Guest post: A look back at The Shadow
Larry Latham writes that the 1970s' "The Shadow" was a high point for the character in comics.
I asked writer/artist/director/pulp expert Larry Latham for his take on the news of the revival of “The Shadow,” and what he sent me was so interesting and informative, I’m sharing it all here for Nerdage readers! You can follow Larry’s excellent web comic and his well-researched posts on pulps, mysteries, comics and more at www.lovecraftismissing.com. “Lovecraft is Missing” is set in 1926. It follows three strangers who are drawn into a web of horror when a little known pulp author, H.P. Lovecraft, mysteriously vanishes. Now, on to “The Shadow”:
It’s always fun when someone tries to revive one of the iconic hero characters like The Shadow; fun, at least, until you have the book in your hands and find that, once again, the concept just doesn’t quite work. The Shadow is one of those characters, and a number of truly talented creators have taken their shots with him, both in film and comics, but the track record isn’t good.
The Shadow started as the host of a radio show, Street & Smith’s Detective Story Hour. At first, the character did no more than introduce each weeks story, much as Raymond performed the same honors on Inner Sanctum and Uncle Creepy, Cain, The Crypt-Keeper, Vault Keeper, Old Witch and dozens of other hosts did in their respective books. The Shadow’s eerie laugh and the famous tage line, “Who knows what eveil lurks in the hearts of men?,” proved more popular than expected. Several two reel Detective Story short films put the character on the screen for the first time, and in 1931, to capitalize on the character’s popularity and protect their creation, Street & Smith introduced The Shadow magazine, dated April 1, the first of the great hero pulps. Magician turned writer Maxwell Grant dashed out the first story; the magazine was issued so quickly that they didn’t have time to have a cover painted. The editors pulled one from the shelf that featured a Chinese man recoiling in horror, which caused Grant to rewrite part of his story to work in a Chinatown angle.
The magazine was so popular that it went to twice monthly status in 1932; the last issue was published in 1949. For the first several years the Shadow was a true mystery man, who left most of the work up to his aides. By wartime, he had settled down into a more conventional crime fighter.
Like any popular character, the Shadow was licensed out to anyone who showed an interest. The first film versions, The Shadow Strikes (1937) and International Crime (1938), were basically B detective pictures, with the Shadow only appearing in a single scene in the first film. Lamont Cranston was the real start of the pictures. In 1940, Columbia made a 15 chapter serial, but by that time they were well into their “silly” phase, and though Victor Jory looked perfect as both Cranston and the Shadow, the serial is full of hokey thugs who play pattycake while waiting on the crime boss; in addition, almost half of the cliff hangers in the film have the roof collapsing on the Shadow. In 1946, Monogram Pictures made The Shadow Returns, Behind the Mask and The Missing Lady, all starring Kane Richmond as the Shadow. All were low budget.
The radio show, probably the most famous incarnation of the character, started in 1937. It differed significantly from the pulp in that Lamont Cranston didn’t wear the slouch hat and long cape of the pulp version, but instead had’the power to cloud men’s minds so that they could not see him.”
Street & Smith got into the comic book publishing biz, publishing 101 issues of The Shadow plus a short lived newspaper strip. There were three big little books featuring the character, but the short eight page format and conventional crimefighting approach make these pretty humdrum reading to fans of the pulps and the radio show.
In the 1960s, Archie Comics published eight issues of a character named the Shadow, whose alter-ego was Lamont Cranston, but you’d never recognize him in his green and purple super-hero outfit.
The high-point for the Shadow in cmics, at least thus far, is the mid-1970s version by Denny O’Neill and Mike Kaluta. Staying true to the original pulps, and setting the stories in the correct period,, the duo created one of the classiscs of mid-70s comics. They only did the first six issues, and the magazine was cancelled after issue 12.
Howard Chaykin stepped up to the plate in 1986, modernizing the character in a four-issue mini series that later carried on into a regular series. It was exciting, bloody, pulpy, but once Chaykin left the series, it shrivleled quickly and died.
There have been numerous revivals since: DC’s The Shadow Strikes (1989) returned the characters to his roots in the pulps, but the art lacked atmosphere; Dark Horse published a slew of mini-series and one shots through the nineties.
In 1994 the big-budget film, The Shadow, came out. It almost worked.Visually it was perfect, and Alec Baldwin ideal as the Shadow, but a weak script and weaker direction caused it to underperform. One particularly annoying plot problem:everytime the Shadow shows up, he is spotted (because he casts a Shadow) and defeated. Shades of the collapsing ceilings in the 1940s serial.
So now we have a new Shadow series being announced, as well as rumors of a new Shadow movie. Garth Ennis is the writer for the comic series and I confess, I’m leery. Ennis is a good writer, but leans to the psychotic, bloody anti-hero side of things. The promotional cover art is wonderful but does nothing to relieve my anxiety.
Perhaps the Shadow just doesn’t belong in comics. He’s a creature of the pulps and of the radio, and he loses so much of his mystery when tied down in illustrations. Perhaps if he went back to being the mastermind behind the scenes he could regain that mystery, but it’s doubtful fans want to read the adventures of Harry Vincent, Burbank, Shrevvie and co.
Unfortunatley, I’m not the Shadow. I don’t know.
- Larry Latham
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