The Shadow Returns

The Shadow is returning. Per Deadline:

James Patterson and Condé Nast are teaming to revive vintage crime fighter The Shadow in a series of books that will also aim to be adapted for the screen. 

Hachette Book Group imprint Little, Brown will publish the original series, whose first installment is due out in the fall of 2021. Condé Nast has long controlled licensing for the character via its Street & Smith subsidiary. 

The Shadow, a signature New York vigilante, originated in the 1930s as a series of pulp novels by Walter B. Gibson. A popular radio drama based on the books featured the voice of Orson Welles. In 1994, Universal released a feature film adaptation starring Alec Baldwin. 

“Who can forget The Shadow’s historic tagline, ‘Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?’”, Patterson said in the official announcement. “Well, The Shadow knows. And soon readers will, too. I’ve long been a fan of The Shadow and am looking forward to bringing his legendary character to life in the modern age.”

Razorfist was right, reading the tea leaves of rights revocations to predict a new push behind the character, conveniently timed when The Shadow starts to enter the public domain. I remain cautious--the history of relaunches lately has been underwhelming at best and disastrous at the worst. Patterson's involvement is not a salve to those concerns either. Perhaps, though, I might be too cynical of the master wordsmith manager.

However, for those who cannot wait, the Sanctum reprints are still available, and the first two new Shadow novels are as well, Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow and Doc Savage: Empire of Doom. And if the sudden flood of Canadian public domain Doc Savage books are anything to go by, we'll soon see cheap ebook reprints of The Living Shadow.

"The Shadow's Invisible Cloak"

The 49th issue of the Sanctum Books reprint of The Shadow holds a curious little treasure. Rounding out the issue, which contains The Shadow Laughs and Voice of Death, is an anonymous memo found in Lester Dent's archives. Entitled "The Shadow's Invisible Cloak," the memo seeks a naturalistic explanation for The Shadow's ability to turn invisible, a carryover into the pulps from the radio show.

At one page, the memo develops some serious chemistry as to the odd properties of The Shadow's cloak before diving into various strengths and weaknesses of the technique. Sprinkled throughout the memo is a constant reminder that just because a man might come across such a cloak, he would need to know how it was made in order to reproduce it. This provided both a warning as to the complexity of the chemical processes used and a convenient excuse if Walter Gibson changed his mind about the manufacture. The refrain also provides a clue as to the identity of the memo's writer.

Such a refrain appeared many times in the pages of Astounding, in the words of its celebrated editor, John W. Campbell. Not only was the style similar, but Campbell was also an MIT-trained physicist with a background in the physics and industrial chemistry needed to create such a conjecture. And Campbell had mulled over the idea of an invisibility cloak before, in his own stories "Out of Night" and its sequel "Cloak of Aesir." Thanks to his friendship with Gibson, Campbell ended up as the unofficial science advisor for not only The Shadow but many of the other hero pulps under John Nanovic's tenure as editor.

However, it was in 1944 when a Street & Smith editor forwarded "The Shadow's Invisibility Cloak" to Lester Dent. It is unknown whether William de Grouchey, Babette Rosemund, or the nameless female sub-editor who actually oversaw both The Shadow and Doc Savage was responsible. But the contents inspired the Doc Savage novel "Death Had Yellow Eyes". It also may have inspired an October 1944 issue of Shadow Comics which contained the first-ever meeting between The Shadow and Doc Savage. The two would team up again in the comics, but it wouldn't be until 2015's The Sinister Shadow before the Knight of Darkness and the Man of Bronze crossed paths in the novels.

All because editors are fans, too.

The Shadowcast episode 4

Razorfist's Shadowcast returns this month with a review of The Shadow Strikes, one of The Shadow films most closely resembling the pulps. Pity that it was made on a shoestring. Also reviewed is the radio episode "Death House Rescue", a milestone for The Shadow as the first of Orson Welles' legendary run as The Knight of Darkness.

