Happy 250th Independence Day

 Let Freedom ring, this 4th.  Never take for granted what those who came before us fought so hard to achieve.  Have a safe and wonderful Independence Day, agents.

Lamont Henri Allard: Early American Patriot

 The first Dark Eagle.  Hero of the Revolution!  Happy Independence Day.

Dynamite's "The Shadow"

I'm going to have revise my opinion of Dynamite's take on The Shadow.  Did they make him a bit too over the top regarding violence?  Yes, they did.  I think they may have toned it down a bit over the course of the 25 issue series but it was still a concern of mine.  Did they sex up the Margo Lane relationship?  Absolutely.  That is something I didn't care for but nothing to be done about it.  Chaykin started that way back in the 80's and the film pushed it as well.  Was I a fan of the art?  For the most part, no.  Campbell did a pretty decent job but Timpano was hard for me to get through.  Ross' covers as well as some of the others really saved the book from an art standpoint.  So why am I revising my opinion?  Because they brought in some of the lesser known aspects of The Shadow's background.  The Seventh Star.  The Xincan angle with the second girasol.  Yat Soon in Chinatown.  Dr. Roy Tam (not the version from the film) and even his Dark Eagle persona.  Did they handle it well.  Well enough.  I'll never put this series ahead of any of the others but at least they did their research and brought some fun stuff to the table.  I'll give my opinion as I work my way through the subsequent volumes that follow the original 25 issue run.

The answers.... REVEALED!!

"Agent J reports: 1936, extra bullet hole above Shadow's automatic, missing fold in red of Shadow's cloak, Shadow's automatic. That's all I can find."

Pretty good, Agent J.  I added a bit of mortar to the bricks behind our hero.  A bit sneaky but I thought that Gladney missed the symmetry there.  (Hey, OCD ain't that much fun to live with...)

February calendar page

Be sure to check the calendar tomorrow.  Why?  February 2nd is Groundhog Day.  That's the day The Shadow becomes oh so apparent to everyone...

Let's check out what could have (and should have) been

Alex Toth!  An animated series designed by him would have, I believe, fulfilled every Shadow fans fondest desire.  This is what could have been.

Man, I wish Alex Toth had done a cartoon version of The Shadow

Even a stand alone comic.  Anything!  Toth was born to bring The Shadow to life!!!

Just a sketch

Doodlin' during the day.

When The Shadow has your name...

...you can be sure it won't end well for you.

Ian Culbard does The Shadow

That nose looks a bit like Chester Gould's Dick Tracy.  This would be a fun look for an animated series for the man in black.

The Dark Eagle

I ran across this in a magazine devoted to the 1911 .45 automatic pistol. This is how I envision Kent Allard during his Dark Eagle phase in WWI, dropping behind enemy lines carrying his trusty "smoke wagon" and thwarting der bad guys!

"The Night of The Avenger!" page 10

"The Night of The Avenger!" page 9