Lurking with The Shadow

No doubt you are familiar with the domino effect. Well, in the comic world it’s nothing but the domino effect. The creation of one character influences the creation of another and so on and so forth. Hardly any other character has been cited as the influence on the evolution of a superhero more than The Shadow. But just how well do you know this expert detective?

The Shadow, voiced by Orson Welles, got his start as the mysterious and allusive narrator for the Detective Story Hour in 1930, initially meant only to boost the sales of the Detective Story Magazine. Unfortunately, or fortunately, listeners began asking for copies of “that Shadow detective magazine.” The company hired writer Walter B. Gibson in 1931 to create a character concept that would fit the perceived notion of the narrator. On April 1, 1931, the debut issue of The Shadow Magazine went on sale. Gibson was able to take a simple narrator and turn him into a distinctive literary character, and eventually a pop culture icon. It wasn’t long before the demand for more Shadow adventures grew, and on September 26, 1937, The Shadow radio drama premiered.

Naturally, The Shadow operated after dark as a vigilante for justice, often terrifying criminals into submission. In both print and radio The Shadow was an expert detective, a skilled marksman and hand to hand combatant, and a master of disguise and stealth. Whereas in the radio versions only, he possessed the ability to make himself nearly invisible to others and had hypnotic mental-clouding abilities to alter a person’s thoughts and perceptions. As The Shadow’s popularity grew the pulp series was featured in additional comic strips, television, serials, video games, and five films.

The legend of The Shadow continues even today! In 2015, The Shadow returned in the novel The Sinister Shadow written by Will Murray, and Dynamite published multiple comic book series from 2012 to 2017.