Skip to content

Please note that when you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Thanks!

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks!

The Shadow Comics: The Comic Book History of a Pulp Hero

Created for the magazine publishers Street & Smith, the character of The Shadow started in 1930 on the Detective Story Hour radio show as a mysterious host before moving to print the following year. He would stay on the air for a few years, but this original incarnation would be forgotten and replaced by the one created by writer Walter B. Gibson (under the pen name of Maxwell Grant).

Gibson was tasked to write stories about “The Shadow” and, inspired by classic literary works and the French character Judex, he composed a character that would eventually become the prototype of the American Superhero. Through the years, The Shadow prospered in the pulps, on the radio, and even got a comic strip in the early 1940s.

The Shadow was a former World War I aviator named Kent Allard who faked his death and became a crime-fighter. Upon returning to the United States, he adopted several different identities to aid him in his war on crime. The most famous one is Lamont Cranston, a wealthy socialite who went abroad and Allard stole his identity, impersonating him to gain access to the rich and powerful of the world.

As a crime fighter also known as the Master of Darkness, The Shadow appears as a tall, dark figure with a wide-brimmed black hat, a crimson-lined cloak, and a face often obscured in darkness. He is known for his piercing laugh and his ability to instill fear and to blend into the shadows–a capacity enhanced by his talent for hypnosis he uses to cloud other people’s minds. He is also a master of disguise, hand-to-hand combat, and firearms, and possesses a high intellect and great detective skills.

The Shadow usually fights crime in the dangerous underworld of cities, going against gangsters of course, but also corrupt businessmen, and even strange supervillains.

He doesn’t do that by himself as he developed a wide network of agents, recruiting those he helped before to expand his reach. His most famous allies are Margo Lane, Harry Vincent, taxi driver Moe Shrevnitz, and communications expert Burbank. He communicates with them by sending cryptic messages only them can understand.

The Shadow Comics: The Street & Smith Years

Known as an inspiration for Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s Batman, The Shadow has gained prominence as the protagonist of hundreds of pulp stories (Walter B. Gibson wrote 282 novels). He appeared in films and, naturally, on the radio. And of course as a comic book character.

Through the decades, multiple publishers offered different takes on The Shadow. The first one was obviously Street & Smith’s Shadow Comics published from 1940 to 1949. These early comic books adapted stories from pulp novels, but the use of violence was toned down as these comics were sold to a younger audience. Author Walter B. Gibson was in charge of the adaptation of his own stories, simplifying them for the visual medium, while Vernon Greene was the artist on the series.

In 1964, Archie Comics published a short 8-issue comic series simply titled “Shadow” scripted by Jerry Siegel with art by Paul Reinman. In it, after one issue, The Shadow was turned into a more traditional superhero with a green and blue suit and superpowers. This didn’t sit well with the fans and the book was quickly canceled.

The Shadow Comics: The DC Comics Years

During the 1970s, it was DC Comics’ turn to publish The Shadow Comics. It started in 1973 with a 12-issue series written by Dennis O’Neil with art by Michael Kaluta. O’Neil went back to what the character was (he got his hat, black cloak, and red scarf back), delivering a pulp story with a film noir vibe. Those were typical stories of fights against criminals in New York in the 1930s.

It took a decade for DC Comics to launch a new Shadow comics series. In 1986, Howard Chaykin wrote and drew The Shadow: Blood and Judgment, a 4-issue comic book limited modern-day set series that revisited and modernized The Shadow’s origins and introduced new allies. Andy Helfer followed his lead in a new ongoing comics series (19 issues) with art by  Bill Sienkiewicz and then Kyle Baker. This series ended as the story veered in a different direction, one with a cyborg version of The Shadow.

In 1988, Dennis O’Neil and Michael Kaluta reunited for The Shadow 1941 – Hitler’s Astrologer, an original graphic novel published by Marvel Comics. But that didn’t mean that the “Master of Darkness” had finished his run at DC Comics. On the contrary, in 1989, DC published a new Shadow comic book series titled The Shadow Strikes! It was written by Gerard Jones with art by Eduardo Barreto and lasted 31 issues, plus an annual–the longest series since the Street & Smith days.

The Shadow Strikes! bring once again The Shadow to his roots as the series was set in the 1940s. The crime fighter even teamed up with another iconic pulp hero, Doc Savage. It was concluded in 1992 when the rights holder decided to increase the licensing fee.