The Shadow: Gangdom's Doom

The Shadow cleans up Chicago in Gangdom's Doom, the fifth Shadow novella. 

Inspired by the April 1931 Chicago election, The Shadow takes on the crime empire of Nick Savoli, a thinly disguised stand-in for Al Capone. Gangland Chicago was a breeding ground for pulp stories, from Amusement, Inc. to Black Mask and a host of hero and detective pulps. But the editors thought that The Shadow needed a little more motivation to face their version of America's first celebrity gangster: The order came from on high to writer Walter Gibson: The Shadow's agent, Claude Fellows would die.

Fellows would be the first and only agent to fall in the pulps. And Gibson protested the decision. But the editors stood firm. The blow was softened as Gibson went to Bermuda, dividing his time between writing and running publicity for the magician Harry Blackstone. 

Gibson would later recount how he turned the noisy Bermuda streets, complete with the hammering riveting of construction, into scenes in side alleys of Chicago, complete with Tommy gun fire. "It gave me jitters to walk past the Bermuda building, but it helped the story."

Onto the story.

Claude Fellows has been assigned to investigate the Chicago mob. Soon after their talk, first, his contact, then Fellows himself are killed, with the latter falling in a Tommy gun drive by.

In response, The Shadow sends Harry Vincent to Chicago, where Harry works his way into the confidence of Marmosa, a gambling king. While Harry learns about the mob's organization, from kingpin Nick Savoli down to the hired killers, the same killers burst into the gambling den. The Chicago killers get into a firefight with New York thugs, including one Monk Thurman. They kill one of Marmosa’s guns before Monk Thurman drives them away. Suddenly, Thurman is of great interest to Marmosa--and to Savoli's organization. Should they hire him or kill him?

A familiar felonious face, Steve Cronin from New York, meets with Marmosa's henchmen and casts enough doubt on Thurman to convince Marmosa's goons to kill the New York gunman. But when they call a meeting with Thurman to kill him, no one shows. Confused, Cronin and Marmosa's henchman leave, unaware that, in secret, The Shadow is watching their every move.

Later, Cronin meets with mob boss Savoli, who tells him to murder Chicago's most aggressive district attorney. But before Cronin and his crew can pull the trigger on their Chicago typewriters, The Shadow appears behind them and knocks them out.

When Cronin wakes up, he crosses paths with Harry Vincent, who resolves to settle the score from earlier adventures between them. Soon after, Savoli gives Cronin a way to redeem himself from the night's failure:

Kill The Shadow.

Savoli then orders Monk Thurman to eliminate the Chicago killers who shot up Marmosa's gambling den. Monk goes out and antagonizes a set of toughs, tricking them into ambushing the killers instead of ambushing him. The toughs go into hiding. Monk Thurman claims the deed.

The killings spark a whirlwind of schemes as Savoli uses the opportunity to further cement his authority over the Chicago underworld. Monk Thurman is to be killed to appease another crime lord. That is unless he kills The Shadow first.

The Shadow is everywhere during this exchange, listening in from secret passages, cackling to himself under hidden disguises. Now he reveals himself. The Shadow interrupts a dinner between Savoli and his crime lords, defying the mob boss to his face. The Knight of Darkness pronounces judgment on Savoli for his crimes and twice over for the men who killed on his orders. The Shadow escapes, untouched a hail of bullets.

Enraged, Savoli spends days setting his murderers after The Shadow, including Monk Thurman. But they aren't the only ones watching the streets of Chicago. Harry Vincent is as well, and Cronin now suspects him to be working for The Shadow. Cronin takes his suspicions to Savoli, who hatches a plan.

Harry Vincent is captured and tortured, causing The Shadow to make his move. After rescuing his agent, The Shadow appears to be on a collision course with Monk Thurman. But Monk's efforts are seemingly spent more in fraying the fragile peace in Savoli's organization--accompanied by a familiar mocking laughter.

