Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Princess of Death"

When Last We Left The Shadow...

...we promised you  a look at the purple and green-garbed Silver Age version...

You'll note a number of changes since The (Silver Age) Shadow's last appearance...

He's now a brunette, not blonde.
He's no longer using hypnotic powers to cloud mens' minds, preferring stealth.

He's wearing a green and purple skintight costume!

The art style has changed, and not for the better.
(Paul Reinman, who was also illustrating Archie's other superhero titles, has replaced John Rosenberger.)
However, the writer was still Robert Bernstein. In fact, either this tale, or its' companion from this never-reprinted issue was his last comic book work.
We'll be re-presenting the other, longer tale from Archie's The Shadow #3 in the near future.
I can hear the screams of anguish already!

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Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Eyes of the Tiger"

The Silver Age Shadow can be found here and here.

The last story from the never-reprinted The Shadow #1 (The Silver Age version).
Script by Robert Bernstein.
Art by John Rosenberger.

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Holy Cowled Crusader! It's the THWOCK! ZAM! BOFF! Adventures of The Owl!

Tomorrow we conclude our look at comic book Owls with...

...the high-camp adventures of the only non-DC/Marvel/Archie Golden Age comic character to be revived in the Silver Age!*

In 1967, with the pop-culture success of Marvel Comics and the Batman tv series, superheroes were in vogue again!
Curiously, while Marvel and DC revived their Golden Age characters in reprints and new stories, and Archie did new tales about the classic characters, other publishers chose to do new characters instead...with one exception!
Gold Key now owned the 1940s Dell super-heroes, and though they did do a few new super-hero characters like Dr Solar, the only Golden Age character they revived was the one in their library most similar to Batman.
Guess who?
And because they felt it should be as much like the tv Batman as possible, Gold Key had writer Jerry Siegel (yes, the co-creator of Superman) and Lone Ranger artist Tom Gill camp it up beyond belief!
You'll see the results tomorrow and Friday.

*Doc Savage and G-8 were pulp heroes who had gained new popularity thru paperback reprints.

Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Mandrake, The Phantom, Brick Bradford, et al, were newspaper strips that published from the 1930s onward without a break.

The Green Hornet and The Shadow were originally radio shows.
And The Blue Beetle was a rather unique case, being a Golden Age hero at Fox who continued with new adventures at Charlton into the Silver Age before being rebooted in 1964 and then replaced in 1966 by a totally-new character when the reworked hero was killed off!

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Reading Room: THE SHADOW vs the RXG SpyMaster Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Things look tight for He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Heart of Shiwan Khan, doesn't it?
And, where the hell is his slouch hat...or his nose?
Read thru to the end and find out, kiddo!

As you can see, there were quite a few changes between The Shadow's last comic appearance in his own Street & Smith book in 1949, and this premiere presentation in 1964.
In effect, they rebooted the character and "updated" him to the swinging spy-oriented '60s.
The Batman tv series had not yet debuted, so the "creators" were using the James Bond films and Marvel Comics as their template.
The script was by Robert Bernstein, a writer who had penned stories for almost every publisher including DC, Atlas, and EC. The Shadow was his last comics work.
Pencils and inks were by John Rosenberger, who had started out doing horror at American Comics Group, then moved to Archie where he did The Fly, The Jaguar, and Young Doctor Masters, a clone of the then-popular Dr Kildare tv series. (In fact, Lamont Cranston, without glasses, is a dead ringer for Dr Masters!). Eventutally, he ended up at DC, where he did romance comics as well as Supergirl, Lois Lane, and Wonder Woman (usually inked by Vince Colletta).

How did Archie end up doing The Shadow?
They acquired the comic rights thru a sister company, Belmont Books, which was doing a series of new Shadow novels.
The first one, Return of The Shadow, written by the pulp Shadow's creator Walter Gibson, kept to the concept and style of the original pulp run.
It was meant to be a lead-in to a line of pulp reprints.
However, it sold well enough that the publisher decided to go with all-new stories, but "updated" with "modern" story elements.
Gibson wasn't interested in going that route, so Dennis Lynds assumed the Maxwell Grant byline for an additional eight novels which combined the pulp and radio versions along with superspies.
The paperbacks did retain the cloaked and slouch-hatted imagery on the covers, which can be found on our brother blog, Atomic Kommie Comics.
(Ironically, both Lynds and Gibson later contributed stories to the same spy series: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.!  Lynds wrote a number of novelettes for the tv show's digest magazine, and Gibson wrote a juvenile novel, "The Coin of El Diablo Affair".)
The first two issues of Archie's Shadow follow, somewhat, the revamped Belmont Books version.

