{"id":14021,"date":"2022-06-10T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=14021"},"modified":"2025-11-26T22:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T03:51:42","slug":"the-shadow-big-little-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2022\/06\/10\/the-shadow-big-little-books\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shadow Big Little Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

With this posting, I’ll cover a publication format that I haven’t done yet. These are Big Little Books (or BLB), particularly the trio done with The Shadow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>For those not aware of BLBs, they were started by Western Publishing\u2019s Whitman subsidiary in 1932. They are small books aimed at kids, in a size about 4- by 4-inches with board covers. Inside there would be text on the left page and an illustration on the right page. Some also might have a corner of that artwork devoted to a \u201cflip book\u201d set of artwork.<\/p>\n

The BLBs adapted a wide range of characters from radio, comic books, comic strips, books\/pulps, children\u2019s books, and movies. This means that some pulp and \u201cpulp adjacent\u201d characters like Tarzan<\/strong>, John Carter<\/strong>, Zorro<\/strong>, Buck Rogers<\/strong>, Flash Gordon<\/strong>, The Green Hornet<\/strong>, The Lone Ranger<\/strong>, and more appeared.<\/p>\n

The name referred to them having a \u201cbig story\u201d in a \u201clittle package.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Western\/Whitman started them, other publishers joined in. In 1938, Whitman renamed them \u201cBetter Little Books,\u201d and used that name into the 1960s. To be accurate, all three Shadow volumes are Better Little Books. I believe Whitman was the last to still be publishing them into 1988. I got a few of these as a kid, as did my brothers. The earlier ones I think had board covers, the rest were softbacks. And I still have them.<\/p>\n

This posting is on the trio of BLBs that were done of The Shadow. All three have been reprinted by Gwandanaland Comics<\/a> as they are in the public domain, though as The Shadow character is trademarked, this had to be obscured. They are part of Gwandanaland Comics\u2019 \u201cMini-Memory\u201d series, which reprints just BLBs.<\/p>\n

When I approached these, I wondered if The Shadow we would get was based on the pulp magazine, the radio show, or some kind of combination of the two. Actually, I found that they seem based more on the pulp-magazine version, though some elements of that were dropped or overlooked as the series progressed.<\/p>\n

I have no idea who wrote them. All are credited to Maxwell Grant<\/strong>, but that was a house pseudonym. If anyone knows, please share. While I know Walter Gibson<\/strong> was the main writer of the pulp version, and also did the comic strip and many of the comicbooks, I have no idea on these BLBs. Erwin L. Hess<\/strong> is given as the interior artist for the first two, but Erwin L. Darwin<\/strong> for the third.<\/p>\n

As far as I know, all three were done specifically for the BLB and are not<\/em> adaptions of The Shadow<\/em> stories from other formats. But I could be wrong.<\/p>\n

The three are:<\/p>\n