Savoli's empire collapses in a week of brutal gang fighting. But The Shadow is not done yet, for he still has to bring Claude Fellows' killer to justice. He distracts Savoli long enough for police to raid Savoli's hideout. In the fight, Cronin is killed, and Savoli is arrested.

Gibson does a lot to make his story easy to read. This doesn't mean simplified plots, flat prose, or childish vocabulary. Rather, he doesn't get lost in exposition or distraction and makes it so the plot can be easily followed without telegraphing future events. Additionally, Gibson has perhaps the cleanest chapter organization so far in pulpdom. Each chapter can be summarized in a sentence but tells a miniature story in its own right. Unlike the hero pulps that would follow, Gibson's prose is stylized but without all the gilt that imitators would tack onto the genre. And the tricks of the magician that Gibson was so fond of, especially misdirection, are prominent throughout the tale.

The Shadow truly owes a debt to Fantomas. Not just in the mastery of disguise, but the prose stylings are similar to those found in the French phantom villain's dime novel adventures.

Like in the Argosy stories, the villains' actions drive the story, not that of The Shadow or Harry Vincent. It's almost alien compared to these days of limited 3rd-person POV. Although in the shadows and cackles, the reader can sense The Shadow's schemes coiling around the mob occasionally striking through mistake identities and inciting mob on mob violence. It isn't like he's averse to using his automatics, but rumor had it that Street Smith did not want to ruffle the feathers of the mob by letting The Shadow cut loose.

So, did Claude Fellows need to die?

No. The Shadow already is an embodiment of vengeance, and, save for being the inciting action for The Shadow’s crusade, affected the story minimally. We never see into The Shadow’s thought, and he is such a mystery and an actor that we as the readers never get a clear glimpse into The Shadow’s thoughts and motivations. And for a series so dependent on mood and misdirection, there’s no need for such a glimpse to push the story forward. As such, Fellows’ death comes across as a cheap stunt at worst and a MacGuffin at best. Gibson was right to protest the editorial decree, but, as he was writing for hire, the decision was ultimately out of his hands.

But even with that compromise, The Shadow’s fame and sales continued to grow.

* * * * *

For all agents of the Shadow: Buy the Sanctum reprints while you still can. Sanctum's rights expire at the end of this year. Who knows what Conde Nast will do with the series, so this is the last chance for a while to get affordable copies of The Shadow.

Pulp Radio: The Shadow - "The Mark of the Bat"

Walter Gibson died on this date in 1985. In honor of the master, here is a radio play featuring his best-known character, the immortal Shadow.

The 1983 Shadow panel with Walter Gibson

"A Little Disappointed..."

In an attempt to show the wider context of the changes in 1940s literature and how they may have affected Campbell and science fiction, let's take a look at Doc Savage, the Shadow, and Babette Rosmond.

The pulps were dying by inches during the Forties and the reading audience, cynical after another World War, was no longer satisfied with pulp fiction and pulp heroes. They wanted more thought, polish and realism in their fiction. Babette Rosmond perceived this and surrounded herself with writers who could meet these new demands. She could hardly get rid of Lester Dent (though Walter Gibson did quit during her tenure), so she juggled his novels to make them less conspicuous and showcased the work of MacDonald and others.

Murray, Will. Writings in Bronze (pp. 45-46). Altus Press. Kindle Edition. 

(This seems to be less the audience's attitude and more the editors'. In the 1940s, editors had more power over the market than readers. Changes in literature were driven by the fashions of the editors instead of market pressures. In part, this is because the editors were the market for writers. Sales plummeted under Rosmond, but her policies were in line with those of Street & Smith in the 1940s. I'll be looking into those soon. Rather than Rosmond being a child of Campbell's ideas as I previously assumed, it appears that she instead was a child of a new management that squeezed the vitality out of Campbell and the pulps.)