Not a lot of those comic books have been collected through the years:

The Andy Helfer series was republished by Dynamite in 2014:

The Shadow Comics: The Dark Horse Years

With DC Comics relinquishing the rights, Dark Horse Comics picked them up in 1993 and started by publishing the new four-part miniseries “In the Coils of the Leviathan” written by Mike Kaluta and Joel Gross, and drawn by Gary Gianni. With the movie adaptation starring Alec Baldwin, Dark Horse Comics kept its creative team going as  Kaluta and Gross wrote the three-issue comics miniseries The Shadow: Hell’s Heat Wave (also drawn by Gianni), then a one-shot issue, The Shadow and the Mysterious Three, drawn by Stan Manoukian and Vince Roucher, and of course an adaptation of the movie–a 2-part drawn this time by Kaluta himself.

Like DC Comics did before, Dark Horse published in 1995 a new team-up comic book between The Shadow and Doc Savage. This two-issue miniseries called The Shadow and Doc Savage: The Case of the Shrieking Skeletons was written by Steve Vance and drawn by Manoukian and Roucher. 

Finally, The Shadow Comics ended his run the same year at Dark Horse with another team-up, this time with the (contemporary) character Ghost. This was a one-shot titled Ghost and The Shadow that was written by Doug Moench and drawn by H. M. Baker.

A few of those stories can be found nowadays:

The Shadow Comics: The Dynamite Years

For a little more than fifteen years, no new comic book story starring The Shadow was published. But in 2011, Dynamite Entertainment took over the rights and announced a new ongoing comic book series and multiple miniseries. In fact, the publishing house started to develop a line of pulp heroes like the Green Hornet, Doc Savage, Zorro, the Spider, and more.

First came the ongoing The Shadow series launch with Garth Ennis as a writer and Aaron Campbell as an artist. After the first storyline, Victor Gischler replaced Ennis, and then Chris Roberson wrote the second half of the series with Giovanni Timpano as the main artist. There were 25 issues published between 2012 and 2014. Ennis relaunched the story by setting it in 1938.

During that time, Dynamite recruited Grendel‘s creator Matt Wagner to write The Shadow: Year One (with art by Wilfredo Torres). As the title suggests, it’s a retelling of The Shadow’s beginning. Wagner also wrote the 6-issue comics miniseries The Shadow: The Death of Margo Lane and a 3-issue crossover Grendel vs. The Shadow (published with Dark Horse), both drawn by Brennan Wagner.

It was not the only crossover featuring The Shadow as the character worked with the Green Hornet and Kato in the 5-issue comic book The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights by writer Michael Uslan and artist Keith Burns; with Batman in the 2017 6-issue miniseries The Shadow/Batman, co-published with DC Comics, written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Giovanni Timpano; and with multiple pulp heroes in the 2012 8-issue comics crossover miniseries Masks’ by writer Chris Roberson and artists Alex Ross and Dennis Calero, in the 2014 6-issue Justice, Inc. by Michael Uslan and Giovanni Timpano in which he teamed-up with Doc Savage and The Avenger, in 2015 8-issue sequel Masks’ 2 by Cullen Bunn and Eman Casalos, and in 2014 5-issue Noir by Victor Gischler and artist Andrea Mutti, The Shadow worked with Miss Fury and The Black Sparrow.

In 2013, with the 6-issue comics The Shadow Now by writer David Liss and artist Colton Worley, we got a story featuring The Shadow set in modern times. In 2014, Howard Chaykin came back to write a new story and this gave us The Shadow – Midnight in Moscow. This one is set in New York in 1949. The same year, with the One-Shot The Shadow Over Innsmouth, writer Ron Marz and artist Ivan Rodriguez gave us a Lovecraftian tale, while The Twilight Zone: The Shadow by David Avallone and Dave Acosta took The Shadow… into the Twilight Zone.

In 2015, Cullen Bunn also wrote a 6-issue comics simply titled The Shadow, with art by Giovanni Timpano (set in 1936). And finally, Si Spurrier and Dan Waters with artists Daniel HDR and Ricardo Jaime also made a 6-issue series, The Shadow: Leviathan (set in modern times).

The Dynamite Shadow Comics Reading Order

The following is a reading order set in the Pulp Heroes Universe of Dynamite.

Other Dynamite Shadow stories:

Pin
Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *