Wishing everyone a Hopeful and Happy New Year

It's hard not to get political as 2017 approaches so I will just say "Keep Calm & Carry On".

THADE!

The comics idea of what Thade looks like.  I'm not sure this is what I think of as I read "The Death Giver" but it is kinda cool.

Rare ad

Ran across this on one of my Facebook sites.  Would love to have this just because.

What I'm reading now

The Death Giver!  I have read this a couple of times but am looking forward to making my way through this during the odd week between Christmas and New Years.  Love the cool cover (it's got a ring!) and know that back in the day this would have made fans drool over the prospect of a terrific tale to keep them entertained.

This is the edition I was introduced to.  Great cover as well, just not pulpy goodness like the original.

Have a very Merry Christmas, agents

Has The Shadow incurred the wrath of St. Nick?  Can he get back on the "Nice" list?  Only Santa Knows.

Another of my favorite covers

Caught in a web of crime, will the Dark Eagle make the evildoers pay for their insolence?!  Only The Shadow knows... and anyone who read this tale.  Great image and very well executed.  Also a very fun story.  Read it a few times over the years.  This is the version that I was introduced to.

A quick little sketch

Just had the need to do a Shadow drawing.  Headed off as a thank you gift.

This is how I feel about winter this year

Bang Bang, put winter outta my misery!

I got mine!

Had no idea I was getting one of these.  Thanks, John, what a fun surprise to find in my mail box on a very snowy Saturday.  This is so very cool.

If The Shadow came to town...

...this is how I imagine he'd be making his way to my secret sanctum.

Brrrr.

From out of the inky blackness

This is a pretty cool rendition of The Shadow.  Kinda think this is what many crooks saw just before they died.

The Shadow in the 60's

Apparently before he donned the superhero suit.

Pop goes The Shadow

Just a little fun with The Dark Eagle's place in pop culture.

Love for Lovell

The simplicity of the shapes is how Gibson described The Shadow and I think Lovell just nails it!  Wish the cloak were longer and the "inky" shadow were elongated and "weird" but this is just a wonderful little interior illustration from Tom Lovell.

Straight outta...

The Living Shadow!  Page one, the scene that started it all.

Toth does The Shadow

Would love to have seen the supposed animated version of The Shadow using Alex Toth's designs.  What could have been...

More great Kaluta/Wrightson images

Continuing with my love for this issue of The Shadow are some terrific poses of our hero.  The hand being illuminated with the match is brilliant.  Pure Gibson.  These are the ones that live in my mind's eye as I read the books or just when my mind wanders during the day.

One of my earliest recollections of The Shadow

I got spoiled right off the bat with the Kaluta/Wrightson team-up in issue #3.  I loved that extra oomph that Bernie gave to MWK's great pencils and layouts.  This issue is one I go back to all of the time.  Would love to own the last page of this one.

Those final three panels really captured my imagination and have really set in my mind how The Shadow should look in all comic adaptations.  Can even forgive the scarf...

Some Gianni to start the week

Love this.  This is how I think many of the sequences in the pulps involving The Shadow piecing the clews provided by his agents should be visually presented.  As cool as the blackened room with just the two white hands and the girasol glistening under the blue light is in prose, it doesn't have a lot of drama in visual form.  This is really well done.

A little Kaluta for a Friday

Love this illustration.  What a great homage to the company that brought us these three great heroes.

Finished The Black Master so...

The Shadow's Shadow is up next.  Been a long time since I read this one.  In fact, this...

is the cover of the novelization I read long ago.  Looking forward to getting into this early novel.

What I'm reading now

This is the volume I'm reading at the moment.

This is the story I'm nearly finished with.

This is the novel I was first introduced to featuring this wonderful early tale.  Long ago, back in my youth.

My daily desktop

Keeps me pulpy all day long.

Karl Kerschl does The Shadow

I'm a sucker for gray scale illustrations.  I like the hat although the hat band is a bit too pronounced.  And, of course, I don't care for the scarf but other than that I like this little sketch.

Have a Happy & Heroic Thanksgiving

Wishing all agents a very Happy & pulpy Thanksgiving.

Another favorite and the covers it spawned

Not for the quality of the painting but for the influence this cover had on another hero of mine... The Bat-Man.  Even Neal Adams did an homage,

although he was just updating the cover that was drawn so early in Bruce Wayne's career.

Just filling in with some of my favorite covers

So simple yet so very effective.  I try to look at these through the eyes of a young me if I were seeing them on the stands for the first time.  The two weeks (and later whole month) of anticipation between issues would have me at the newsstand the day it was supposed to hit the racks.  I do the same thing at my local comic shop these days with the reprints.  This cover would've have gotten me very excited to know what lay beneath the cover.  

Settling on a new game

After the Thanksgiving holiday this week Under the Blue Light will try a new game.  Not sure if it will be as easy as the cover clews that have been shown the past few years, but here's hoping the Master's agents will give it a whirl, nonetheless.

Marshall Rogers does The Shadow

Rogers and Englehart's Batman run was one of my favorites back in the day.  It's fun to see him do the traditional Shadow.  Not my favorite version but fun anyhow.

The Stars Promise Death

Looks like a Sci Fi pulp cover by a Finlay imitator.  This just ain't The Shadow.  And this review supports this observation.

Second and final clew

How ethereal.

Go towards the light

This may signify the light at the end of the tunnel for the covers.  I will have to come up with another game to play.

The Robot Master

Meh.  Not my cuppa but I guess it's an alright representation of the editorial staff trying to keep up with the times.  It really doesn't represent The Shadow very well.  I have not read this one and it will be sometime before I do as this is from 1943 and I'm still working my way through the early to mid '30s.  If you haven't read this and need a little info check out this review.

Thank you to all of our veterans

We owe our freedom to those who fought and continue to fight for us.

What combination of clews will get this cover figured out?

Right... Left... Right.

VOTE!!!!

The Shadow didn't fight so that we would just sit back and let others decide for us.

The Shadow's Nose?

Easy clew to give your brains a break from this relentless election season.

Merry Mrs. MacBeth

I'll let John Olsen comment on this cover in this excerpt from his review .

  "A quick comment about the cover of the pulp magazine. The Shadow was not shown on the cover, but that was becoming standard by 1945. The Shadow was rarely depicted on the cover by this time. What was noteworthy was the the cover showed a radio microphone on a stand. And it had nothing to do with the story whatsoever! The microphone was a small part of the cover, not the central part. But it still was strange to see a radio mic when radio was never even mentioned in the story. Perhaps a homage to The Shadow's radio show? One wonders..."

I have no idea how the story is but I can say that the cover does nothing for me.

Second clew

Don't let this one weigh you down.

Midweek clew

What could be causing this bespectacled citizen such anxiety? Take a stab at this cover clew, agents.