"The clerk, taking his chair, picked up a copy of The Shadow Magazine and resumed his reading. Little did he realize that The Shadow himself was here!"
Wonderful cover with a great color palette.
"The Black Falcon"
"I talked to you as if I were Lamont Cranston. I paved the way for you to plan an abduction. I am not Lamont Cranston; but his features are ones that I have often adopted. The real Cranston had returned to his home; summoned by supposed business telegrams that I arranged. For when I play his part, even his friends and servants are deceived!"
"I talked to you as if I were Lamont Cranston. I paved the way for you to plan an abduction. I am not Lamont Cranston; but his features are ones that I have often adopted. The real Cranston had returned to his home; summoned by supposed business telegrams that I arranged. For when I play his part, even his friends and servants are deceived!"
...Which adventure did it come from? I know. The Shadow knows. Do you know?
Jim Steranko at his action-packed best with this one. I can't really pick a favorite because they both strike the right note with me.
Okay, maybe that ain't in the book but it sure enough feels like that could be ringing out from this cover. Must've been a good one. What am I sayin', it is a good 'un 'cause I done read it myself. And so should you. Even our cousins across the Atlantic got to read it.
...The Thriller got ahold of it and changed the title to "The Hush-Money Expert". Not sure how much of the story was changed but the cover seems to have taken a scene from the tale. Then...
...we hop back over the pond and see that H B Jove books (who took over as the imprint from Pyramid) chose it as their 21st entry into the short lived paperback reprint run in 1978. Nice cover from the great James Steranko but I prefer the original Rozen piece.
Love the cover. This, again, shows how The Shadow towers over the situation and, with the pensive pose, illustrates the true nature of our hero. Understanding the situation through examination and then manipulating the events for the desired outcome. The action side of The Shadow is great but the puppet master side is really what makes this character outstanding.
John Olsen pointed out an interesting oddity in this story. "It was interesting that an actual telephone number was used in this story. Usually author Walter Gibson might write that a phone number was dialed, but he wouldn't specify exactly what it was. But in this story, for some reason, he specifically wrote the number was Seabright 0664. Being of curious nature, I wondered if that was an actual phone number back in 1933 or was just made up. Thanks to the wonderful folks who maintain the website of the Telephone Exchange Name Project (http://tenproject.cloudapp.net/tensearch.aspx) I was able to determine that, yes, Seabright 0664 was an actual telephone exchange in New Jersey. Now if we could only discover what person had that phone number in real life. Was Walter Gibson playing a prank on someone? We may never know."
Not only there but again in 1975 by Pyramid Books with this Steranko cover art. No reason not to have read this one.
Even though the cover art to this is similarly simplistic it just can't compare to Rozen's version.
In 1966 this story was chosen along with "Voodoo Death" and "Murder by Moonlight" to be reprinted (albeit heavily abridged) in the hardback edition "The Weird Adventures of The Shadow".
In 1969 Tempo Books reprinted this paper back edition under the heading of "The Weird Adventures of The Shadow". Grosset & Dunlap, publishers of the hardback version seemed to be getting mileage out of the licensing agreement.
"Your crimes have found you, C**** W*** C*********. Not again will your vile vengeance fall. You cannot call K*** W*** to do your evil bidding."
Which adventure did this come from? A hint, it's an awesome novel. (I know that doesn't help much since there are soooooo many awesome tales.)
And here we have the most iconic of all cover portraits! "The Black Hush" solidified the image of The Shadow for anyone who even remotely knew of this character. The story was also reprinted in The Shadow Annual 1942 Edition along with "The Living Shadow" and "The Ghost Makers".
The table of contents page of this tale
is indeed "The Ghost of the Manor". Why the title differs (ever so slightly) from cover to interior, only The Shadow knows.
This is a Chinatown mystery that, according to The Shadow in Review, is not something that today's "woke" culture would be willing to put up with. The review has this passage...
"This is another of the early Chinatown stories that are so beloved by readers of The Shadow. The Shadow's first visit to Chinatown was in the very first pulp magazine story "The Living Shadow." He was to visit there nearly forty more times during the eighteen-year magazine run. This story is the sixth of those visits that readers were privileged to enjoy.
In many of the Chinatown stories, the treatment of the Chinese was even handed. There were good Chinese, and bad Chinese. The Shadow even had a Chinese agent in Dr. Roy Tam. But Dr. Tam does not appear, here. In fact, he wouldn't even be introduced to the series until two years later in "The Fate Joss."
This is not one of the even-handed Chinatown stories. There are no "good" Chinese in it. In a most politically in-correct story, all the Chinese are evil. All are slinky, yellow-skinned creatures that are barely considered human. Most are either dwarfish, spidery beings or ugly, hulking brutes. This is definitely a story that shows it's age, and reflects the unenlightened times in which it was written."
But enough of the adventure, let's focus on the wonderful Rozen cover. A hand! Yes, my favorite cover designs... a hand with the famous girasol ring prominently featured. Huzzah!
