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In the 1940's The Shadow was featured in newspaper strips and comic books. Although The Shadow did not sell as good as its predecessor The Spirit, The Shadow comics sold hundreds of its adventure comic books. The second volume of The Shadow comic books were created by DC comics. That same volume was started in October-November 1973 for 20 cents each.
Below I have gotten some information on some of the comic book series from "The Standard Catalog of Comic Books" by Miller Thompson and Bickford Frankenhoff:
The Shadow 1st series was by Archie with 8 comic books lasting from August 1964 to September 1965. The first The Shadow comics title was by far the most lighthearted. Published by Archie's Radio Comics, this rendition of the classic pulp hero stuck mainly to flashy costumes and derring-do. In this rendidtion, The Shadow was a member of C.H.I.E.F., the Command Headquarters, International Espionage Forces, a secret agent outfit in mold of U.N.C.L.E. or S.H.I.E.L.D. His primary enemy was Shiwan Khan, a descendent of Genghis Khan who was determind to conquer the world. Having been defeated so many times in the past by The Shadow, Khan became almot entirely obssed with crushing him instead-along with the Shadow's "friend," Lamount Cranston. In one episode, Khan even went sofar as to arrange for a nuclear warhead to be dropped on Cranston's townhouse. Despite his efforts, he never succeded in figuring out that his two enemies were one and the same.
The Shadow 2nd series was made by DC starting from November 1973 to September 1975 with 12 issues.
The Shadow 3rd series was made by DC with 4 issues going from May 1986 to August 1986. Years had gone by since The Shadow had last appeared to strike terror into the hearts of evildoers. His network of operatives had gone on with their lives, and most were simply growing old. The Shadow was gone, but he was hardly forgotten. An old enemy named Preston Mayrock had decided it was time to settle old scores. Although wheelchair bound himself, he sent his men on a gruesome murder spree of The Shadow's old agents. But just when all seemed lost, The Shadow returned - and none will escape his vengeance. Taking a break from his run on American Flagg, Howard Chaykin took on the task of remaking both The Shadow and venerable war hero Blackhawk. In doing so, he managed to add new depth to characters with almost a century of history between them while still maintaining the classic elements which had made them so popular.
The Shadow 4th series was made by DC and went from August 1987 to January 1989 with 19 comic books and 2 annuals.
The Shadow and Doc Savage went from July 1995 to August 1995 with two comic books by Dark Horse.
Ghost and The Shadow was made in December 1995 with only 1 comic book by Dark Horse.
Shadow Comics lasted from March 1940 to August 1950 by Street & Smith. The Shadow created by writer Walter Gibson (aka Maxwell Grant) for Street & Smith's pulp The Shadow Magazine in 1933, is one of the most memorable fiction characters of the 20th century. As the first costumed crimefighter, the mysterious Shadow and his agents did battle against underworld menaces throughout 1930s and 1940s in the pulps, radio, movies, and comic books. Though The Shadow as a towering influence on Golden Age super-heroes including Batman, his own comic-book adventures paled in comparision to his super-peers, not to mention Gibson's bi-weekly novels or the radio show which starred a young Orson Welles. The shoddy artwork and dumbed-down pulp stories failed to capture the most important element of The Shadow's mystique - the overbearing atmosphere of dread and mystery. It would be another 30 years before Michael Kaluta and Dennis O' Neily Finally got the character right in DC's The Shadow comic.
Besides being in comic books The Shadow has been featured in the following newspaper comic strips also featured The Shadow in one way or another:
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Newspaper
Strips
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9
Chickweed Lane — Sep
18, 1998 |
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Mad
Magazine®
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Also
there is a spoof of The Shadow's powers in Mad Magazine®.
The Shadow (renamed "Shadowskeedee Boom-Boom") made
a few appearances in Mad. One strip was featured in a paperback
book entitled "Mad Strikes Back" (1976). |
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Kingdom
Come
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What
the...?!
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Marvel Comics produced a series called "What the...?!" in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a way of poking fun at their superheroes such as Spider-Man and X-Men. The Shadow makes an odd cameo in one issue (#5, July 1989, Page #6) in a story called "Wake up and Shoot the Coffee", a parody about the meeting of Wolverine and The Punisher: 'The first panel is completely black, except for an evil pair of eyes looking out. We learn that It is the villain Ten-Pin (a spoof of the Kingpin) gloating over the heroes' predicament while hiding in the shadows. The second panel is the same as the first, but the bottom of the panel there is a note from the artist, who says he has to get more black ink. The "hiding in the shadows" speech from Ten-Pin continues (can't see this one coming, can you?) In the third panel, the Ten-Pin is revealed to us, surrounded (of course) by Shadows: comical little men in black cloaks and hats with large cartoony noses. The Ten-Pin is kicking one of them out of the way, screaming, "Out of the way, Shadows! You're blocking the Ten-Pin's view!" '
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