The years 1946 and 1947 were years of change in Doc Savage, and this was due largely to Babette Rosmond and her policies. It’s rumored that Lester Dent didn’t get along with her very well and she, in turn, evinced a cavalier attitude toward his Doc Savage novels. With the May 1945 issue, she shunted the lead novel to the back of the book in much the same manner as a parent locking an idiot child in the cellar. Though she repented that move in April 1945, it became increasingly evident that she thought more of developing her new writing staff than she did of Lester Dent and Doc Savage.

Murray, Will. Writings in Bronze (p. 45). Altus Press. Kindle Edition. 

This was a few short years after many of Street & Smith's pulpsters were effectively driven out of the career. Street & Smith was looking to make slicks out of their pulps and needed new writers in the current styles to do so. The resistance to the old styles even trickled down to the writers:

In Bronze Shadows #3 (February 1966) John MacDonald related the story of how he was asked to join the ranks of the Kenneth Robesons: 

In 1947, Babs Rosmond asked me, very cautiously and tentatively, if I would like to try a Doc Savage. I have the vague memory that Lester Dent was ill at the time. I do remember that I certainly had need of the money. I told her that I would let her know. I got out some of the back copies of the magazine which I had saved because they had contained stories by me. For the first time I read two Doc Savages all the way through. I did some fretting and some pacing and finally phoned Babs at her office at Street & Smith and said that I could not fault them on the basis of action, or moving the people around, but I just could not bring myself to imitate a prose style so wooden, so clumsy, so inadvertently hilarious that it was like a parody of the style you might term Early Comic Book. I said that Doc seemed to me to be a truly great comic figure, and I was sorry to let her down, but… She said she hadn’t really believed that I would do it, and that in fact she would have been a little disappointed in me if I had given it a try, disappointed in me. 

Murray, Will. Writings in Bronze (p. 46). Altus Press. Kindle Edition.

In 1948, Babette Rosmond would turn away from editing pulps for her own literary career. By then, the damage done by her and Street & Smith's management was permanent. Instead of continuing with the plan to revive their flagging pulp line, yet another management shakeup decided on a different course:

When the end did come, it was as if a sword had fallen. In 1949, the last of the Street & Smith heirs, Gerald Smith, became president of the firm. The sword-wielder is unknown; it may have been Smith or Chairman of the Board, Allen L. Grammer. In any case, it was the latter who announced in April of that year that Street & Smith was dropping Detective Story, Western Story, Doc Savage, and The Shadow—leaving Astounding Science Fiction the sole survivor of a long line of pulps. Citing television and the fact that readers were tired of the pulp format, Grammer said the company was shifting toward the women’s market. 

Murray, Will. Writings in Bronze (pp. 49-50). Altus Press. Kindle Edition. 

Quoth the Razor

Razorfist returns, yet again, to The Shadow to discuss how the current reinterpretation by Dynamite Comics misses the mark. In doing so, he makes a case for a hero with black and white morality in a gray world.

The Shadow doesn’t serve the Law. He serves Justice. And on occasions when the Law has run afoul of it, he’s been unafraid to turn his twin .45s on them as well. He serves a binary morality. And while he will make an effort to redeem the legitimately reformed? (He even has an agent devoted to the reformation of former criminals) Once someone has shown themselves beyond redemption, their fate has been assured. It isn’t always destruction (in many cases, he leaves enemies to the police, or leaves them in an even more elaborate personal Hell) but it’s always just, and invariably of philosophical importance. 

More than anything else, that’s what Si Spurrier’s atrocious Shadow comic lacks. In today’s age of gray morality? All he’s done is add touches of gray to a character who, today, would be far more interesting… the LESS ambiguous he is. These flourishes of pseudo-complexity come across as stilted and forced, because that’s precisely what they are. 

Imagine the controversy, the outrage, and the SALES… if The Shadow was in a modern comic… willing to execute a corrupt or racist police officer… and… a BLM/New Black Panther activist who crosses the line to murder, as the Dallas shooter did? If he did so without personal conflict, asserting his moral prerogative, and giddily cackled of the evil in their self-righteous hearts all the while? This is a character who could have a profound relevance today, but instead, Spurrier’s dated attempt to ‘update’ the character… have left The Shadow somewhere around the year 2006. 