Curiously, The Shadow does appear in full cloak and hat (and nose) on the cover to #1...

...but that version never appears again during the series eight-issue run.
In fact, as of #2, there are further alterations afoot!
But that's a story for another time...

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Reading Room: THE BATMAN & THE SHADOW "Who Knows What Evil--?" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Art by Mike Kaluta

While tracking a group of counterfeiters, The Batman is saved by an expert marksman who shoots a criminal in the hand who was about to plug the Darknight Detective.
The wounded criminal runs into a dead-end alley...and disappears...with only a mocking laugh to indicate anyone had been there!
A clue from the crime scene leads the Caped Crusader (as Bruce Wayne) to Tumbleweed Crossing, where he meets another visitor...Lamont Cranston, a scientist investigating the water supply, which is loaded with minerals and would be perfect for matching the government's formula for the ink used in printing...money!
Believing nearby abandoned cliff-dwellings would be an ideal base of operations for the counterfeiters, The Batman is ambushed as he heads there, but an antique autogyro distracts the gunmen long enough for the Cowled Crimebuster to capture them.
As he nears the ruins, The Batman speculates about the identity of the mysterious laughing marksman in the autogyro.
Could he be...?

This appearance in Batman #253 came between the first and second issues of The Shadow's bi-monthly Bronze Age run at DC, back when comics actually came out on schedule.
It was a nice tip-of-the-fedora to the long-believed idea that the pulp character was a primary influence on the creation of the Caped Crusader. (A fact confirmed by Shadow historian Anthony Tollin HERE.)
Denny O'Neil was also writing The Shadow comic, and this issue's cover artist Mike Kaluta, who had already done a number of wonderfully-moody Detective Comics and Batman covers, would come to be the definitive Shadow artist for all versions of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks since. (much as James Bama's version of Doc Savage is the iconic one all others have been based upon)

We'll be presenting the other Batman story featuring The Shadow HERE, and the Shadow/Avenger team-up HERE!
And, if you want to see a REALLY strange version of Lamont Cranston, be here next week, when the purple and green costumed version makes his debut!
(Yes, you read that right! Purple and green costumed version! And you can blame Batman for that...)

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Video Fridays: The Man of Bronze IS the Man of Steel!

The recent Doc Savage posts have produced some of the biggest hit counts this blog has ever seen!
So, for this week's videos, we're going with The Man of Bronze and Ron Ely as two Clarks, one Bronze, one Steel!

First up, the original theatrical trailer...Have no fear! The Man of Bronze is HERE!

The two major fight scenes in the flick in one clip!

And a very special treat: Ron Ely as the Golden Age Superman!

 From The Adventures of Superboy third season finale; "The Road to Hell Part II"

Don't worry, the opening synopsis gives you all the background you need...

Coming soon: The Doc Savage stories from Marvel Two-in-One and Giant-Size Spider-Man, as well as the Giant-Size Doc Savage one-shot, none of which are included in DC's trade paperback reprint! PLUS: the not-reprinted text features and pin-ups from the various Marvel comics and b/w magazines!
PLUS:
The Shadow's Silver Age run from Archie Comics!
The COMPLETE Fox/Farrell Phantom Lady by Matt Baker!
The Green Hornet (Golden AND Silver Age)!
The SECOND Captain Marvel! (The one between DC's SHAZAM! and Marvel's Mar-Vell!)
Jet Dream and Her StuntGirl CounterSpies: the Complete Saga!
..and much MORE superhero(ine) stuff from 1938-1978!
Don't miss any of the fun!

THE SHADOW "Who He Is and How He Came to Be" Chapter 1

With the most extensive revamp/reboot to the character since the 1960s Radio Comics version...

...by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (now in bookstores and at Amazon)...

...we hereby present the updated (as of the Silver Age) origin/reboot of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men from Radio Comics The Shadow, beginning with this entry from #1 (1964)...

To Be Continued

TOMORROW

This ongoing text feature ran through the entire Radio Comics series (1964-1965).

The writer is unknown, but it might have been either Robert Bernstein (who wrote the first couple of issues of the comic, before it became a "campy" costumed superhero title under writer Jerry (Superman) Siegel...

...or Denys Lynds who scripted the updated, superspy-style Shadow novels being published simultaneously by Belmont Books...

...or somebody entirely different!

Only the Shadow Knows!

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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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