Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Shiwan Khan's House of Horrors" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

...why do I even need to show up?

The comic itself does the work for me!

See you at the end of the story...

As of this story from Archie's The Shadow #3 (1964), Jerry Siegel replaced Robert Bernstein as scripter.

Paul Reinman had taken over from John Rosenberger as artist for the remainder of the run, as well as assuming art chores for most of Radio Comics (renamed Mighty Comics' shortly after) line of books including The Mighty Crusaders, and Fly-Man.

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Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Shiwan Khan's House of Horrors" Part 1

In the 1960s, many classic comic and pulp heroes were revived...

...some not quite as successfully as others!

Be here tomorrow for the campy conclusion,

and, as they used to say on Batman...

"The worst is yet to come!"

Penned by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Paul Reinman, this tale from Radio Comics' The Shadow #3 (1964) is easily one of the low points of the career of He Who Knows What Evil...!

Apparently seeing The Shadow adapted to a high-adventure/spy format was not selling in comics as well as it did in paperbacks like this...

...the staff at Radio Comics (Archie Comics' 1960s superhero line) decided to go into full campy superhero mode instead, dumping the cloak and slouch hat and giving him a hideous costume and some gimmicks, while retaining the ability to "cloud mens' minds".
Unfortunately, we still remember these never-reprinted stories...

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Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Night of the Avenger" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Art by Mike Kaluta

Somebody is assembling enough arms and men to form a small army.
Who?
A team of assassins lead by Smitty, one of The Avenger's aides, attempts to kill The Shadow.
Why?
Margo Lane, aide and confidante to The Shadow attempts to kill The Avenger.
Why?
Clues lead both The Shadow (and his aides) and The Avenger (and his aides) to a lonely stretch of New Jersey beachfront where a massive weapons cache is discovered.
When the two groups meet, each believes the arms depot belongs to the other, and...

In the 1970s, both Marvel and DC revived pulp characters whose paperback reprints were selling very well.

Marvel licensed Doc Savage, and DC grabbed both The Shadow and The Avenger.
Due to the fact Marvel had trademarked The Avengers,  DC's Avenger book was titled Justice, Inc. (the name of The Avenger's organization.)*
The Shadow lasted 12 issues, Justice, Inc. only 4.
While some of the 1970s Shadow run have been reprinted in book form, this issue has not.
*Similarly, when a comic based on the British TV spy series The Avengers was done in the late 1960s, it was called John Steed & Mrs. Peel!

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Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Night of the Avenger" Part 1

Recipe for mayhem; take two heroes, add one arch-villain...

...mix with assorted aides and assistants, stir, and serve HOT!

Tomorrow...

Action!

Suspense!

Secrets REVEALED!

Don't Miss It!

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Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE (& SPIDER-MAN) "The Future is NOW!"

When Last We Left Our Heroes (in two different eras)...

Art by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia.

Both Doc Savage (in 1934) and Spider-Man (in 1974) are lured to the same Manhattan building (in their respective time periods) by the same beautiful woman from another dimension.
(Only in comics would such a statement actually make sense!)
The woman, Desinna, warns both of them (in their respective time periods) about the presence of her associate, Tarros, mutated and driven insane by an accident during the testing of an experimental dimensional portal.
Suddenly, in 1934, Tarros appears...

Though the Doc Savage comic had been cancelled in 1973 after only eight issues, Marvel still held the license, and with a Doc movie coming out in the summer of 1975, they did one more new color comic, along with a reprint of the first two issues of Doc's series (which we re-presented HERE), before initiating a b/w magazine featuring all-new stories rather than adaptations of the pulp/paperback novels.
The movie tanked.
The magazine, though a critical success, was cancelled after eight issues.
Doc would make one more Marvel appearance, in 1976's Marvel Two-in-One #21 (which we re-presented HERE), teaming up with The Thing in a similar split-time period story with a notable exception...the two heroes actually met!
Ironically, DC Comics has reprinted both the color and b/w Doc series from Marvel Comics!
(In the world of entertainment property licensing, truth is stranger than fiction, even science fiction!)
However, due to licensing restrictions, neither Marvel nor DC has reprinted the two team-up tales we've re-presented on this blog, nor will they ever do so.