Love the face, hate the sling. Our hero should never be injured! At least not so that his bandage shows enough that his ability to blend into the shadows is eliminated. Maybe the story can explain this cover but it's not one of my favorite. (Yes, it does)
Rozen, that is. The original is up for auction this month at the Dallas auction house Heritage Auctions. The colours are so much brighter than the printed piece. Over at The Cobalt Club there has been some discussion about the colours being duller during the War Years. The person posing the question wondered if the artists were painting with less vibrancy but I feel it was probably due to lower quality paper and a need to conserve everything, ink included. This is proof that the artists were still cranking out the bright hues needed to attract the pulp reader.
Another tale with Devil in the title. I only point this out because the submission title was "Feud of Doom". Have to say that the published title is more pulp worthy. Certainly an action packed cover with a damsel in distress and two antagonists and The Shadow retaliating with his smoke wagon. But wait, he's clubbing the villain with it rather than blazing away! And the setting is a brightly lit room, certainly not a place where our hero is most comfortable in his sable hued garb. All in all not one of my favorites. A couple of changes could have made a world of difference here. A review of this 1942 story by Walter B. Gibson can be found here.
Ying Ko! This was the persona's first appearance and it made such an impact that to this day I think fans are more familiar with that affectation than "The Dark Eagle" (my personal favorite). Regardless, this is a cool cover that could be a scene out of "Dante's Inferno". The great cast shadow of the melee is really nice even if there is that little tossed hat image in there for comedic effect. Check out the eyes on the Fate Joss. Could they be fire opals as well. Guess you'll just have to read it to find out. If you want to preview the tale, go here.
Starting the final issue of the legendary 70's run of The Shadow for DC Comics. He would, of course, be back but not until the 80's.
Was this formerly titled "Attack of the Frightful Fowl"? The rendering of this cover is adequate but the staging is a bit odd. We have the knife being thrown as our threat, the crystal skull as the presumed object of contention but what's up with the geese? There were only two more issues published after this one, perhaps instead of geese they should have been swans. You can read a bit about this Gibson penned tale here.
What a great cover! Not iconic in the sense of "The Black Hush" or "The Book of Death", but great in the way that it has the fantastic elements of the best pulp covers. A creepy villain preparing to do evil and our hero ready to stop him. With no action this cover still delivers the necessary tension to draw the reader in and to demand that this story be read. According to Mr. Olsen in his review of this tale, this story has it all in spades. I look forward to reading this one at some point this year.
