One of the best works on The Shadow is Will Murray‘s The Duende History of The Shadow, which I am fortunate to have a copy, getting it as I was going off to college. It was my introduction to The Shadow, as I was yet to find any of the paperback reprints of the time.
While many have been hoping for a reprint, maybe an update, of that work, we instead get a new work from Will Murray: Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow. This volume collects almost a dozen articles from various magazines and fanzines. And I thought it interested that it is “published” by Odyssey Publications, which was the publisher of The Duende History. I am assuming Odyssey is just Will Murray.
All the artwork is from Frank Hamilton, most of which I’ve seen elsewhere, and it is great. Sadly, one piece at the front was somehow messed up in the scanning, so hopefully this can be fixed for future printings.
Several of these articles/interviews I have read before; I am just not sure where, because we aren’t told where these first appeared. The first one is on the radio Shadow, and gives an excellent history of how The Shadow started as a radio announcer for shows to promote Street & Smith’s pulps, how he later became the pulp hero we know, and then only later was a radio show created loosely based on the pulp Shadow. It makes it clear the influences between the different versions. This is an aspect of The Shadow that most pulp fans don’t fully understand. At some point, I need to do a posting on this.
Next is a long interview with Walter Gibson on his career and work on The Shadow. I believe it’s from Duende #2. A lot of good information is revealed, as several people ask him questions. We learn of his process in writing The Shadow stories, his involvement with the creation of The Avenger, and other topics. A follow-up piece is on the history of The Shadow’s fire opal from Gibson. Compare this alongside the article in the latest issue of The Pulpster on the same.
John L. Nanovic, the first editor of The Shadow Magazine (until 1943) and other Street & Smith pulps, is the subject of the next article. It’s based on an interview with him, and provides information on his career and the work he had done as an editor. It provides great insight into the editorial process at S&S, something too many pulp fans are probably unaware of.
Theodore Tinsley, who provided additional Shadow stories during the time the magazine was twice a month, is covered in the next article/interview. He did about four a year, for a total of 27, also creating Benedict Stark, one of only two Shadow villains to appear in four stories. He also creating the long-running Carrie Cashin character in Crime Busters.
The Shadow cover artist Graves Gladney is next. He picked up the covers after George Rozen‘s long tenure, doing them from 1939 to ’41.
Another long interview with Gibson follows. This was done a year or so after the prior one. Then an article on Gibson’s magical career, which colored his pulp writing.
We then get an article on interior artist Edd Cartier, based on an interview with him. He had been active doing a lot of interior artwork with many pulps, not just The Shadow, but also for Doc Savage, science-fiction pulps, and others. But he left the field in 1953.
The last two articles include one looking at the roots of Batman in The Shadow, which has been the subject of several of Sanctum Books‘ The Shadow collections, and a final memorial on Walter Gibson.
Overall it’s a great collection of pieces on The Shadow. My only dinks are the lack of info on the sources of these works and the poor reproduction of that one piece of artwork at the front of the book. But this work should be on the shelves of any self-respecting pulp fan. Frankly, with the new Shadow novel from James Patterson, I think someone should send copies to Patterson and his “co-author” Brian Sitts as they clearly have a poor understanding of the character.
I look forward to the promised future new edition of The Duende History of The Shadow, to be called The Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow.
