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: PHANTOM LADY "Old Shell Game"

Here's a story with our favorite heroine that has a surprise ending...

...because, this time, she's not the only one in an identity-concealing costume!

Transvestite characters weren't a new concept in comic books.

One of the earliest heroes was the first Cat-Man, who dressed as a little old lady to battle crime over fifteen years earlier, as seen HERE and HERE!

By the time of this tale in Phantom Lady #2 (1955), the stories had become a mix of existing unused Fox Comics material and totally-new stories.

The artist (or artists) are unknown, but the writer is probably editor Ruth Roche, as usual.

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Reading Room: SPITFIRE SAUNDERS "Whip"

Yesterday, you read the second version of this story, starring Phantom Lady...

...here's the original (and longer) version of the tale, starring a totally-different heroine from Spitfire Comics #132 (1944)!

Spitfire Saunders made only two appearances, in successive issues of Elliot Comics' Spitfire Comics, which despite the high numbering of this issue (#132), only had two issues!
The art on this story about an extremely competent female spy is by journeyman artist Paul Cooper, working for the Iger Studios, who also supplied art to Ajax/Farrell (where the re-worked version appeared) and Fox Comics.
It's unknown who did the art modifications on the Phantom Lady version of the tale, but odds are Ruth Roche did the extensive editing and re-scripting.

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Satan's Seal"

This is one of the most unusual Phantom Lady tales you'll ever read...

...because it wasn't meant to be a Phantom Lady story!

In fact, this story in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #1 (1954) originally appeared a decade earlier, featuring a different character battling Nazis (not Commies), in another publisher's magazine!

The first version was published in Elliot Comics' Spitfire Comics #132 (1944), starring female spy Spitfire Saunders in the first of only two appearances...

...but we're out of room (and time), so you'll see the complete Spitfire Saunders story tomorrow!

Besides, you'll probably want to open both entries in side-by-side tabs or windows so you can compare the stories!

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