I continue taking a look at the pulp fanzine The Shadowed Circle with the most recent two issues. The focus of this fanzine is, of course, The Shadow, and I subscribed for issues #7 through 8.
While you can get the issues from Amazon, I’d rather subscribe because you get some extras, plus they come to you directly without wondering when they came out. There was a bit of a delay between issues as they also put out a Compendium volume and a reprint of Gangland’s Doom, Frank Eisgruber Jr.’s study of The Shadow. See my reviews of those.
As before, The Shadowed Circle is 7- by 10-inches with color covers and black-and-white interiors on nice white paper (not slick). Issues run around 70 to 75 pages.
Issue #7 (Fall 2024) has an article by Will Murray looking at the use of the title “Knight of Darkness” for The Shadow, which happens to be the title of his third volume of Shadow articles. Nicholas Montelongo takes a look at the Big Little Shadow books put out by Whitman/Western Publishing. At one point, someone had made these available on Amazon via print-on-demand, and I’ve posted on them.
Martin Grams Jr. examines The Shadow’s agents that moved from the pulps to radio. We get the second part of Daryl Morrissey’s work on the comic-book encounters of Doc Savage and The Shadow.
Tim Hewitt continues his examination of the Canadian Shadow covers that were different from the U.S. versions to get around wartime restrictions. The back cover of the issue shows some of these in full color. Arthur Penteado examines five Shadow novels that center on the theme of redemption. And several more.
Issue #8 (Fall–Winter 2025) starts off with a longer article by Will Murray on the question: Did a Shadow author write a Phantom Detective story? The identity of all the authors of The Phantom Detective is not known, and some pulp authors would often recycle their stories. Thus, a story written for one pulp hero that didn’t sell might be altered and then published. Or even if it did sell, it might be altered and then published elsewhere. Looking at the three Shadow authors — Walter Gibson, Theodore Tinsley, and Bruce Elliott — he finds no evidence of them writing a Phantom Detective. But apparently editor John Nanovic had some other authors write Shadow novels that were never used, and these might have been recycled, maybe into a Phantom Detective story. So, for those unaware of all of this, this may be your first foray into this sort of pulp investigation.
Robert Kroll looks at some deleted scenes from the 1994 movie The Shadow. Spencer Draper looks at what may be the most unusual tie to The Shadow movie: the pinball machine made for it. Evan Lewis looks at The Shadow appearing in other Street & Smith comic series. While I was aware of The Shadow Jr. series, I didn’t have much other info, so it was nice to finally understand what it was about.
John Olsen looks at the lost Shadow radio shows. Ron Hill reprints a segment from his Pure Baloney comic strip that included The Shadow. Nicholas Montelongo examines the many times The Shadow has come to the screen, both big and small, and asks whether this will happen again.
The Shadow rarely had any recurring foes — Shiwan Khan and Benedict Stark appeared four times each — but Tim DeForest examines the five stories that featured a criminal gang called “The Hand,” where The Shadow deals with each member in a different story in 1938 to 1939.
Each issue is great, with all these wonderful articles. I’m not certain when we’ll get #9, but I look forward to it. And I plan on subscribing to the next set. If you haven’t, check out this one, as well as their Compendium volume.
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