The Shadow gets more contemporary, the closer he is to his original incarnation.

Incidentally, the Destroyer series filled part of this role in the 1970s. And it looks to be time for another such hero to arise. Look for him in indie, though.

Razorfist presents: The Shadow: DANGER IN THE DARK

After last year's success in recreating the Alfred Bester-penned episode of The Shadow Radio Show, The Immortal Murderer, Razorfist is back for Halloween with Danger in the Dark, the THIRD EVER, Orson Welles-era episode, until now, lost to the mists of time! This episode sees The Shadow match wits with an emerging supercriminal, whose blindness allows his other senses to function at peak efficiency!



This episode is dedicated to Emer Prevost (1982-2017), who played the Announcer.

Pulp Radio Wednesday: The Shadow - Death Gives An Encore

Review - The Living Shadow: Chapters 2-5

"Mr. Vincent?" the person said. "This is the jeweler. I have a message for you."

The word "message" made Vincent become suddenly alert. The voice was talking slowly now, and certain words came in a slight emphatic drawl.

"Your watch was sent to another man by mistake. We expect to have another in very soon; perhaps by next Tuesday. It will be delivered to your room."

The message was forming in Vincent's mind. He did not reply.

"Was my message clear?" came the question.

"Yes," Vincent replied.

He hung up the receiver and repeated the stressed words slowly and softly to himself:

"Watch − man − in − next − room."

Vincent chuckled. It was an order, and it was up to him to obey. 

*****

Harry Vincent is taken to a hotel where clothes, lodging, and spending money wait for him--along with a mission from his new benefactor.  "Watch the man in the next room."

Harry keeps an eye on his neighbor, one R. J. Scanlon. Despite his already skilled surveillance, he falls repeatedly for Scanlon's tradecraft yet still manages to compile a growing dossier on the man. 

Scanlon meets with Steve Cronin, who is playing a more sinister game than Harry. Later, at the hotel, Harry watches as Cronin tries to force his way into Scanlon's room to retrieve a Chinese disk. The man leaves, and Harry sneaks into Scanlon's room, only to find Scanlon dead--and Cronin's Chinese disk.

A Shadow follows Cronin as he meets with Croaker to double-cross a gang. Because Cronin revealed his name, he makes Croaker take over finishing the job: find the disk and take it to the fence, Wang Foo.

*****

Gibson follows the tendency of the period to include dialect in dialogue. Intended to provide verisimilitude, the purposeful misspellings to mimic an accent are eye-watering, especially with the black driver in the second chapter. Prose should not be a code to decipher, whether written by a pulpster or Mark Twain. Fortunately, this tendency has fallen out of favor. Oh, and to stave off cries of racism, Gibson writes each character with specific word choices and dialect to reflect their station, not just the black man.

We're just under 10,000 words into the story, and the Shadow has appeared only twice. Once to rescue Harry Vincent, stopping only to kill a carjacker or two, and a second time in quiet surveillance of Cronin and Croaker. At this moment, he doesn't even bear the moniker, although Harry has suggested it in his mind. Meanwhile, Harry has given himself wholly to the Shadow's cause and has proved himself to have some skill, but not the experience needed to avoid common pitfalls. 

The pulp fascination with chinoiserie appears here, with the Chinese disk and the Chinatown fence. Gibson will not indulge in the Yellow Peril of Fu Manchu, a trope already showing its age with the advent of Charlie Chan as a police hero. We will soon see what his particular twist on the trope.

The mystery is still developing, with the first twists already falling into place. Who knows what will happen when Harry makes his first report?

Review - The Living Shadow: Chapter 1

Out of the darkness came a being of the night to give Harry Vincent another chance; a chance to live his life with enjoyment, danger and excitement; a chance to risk it for an honorable cause in the service of the mysterious character known only as The Shadow!

