not the one to start with if you’ve never read a Shadow novel, but I liked it.

Monday Morning Digest Magazine: The Shadow, December, 1943

Like DOC SAVAGE, THE SHADOW was a digest magazine for part of the Forties. And this digest issue of THE SHADOW was the first issue of THE SHADOW, digest or pulp, that I ever owned. I'm not sure, but I believe I came across it in an antique/junk store in Fort Worth. The Shadow story in it was written by Walter B. Gibson, and I recall it as being a good one.

Forgotten Books: Gangland's Doom - Frank Eisgruber Jr.

I think I’ve mentioned before that my introduction to The Shadow was through syndicated reruns of the radio show in the early Sixties. The first Shadow novel I read was THE SHADOW STRIKES!, the second book in the series of original Shadow novels published by Belmont and the first one by Dennis Lynds writing under the Maxwell Grant name. I was a big fan of that series and read all of them as they were published. Then Bantam started reprinting some of the original pulp novels, followed by other publishers doing the same, and I read ’em all. I remember sitting in the university library when I was in college, reading Shadow paperbacks with those fine covers by Jim Steranko. Great stuff. (What’s that you say? I should have been studying? Considering how I’ve made my living all these years . . . I think maybe I was!)


Anyway, at the same time, 1974, Robert Weinberg was publishing the first book-length study of the Shadow pulp series, GANGLAND’S DOOM: THE SHADOW OF THE PULPS, by Frank Eisgruber Jr. I’d heard of this book but never read it until now, in a revised edition published by Altus Press in 2007.


A lot of the information contained in it – bibliographic info about the story titles, publication dates, and actual authors, as well as chapters on The Shadow’s agents and the villains he fought – has appeared elsewhere over the past three-and-a-half decades, but GANGLAND’S DOOM is an important book because it was the first. Not only that, but despite Eisgruber’s modest comments about his writing ability in a new preface, this is a well-written book with plenty of the charm that comes through when an author is writing about a subject he truly loves and enjoys. It’s fun being a fan, and that quality is definitely in evidence here. In addition, if you’ve never read a Shadow novel and don’t know much about the series, GANGLAND’S DOOM is an excellent concise introduction to one of the longest running and most influential pulp magazines that also had an important influence on other areas of popular culture. This is well worth reading and highly recommended.


And since I haven’t read a Shadow novel myself for a while, it’s really put me in the mood for one. Whether or not I actually get around to reading one before something else distracts me (I’m a lot like a puppy that way), who knows? We’ll see.