THE SHADOW "Shadow in Danger" Part 1

For a while, Shadow Comics adapted stories from the radio show...

...so they didn't have the gunplay and dynamic action of the earlier pulp-based comic stories written by the original "Maxwell Grant", Walter Gibson.

I believe that, at this point, the radio show's script called for a commercial break.
This never-reprinted cover story from Shadow Comics V8N7 (1948) was adapted from the 09/09/45 Shadow radioplay of the same title by Stedman Coles.
Regrettably, there are no surviving recordings of this episode.

While Bob Powell (with aid from his comic studio assistants) did the artwork, the script adaptor is unknown, but believed to be either Bruce Elliot (who had taken over the "Maxwell Grant" byline from Walter Gibson on the Shadow pulp stories) or Powell himself.

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.

We'll be presenting more never-reprinted stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

You'll find the conclusion, tomorrow, at...

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SHERLOCK HOLMES "Love Thy Neighbor"

He's more popular than ever with new series on both BBC and CBS...

...and like both those efforts, this tale was part of another effort to "update" the Greatest Sleuth of All to contemporary times, which in this case was 1955!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Sherlock Holmes #1 (1955) has several aspects in common with the other tales from that short-lived series:
Yet another Dr Watson look-alike, Frothingham...
...again, set in present-day (1950s) America...
...and, again, the illustrator leaves the ear-flaps off Sherlock's deerstalker!

Both the writer and artist(s) of these tales is unknown.

None of the stories is signed, and the art style seems to be a combination of the techniques of several different illustrators.

We'll be back soon with another tale of mystery..

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JOHNNY DANGER "Election Caper"

"The Name that Spells DOOM to the Underworld"...

...also spells "DOOM" to crooked politicians in this Election Day presentation!

Published in 1954 by Toby Press, with art by Jack Sparling.

The writer is unknown.

Get Out and VOTE!

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FERO: PLANET DETECTIVE "Vampires & Werewolves from Pluto"

With The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 opening right after Halloween...

...we thought it was the right time to reveal the awesome secret about vampires and werewolves kept from humanity for centuries!

They're from Pluto!

Really!

While Fero did return in the next issue of Planet Comics, the "vampires and werewolves from Pluto" plotline didn't!

In fact, Fero was, without explanation, now an "interplanetary detective" in a future version of New York City, and stayed there for the remainder of his four-issue run.
His premiere appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #5 (1940) is credited to "Allison Brant", a pseudonym used by writer/artist Al Bryant who did almost 400 stories during his decade-long career.

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KEN SHANNON "Corpse that Wouldn't Sleep"

It's almost Halloween, so let's present another scary private eye story...

Art by Reed Crandall & unknown inker

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage, starring private dick Ken Shannon, to whom this sort of thing happened quite often, as seen HERE!

This tale from Quality's Ken Shannon #3 (1952) was one of several cover stories during his run that featured horror comics elements, though the "monsters" were fakes created to cover-up crimes.

The superb artwork by Reed Crandall makes up for the fairly obvious plotting by an unknown writer.

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THE SHADOW & DOC SAVAGE "Case of the Shrieking Skeletons" Part 2A

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Strange creatures resembling human skeletons attack "Bernie" Reinstein, a young woman who barely manages to reach Doc Savage's 86th floor headquarters and explain to the Man of Bronze and aides Monk and Ham that her father, a noted geneticist recently-escaped from Nazi Germany, has disappeared!

The trio and Bernie return to the site of her attack to discover one of the creatures lying on the ground, then trace his tracks to a nearby warehouse where they encounter a cloaked and slouch-hatted man leaving the building, who shoots Monk, whose "bullet-proof underwear saves him.

Later, while Monk analyzes tissue samples from the creatures, Ham takes fingerprint samples to Police Commissioner Weston, who's having dinner at the Cobalt Club with Lamont Cranston.

After Ham leaves, Cranston departs and becomes The Shadow, who learns of a possible tie-in between a case he's working on and Doc Savage's investigation, and, with Harry Vincent, heads to Lakehurst Naval Air Station in his autogyro.

Savage goes with Reinstein to her fiance, Paul's, apartment.

Leaving her in his armored car, Doc checks out the deserted and ransacked abode, discovering a clue pointing to the same location The Shadow is heading for.

Bernie sees Paul hiding in a nearby alley and goes to him, but is grabbed by a masked figure.

Doc returns, finds his vehicle empty and calls Monk and Ham, who are under attack by giant monster-men!

The Man of Bronze dashes back to his headquarters, but it's too late.

His aides are gone.

Doc heads to the air base in his own autogyro.

Meanwhile, The Shadow has discovered his destination...the zeppelin Hindenberg, and boards it!

Finding his target, a Nazi scientist, the cloaked hero is about to question him when a guard interrupts the interrogation.

The Shadow escapes into the superstructure of the airship, where a nervous Nazi guard, despite being told not to use his firearm, shoots at the hero, but hits one of the hydrogen-filled gasbags...

"What's going on in there" is you're about to discover that trapping Doc Savage and The Shadow and keeping them are two totally-different matters!

Tomorrow:

the thrilling climax of this serialized saga at

Hero Histories™