*****

Far be it to me to add one jot to the advertisement for the very first novel of The Shadow, 1931's The Living Shadow, especially when it sums up the events so well. Written by Walter Gibson under the house name of Maxwell Grant, this novel would create new genres, from the hero pulps to superhero comics, and usher in the media empire that was The Shadow.

Yet for how ubiquitous the Knight of Darkness would become, his first case begins not with the narrative eye on Kent Allard, Lamont Cranston, or whatever nom de guerre The Shadow claims as he fights his war against crime. Instead, we are introduced to Harry Vincent, a man who had just received a "Dear John" letter from the woman who used to be his girl back home. Overtaken by a pity party, he heads out to a bridge and jumps. But his suicide is not to be...

Something clamped upon his shoulder. An iron grip held him − balanced between life and death. Then, as though his body possessed no weight whatever, the man felt himself pulled around in a sweeping circle. He staggered as his feet struck the sidewalk of the bridge.

He turned to confront the person who had interfered. He swung his fist angrily, but a hand caught his wrist and twisted it behind his back with irresistible power.

It was as though the man's strength had been wrested from him when he faced a tall, black−cloaked figure that might have represented death itself. For he could not have sworn that he was looking at a human being. 

The stranger's face was entirely obscured by a broad−brimmed felt hat bent downward over his features; and the long, black cloak looked like part of the thickening fog.

This mysterious stranger demands a price for Harry's rescue:

"Your life," said the stranger's voice slowly, "is no longer your own. It belongs to me now. But you are still free to destroy it. Shall we return to the bridge?" 

"I don't know," blurted Vincent. "This is all like a dream; I don't understand it. Perhaps I did fall from the bridge, and this is death that I am now experiencing. Yet it seems real, after all. What good is my life to any one? What will you do with it?" 

"I shall improve it," replied the voice from the darkness. "I shall make it useful. But I shall risk it, too. Perhaps I shall lose it, for I have lost lives, just as I have saved them. This is my promise: life, with enjoyment, with danger, with excitement, and − with money. Life, above all, with honor. If I give it, I demand obedience. Absolute obedience. You may accept my terms, or you may refuse. I shall wait for you to choose."

Harry instantly agrees, and the man ushers him into a taxi which will take him to a hotel that will provide him food, lodging, and clothing--and a way to recieve this man's future orders. Along the way, though, some highwaymen force the cab off the road. They attempt to rob him, but get only lead from the mysterious man's pistol

***** 

So far, The Living Shadow is relatively straightforward, using Harry's plight to hook the reader on who this mysterious rescuer might be. It even ends with a quick action sequence, that, from Harry's perspective, is akin to a thriller movie where a person can hear fighting outside, but only occasionally sees the combatants when they crash against the glass. This fight is both suspenseful and economical, accomplishing its mission in four paragraphs. 

Already the difference in story telling fashion is apparent. With the success of Star Wars, the monomyth structure known as The Hero's Journey has become ubiquitous. Certain beats, like the Call to Adventure and Refusing the Call are now expected and expected to fill the first quarter of the adventure. The Living Shadow breezes through this phase in the first 1200 words, tossing the idea of Refusing the Call out the window in the process. Not only is The Shadow that convincing, his adventures were written in a time where writers were relatively unconcerned with delving into the motivations and reasoning of making a decision. Instead, they focused instead on exploring the consequences of a decision, as was expected in a morality play. Good intentions could lead to bad results, and bad results were the effect of a poor decision. Thus Harry leaped at the opportunity given to him. We will see if he made the right choice in the next 36 chapters.

But it is also important to remember that Harry Vincent is not the hero of The Shadow. He's just the protagonist and occasional viewpoint character. At the dawn of the hero pulp, Walter Gibson introduced the idea of a proxy hero. And while The Shadow's methods, agents, mysteries, and stories were copied by his imitators in both the hero pulps and superhero comics, few copied this device. Walter Gibson explains more in "A Million Words a Year For Ten Straight Years":

You must treat your character as a discovery, rather than your own creation. Treat him, not just seriously, but profoundly. Picture him as real, and beyond you, in mind as well as prowess. Feel that however much you have learned about him, you can never uncover all. This mental attitude gives you a deeper knowledge of the character than the story itself discloses. 

