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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not gonna drag out this one with multiple clews. Not the worst cover but other than that rather poor cast shadow that rims the foreground figure's right arm there is nothing that indicates (other than the masthead) this to be an adventure of The Shadow. This is the first of the Bruce Elliott novels and Mr. Olsen says it's bad as a tale of The Dark Eagle but not bad as just a plain mystery novel. Take it for what you will.