Tuesday, August 23, 2022

"The Star of Delhi"


 An okay cover.  I would rather have seen The Shadow with his hands around the throat of his attacker, as if he was giving as good as he got.  At least have him trying to pry the choke hold loose.  Plus the aim of the police officer is atrocious.  That bullet is gonna whiz behind the big guy and do no harm.

This tale has Gibson trying to give an explanation as to The Shadow's supposed power of invisibility.

"Using the system of remaining absolutely immobile, with even his thoughts fixed, The Shadow was practicing the ways of the Tibetan mystics.

"It was their belief that such concentration could produce the equivalent of invisibility. Through experience, The Shadow had demonstrated that complete immobility did reduce an observer's chances to almost nil.

"It produced the semblance of a power through which he could cloud men's minds; and many of The Shadow's enemies had sworn that he had suddenly appeared in the midst of a lighted room before their startled eyes.

"Only a few could claim that they had seen The Shadow vanish, for the simple reason that it was much more difficult the other way about. Though The Shadow could fade rapidly into darkness, he required ideal conditions if he sought to remain on the very ground, unnoticed. Once crooks saw The Shadow, their minds became too excited to be readily quieted."

Gibson must have felt that he needed to delineate the differences between the radio version and the pulp iteration.  A nice nod to the other guy.

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