The plot induced by this process will normally require a lesser character who may be termed the "proxy hero." He is the person, along with others like him, who is matched against the villains of the piece, in a theme which is really the personal saga of that all-important lead character, who is developed through his influence and action towards the lesser figures. 

The proxy can be replaced by another, even from the wrong camp. The unity lies in the lead character's identity with the plot. When incidents and situation are fed to him, they are used or rejected, according to how they rebound to the writer.

Harry is but one of The Shadow's agents, and is here used to start filling in the mystery of just who The Shadow is. A similar demonstration can be seen in Tim Burton's Batman, where Vicki Vale is used to introduce and then explore who Bruce Wayne is--and who is the Batman. The Living Shadow keeps the focus tight on Harry Vincent, though. And when perspective jumps to The Shadow, he is just as reticent to reveal anything about himself as any other time.

***** 

Who had been wounded − the shadowy stranger or the assailant who had tried to enter the limousine? Vincent could not guess; he only knew that in the brief struggle the man who had found him on the bridge had left the automobile − unseen and unheard − and the door had closed behind him. 

The mysterious stranger had vanished − like a shadow! 

Pulp Radio Wednesday: The Shadow - Sabotage

A Million Words a Year For Ten Straight Years, by Walter Gibson

A Million Words a Year For Ten Straight Years

by Walter Gibson

Originally published in Writer's Digest, March 1941.

*****

Ten years ago, Street & Smith had a weekly radio program that dramatized stories from Detective Story Magazine. In the program, the used an announcer who termed himself "The shadow." His sepulchral catch-phrase, "The Shadow Knows" existed only as a bodiless theme. The Shadow would have remained such, but for the foresight of Henry W. Ralston, now vice-president of Street & Smith Publications. He advised creating a magazine character to be called The Shadow.

I was the writer who received the assignment. The story was to be done under the penname of Maxwell Grant; if satisfactory, three more would be needed since The Shadow was to be a quarterly publication.

Since then I have written more than two hundred Shadow novels, totaling better than ten million words. The first issue clicked, and the magazine immediately became a monthly. It jumped to twice a month, within its second year, and still appears at that frequency.

I've stopped in the middle of another Shadow to tackle an assignment that's proving tougher than any of those stories. I'm trying to tell the readers of Writer's Digest what I've learned about writing that I didn't know ten million words ago.

However, the target is so big that I can't miss it, so here go the shots.

A Quick Guide to Finding the Shadow

"What is the best way to cheaply check out the Shadow?"

The easiest and cheapest way to check out the pulp version of the Shadow is to read Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow. While it is a crossover with fellow Street & Smith hero Doc Savage, it features all the elements of the Shadow, from his guns and his laugh to his agents and disguises, and it is written in the same style as the Shadow pulps. Essentially, it is Doc Savage in a Shadow adventure, where the sequel, Empire of Doom, is the Shadow in a Doc Savage adventure. Unfortunately, these crossovers are the only pulp Shadow novels in ebook form.

Reprints of the original Shadow pulp novels are available through Amazon and Sanctum Books but cost more, in the range of $9-$30 for new copies depending on the issue.

And Razorfist has been known to post a story from the comics on his tumblr site more than once. However, the comics Shadow is a blend between the pulp and the radio Shadow, and is a separate continuity from each.

UPDATE:

Recently discovered in the Pulp Magazine Archive are two issues of The Shadow Magazine.

The Five Chameleons

https://archive.org/details/the_shadow_32.11.01

The Black Hush

https://archive.org/details/the_Shadow_33.08.01

Amazing. I have plenty of Sanctum's Shadow reprints, but they only reprint the Shadow novels, not the short fiction that came with.

