International - Australia
The land downunder...I bet you never thought of The Shadow there...

The Comics

"The Shadow"

This version of The Shadow it quite interesting. In Australia after World War II Australian comic book businessess were everywhere and were making it big! In 1948 four Sydney businessmen Ron Forsyth, Jim Richardson, Jack Eisen, amd John Watson decided to start their own comic book company, Frew. Soon after Eisen and Watson left Frew, but Forsyth and Richardson stayed. Forsyth and Richardson ran the company for the next 40 years. Their first title released was The Phantom. The Phantom sold strong enough that by issues 7 the founders of Frew decided to created additional titles, which one was, The Shadow in May 1950 and lasting to the mid 1960s, over 170 issues were made.

In these The Shadow comics you would expect, black and white on the inside and a color cover, the cover paper was not slick but rather the same as the interior pages with only the mention of the distributor, Gordon and Gotch, the story usually had a splash panel but not a title, and advertisments only on the back cover and inside back cover.

So how is this version of The Shadow different from all the rest? Well first off The Shadow is known as Jimmy Gray and not Lamount Cranston/ Kent Allard. Jimmy Gray was a handsome, mustached, wealthy young man who owned the Gray Lock Company, a very reputable and successful business that had been started by his father. While his father was still alive, Jimmy worked at the plant as a designer, and acquired a thorough knowledge of locks and safes of all kinds. He often used that knowledge to escape from dangerous situations during his efforst to stamp out crime; it was not unusual for him to encounter a lock which he designed!

Although Jimmy traveled throughout the world, he spent most of his time in London, where he played the role of a seemingly useless and idle millionaire. He was not married and did not have a steady girlfriend, but he always managed to encounter a beatiful woman during ever adventure. Some of those women turned out to be "the bad guy", but most were damsels in distress who quickly developed a crush on Jimmy.

Jimmy Gray was smart, resourceful, strong, and athletic, but had no superpowers. When he found it necessary to become The Shadow, he pulled a tight, dark gray rubber mask over his face. The mask hid the features of his face and had eyeslists so his vision would not be obscured. He also wore gloves which matched the mask. Oddly, he never changed the clother he was wearing (often a suit or toxedo), which could have easily compromised his secret identity. The Shadow worked alone. He had no network of agents to assist him, and he had no secret sanctum, crime laboratory, autogiro, or other special equipment (other than small, simple tools which he carried with him in a hidden location) to help him fight crime.

You can see covers of The Shadow by Frew in the Comic Book Gallery section.

"GIANTSIZE Phantom Comic"

First published by FREW in April 1957, GIANTSIZE COMICs contained a compilation of four or five complete stories about various characters in each issue. These 92 page comics were published about every two months, and had a cover price of two shillings. The first story in each issue was The Phantom, and these were backed-up mainly by the Australian-created characters Phantom Ranger, The Shadow (Australian version), and Sir Falcon. Other characters featured in the series, were Catman & Kit, Planetman, Range Rider, Wonder Boy, Steve Rampart, Phantom Lady (no relation), Kalar the Caveman, Davy Crockett, Robin Hood, Red Wing, Bomb Squad F and Buster Crabbe. The glossy art-paper covers featured The Phantom teamed up with the three or four other main characters contained in the comic.

You can see the list of release dates/covers for GIANTSIZE Phantom Comics.

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