A New Pulp hero that many may not be aware of is Teel James Glenn‘s Dr. Shadows. Appearing in several short stories and one novel, he has been collected in four books: A Hex of Shadows, 2010 from epress-online; Shadows of New York and Manchurian Shadows, from BooksForABuck.com in 2011 and 2013; and most recently, Year of Shadows, from Pro Se Press. Now, I should point out that Hex is out of print, but that’s okay, because the stories in it are in New York and Year.
While an original character, he seems to me mostly inspired by The Avenger in the sense that personal tragedy changed him physically and mentally and made him the man he is today, though there are elements from others as well (as the author makes clear).
Set in the 1930s, most stories take place in 1937 or ’38. We are told that Dr. Shadows is really Anton Chadeaux, who as a college student dabbled in stage magic. “Dr. Shadows” was his stage magician name. After graduating with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, and while traveling with his rich parents, they are shot down in northern Korea. Anton’s parents are killed by bandits, and he is paralyzed and left for dead. But the monks of the hidden Wei Monastery find him and nurse him back to health. While his body is healed by special herbs that turns his skin and hair gray, he is training his mind and body with the ancient art of Sulsa Do. After five years he is reforged as a master of this ancient art. He is now a “granite man,” a “gray wolf of justice” who returns to the world to fit against evil.
Like The Avenger, he would build an organization of like-minded individuals to assist him in his fight for justice, the Shadows Foundation for Justice.
In Shadows of New York, we get seven adventures of different lengths. In a brief story, he investigates a murder attempt on the father of a friend, Dr. Hoon. And meets a mysterious one-eyed lady named “Hank”. In the longest story, Dr. Shadows and several of his associates head to Asia to deal with a mysterious and dangerous criminal leader, the White Tiger and his Green Claw Death. Next, he must figure out the “locked room murder” of a Tong leader to save Hank. In a very short story, he goes up against the vicious Mauler Manzetti in a charity boxing match. When a box is sent to Dr. Shadows from Madame Chiang Kai-shek, he must deal with Japanese agents trying to obtain it as it has a secret message from him. In the final story, a group of Japanese set up a death trap for Dr. Shadows in revenge for the death of an agent during the White Tiger affair.
A change from most hero pulps, we don’t get a recital of his origin in each story, nor are his associates seen in every story or mentioned if they aren’t there. We met several over the course of these stories, including Slugger Harris, Dr. Hoon, Chelsea Forrest, and Lee Han Ku, but they aren’t all as unusual as the associates of The Avenger, Doc Savage, etc.
Manchurian Shadows is a novel, which takes Dr. Shadows and associates to Manchurian, completing the story started with the mysterious box from Madame Chiang Kai-shek. In fact, that short story serves as the first 10 chapters of this novel. It also deals with an element of his “origin.” Tho this novel is more a series of linked short stories.
The most recent work, Year of Shadows, is a collection of five short stories. At this point I haven’t yet read it, but look forward to it.
Glenn has written other works, including characters like Skullmask and Gideon Synn. Another work I’ll be reviewing soon is Three Deadly Shadows (2015), which stars Jon Shadows, the son of Dr. Shadows and who now runs the Shadows Foundation. But I’ve enjoyed the stories of Dr. Shadows and hope we see more. As most are set in a narrow period of time, would be nice to see some set later.
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