Writing for the Pulps: Walter Gibson

Since discovering Lester Dent's Formula online, I have been searching for similar writing advice from Walter Gibson, creator of the Shadow and father of the hero pulp genre. Unfortunately, more has been made of Gibson's amazing productivity as a million words a year man than his actual technique. Snippets of interviews revealed some of Gibson's writing practices. He was a strict outliner, to an extent rarely seen outside of epic doorstopper fantasies. Where Lester Dent would improvise from his formula, Gibson worked everything out beforehand so that his writing would be uninterrupted. Even then, this fact was included in Gibson's productivity tips, not how he approached the craft of storytelling.

Fortunately, a Writer's Digest column has resurfaced. Titled "A Million Words a Year For Ten Straight Years," it captures Walter Gibson's storytelling approach in his own words. I am currently trying to determine if the article is in the public domain. If so, I will reprint it in its entirety here. In the meantime, let's see what one of pulp's grandmasters has to say about character and plot.

*****

When I first started writing the Shadow stories I had two things to do: create a character and devise a plot. I treated them as one, and herewith made a chance discovery. It was this: build a lead character, and a story will build itself around him. In a sense, he lead character becomes the plot, or at least the main portion of it.

This is by no means as obvious as it sounds. It does not mean to construct a character, equip him with a lot of things that will please you, and may catch the reader. That's just as far away from it as beginning with a solid plot, and then jamming the lead character into it. If the character is to be the personalization of the plot, he must develop with it.

You must treat your character as a discovery, rather than your own creation. Treat him, not just seriously, but profoundly. Picture him as real, and beyond you, in mins as well as prowess. Feel that however much you have learned about him, you can never uncover all. This mental attitude gives you a deeper knowledge of the character than the story itself discloses.

Th plot induced by this process will normally require a lesser character who may be termed the "proxy hero." He is the person, along with others like him, who is matched against the villains of the piece, in a theme which is really the personal saga of that all-important lead character, who is developed through his influence and action towards the lesser figures.

The proxy can be replaced by another, even from the wrong camp. The unity lies in the lead character's identity with the plot. When incidents and situation are fed to him, they are used or rejected, according t how the rebound to the writer.

This isn't metaphysical bunk. It's the system I have used, though it may sound odd when rationalized.

Basically, my lead character is in the game for his own amusement, and therefore (parenthetically) the reader's entertainment.

The thing that amuses him is straightening out the comparatively small problems that concern the lesser characters in the story. Looming large to them, those problems, either separately or linked, reach the lead character, and the combined burden changes his implied fun into damnably earnest business.

I found I could start a story just from that.

However, it wasn't a case of taking any character, and giving him any problem. They must be suitable to that lead character, who IS your story. The "proxy" can be dumb or bright; his problem small or large, plain or bizarre. But it must feed to the lead character, or--here's a help--must furnish the impetus to another problem that is very well suited to him. In which case, the original character and problem is like giving a car a shove, when the starter won't work.

I learned these things the hard way.

Pulp Radio Wednesday: The Shadow - Poison Death

Pulp Radio Wednesday: The Shadow - The Silent Avenger

Just Released - Doc Savage: Empire of Doom

This is the second team up between Doc Savage and the Shadow in print ever.  The first, last year's Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow, is one of the best of Will Murray's new Doc Savage adventures, so I have high hopes that this one will be just as good.

From the Publisher:

It began with the hijacking of a destroyer from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The stolen warship struck midtown Manhattan with its mighty guns, then vanished far out to sea.

Who were the strange men wearing the golden uniforms of no known power who pulled off the daring highjacking? And who was their mysterious leader, a being of seemingly supernatural abilities?

Doc Savage did not know. But The Shadow did! Combining forces, the Man of Bronze and the Dark Avenger follow the trail of a superfoe from The Shadow’s past.

But can they learn to trust one another?

From fog-shrouded New York to a futuristic underground kingdom in the heart of Asia, the battle sprawls––with the world’s fate at stake!

Pulp Radio Wednesday: The Shadow - "The Flaming Skull"