Frank Eisgruber Jr.‘s Gangland’s Doom is one of the first book-length works on The Shadow, preceding Will Murray‘s The Duende History of The Shadow (1980) and Robert Sampson‘s The Night Master (1982).
It first saw print in 1974 as the first of Robert Weinberg‘s Pulp Classics series, and later reprinted in the 1980s and ’90s by Starmont House/Borgo Press. Altus Press (now Steeger Books) did a revised paperback edition in 2007, which is the edition I have and previously posted on.
Now the folks behind The Shadowed Circle fanzine have put out a new edition, the “50th Anniversary Edition” through their own Resonance Arts Press. This was done through a Kickstarter campaign, and the new edition is available in paperback and hardback with several new additions.
They didn’t keep the original Frank Hamilton artwork; we get new covers by Joseph Booth and Marcin Nowacki.
The work starts off with several forewords. We get one from the 50th anniversary edition editor, Steve Donoso, the original publisher’s foreword, and an updated author’s foreword, which gives a good overview of the history of this work coming together. The size of the planned work put limits on it, which has been addressed by the subsequent works by Murray and Sampson. And then we get an introduction from Murray.
Next, we get into the work itself with several good chapters. We learn about who The Shadow is, and then the various identities used by The Shadow through the pulps. Another chapter covers all of The Shadow’s many agents and allies. There is a brief look at his sanctum. And then a chapter on the major villains, a few of whom came back for additional stories.
Not all of The Shadow’s stories were set in New York, so we need to take a look at his many excursions to other locations. And then there is a final, short chapter on some oddities.
While a shorter work than others, this is still an enjoyable work, and if one is getting into The Shadow, at least the pulp version, this is a good intro.
Next are a trio of appendices. The first looks at Philip José Farmer‘s theory put forth in Tarzan Alive that G-8, The Spider, and The Shadow were all the same person. Eisgruber rightly disagrees with this. Farmer later revised, in his Doc Savage work, to have them all be separate individuals, though related.
The next appendix looks at the three authors of the pulp Shadow. And the third lists all The Shadow pulp novels.
Rounding out the work are reprints of a pair of letters from Eisgruber to Murray. And then an interview with Eisgruber. I’m not sure who actually conducted it.
While I have the prior Altus Press edition, the additions for me were a good reason for getting this one. This is a great addition, along with the new Shadow works from Will Murray. I just wish we could also get a new edition of Robert Sampson’s work as well.
Also, if you aren’t getting The Shadowed Circle, do so. It’s a great fanzine for Shadow fans.
Hey Michael! This is Samuel Oatley, the web manager for THE SHADOWED CIRCLE. Thanks for your review!
Regarding your question about the interviewer’s identity, the interview with Eisgruber was done via mail letter with questions submitted to him by the staff of The Shadowed Circle. It was not done in-person.
And yes, many of us at THE SHADOWED CIRCLE really want to do re-issues of Robert Sampson’s work as well (especially his Shadow study THE NIGHT MASTER), but apparently there’s a lot of rights issues regarding his work. So that is unlikely to happen in the near future.
While I finally got a copy of The Night Master myself, I would love to see this republished. It was on the list of works coming from Black Dog Books, so maybe ask Tom Roberts?
Our head editor Steve Donoso mentioned that someone was attempting to republish THE NIGHT MASTER (not sure if it was Black Dog Books or not), but ran into issues regarding rights and basically abandoned the project.
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