More clew

Perhaps there is a clew in the diary...

Tuesday clew

Don't squeeze your brain too hard trying to figure this one out.

The Radium Murders

As usual, Agent T is correct.  An okay cover that I think suffers from the white border around the illustration.  Still, not a bad image and better than a lot of the covers I've been showcasing lately.  I understand that this will soon be reprinted by Sanctum so, if you can't wait for that, here is a link to a review to get you in the mood to read "The Radium Murders"!

A glowing clew

Spend the weekend scratching your skulls over this one.  See youse guys on Monday.

The Murdering Ghost

Ugh.  The Shadow is bulky and seems hamhanded with that gun.  Nothing about this cover works for me except for the gloved hand stabbing the man in the back.  Nope, this just doesn't work for me.  The story?  Here's a link since I can't say from personal experience.

A transparent clew

Just a shade of a clew.

The Banshee Murders

Looks like this could be a Virgil Finlay cover for a 50's sci fi novel.  Just missing the stars.  This is a well rendered cover that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with The Shadow!  Would like to have seen how this Modest Stein handled our hero in this style.  Stein had a fairly diverse set of styles.  He'll never be confused with Rozen as an artist on The Shadow, but he was pretty talented.  This is another of the tales I have yet to read but it is a Gibson from '46 so it can't be too bad... or can it?

A screamin' clew

Just for any agent needing a little distraction from the Monday doldrums.

Alibi Trail

As Agent T says, this wouldn't even make a good comic book cover!  (Granted, there are some awesome comic book covers these days.)  I'm not sure what else to say about this cover other than I can only hope the story contained within is better.  I'll give a hint, this was the second to last novel by Gibson before Elliott took over.

Money grab

You should be able to put your finger on this clew.

No Safety in Numbers

Just horrible.  How was anyone supposed to know this was a Shadow novel?!  Oh, yeah, the terribly redesigned, generic logo.  Well, that should make long time fans excited for another adventure, right?  That should be enough to hide the fact that Bruce Elliott is writing as Maxwell Grant, right?  We sure wouldn't want our homogenized version to be confused with the scourge of the underworld, the hero who ruled the newsstands for nearly the entirety of the 1930's.  The original title of this "adventure" was "The Number of Death" and that number was 16.  As in only sixteen more tales over the next three years.  Eleven of them by Bruce.  Even Walter penning the last five couldn't bring The Shadow Magazine back from the edge of demise.  Luckily for us, Walter and the editorial staff had built such an enduring and deeply intriguing character that we, as fans new and old, would see a couple of revivals, one of which we are in the midst of (thank you very much, Anthony Tollin).

2nd clew for this cover

Can't blame any agent for just not wanting to look at this cover very often.

Monday morning

Worst day of the week... may as well be a crappy clew as well.

The Shadow Meets The Mask

"Second novel to bear that title.  Pretty crappy cover, that's all I can say!" Bill Thinnes.  I concur.

I know it's ugly but give it a go

?

The Shadow Annual 1943 Edition

 Poorly done and sporting the pulp version of Pleather.  This came with 3 reprints from better days.  The Voodoo Master from 1936, Hidden Death from 1933 & The Gray Ghost, again from '36.

Fast forward

Cheap clew for you.

Th Shadow Annual 1942 Edition

And the Oscar goes to... no, that ain't right.  Pretty boring cover, painted okay though.  The header states “A selection of the best Shadow novels.”  Contents are the three complete mystery novels The Living Shadow, The Ghost Makers & The Black Hush.  Kinda interesting that the 42 Annual would reprint novels from 31, 32 & 33.  Almost like they were trying to remind readers of the great history of The Shadow.  Or they were trying to give late comers to the magazine a chance to see where this phenomenon started.
  Just for comparison...

Red herring?

Probably not.

The Thunder King

Not a favorite of mine but I love the faux three dimensional effect of having the supposed thug spilling over the title banner.  Colors are nice and the renderings are fine but the overall effect is a bit boring.  It would have been nice to have the villain's hand on the switch pass over the masthead, but that is usually looked down upon.  This is the first pulp appearance of Margo Lane and that leads me to believe this is the first visualization of Miss Lane on a cover.  I haven't read this one but this review says it's a fun read, not great but it is 1941 and not many qualify.

A bit more of a clew

Second clew, agents.  Disappoint the man in the hat at your peril.

August's first clew

Who knows?