The Shadow Knows

While there were countless numbers of superheros and villains that roamed the pages of pulp magazines, none was as big as The Shadow. With a first introduction to the public on the Detective Story Hour radio drama, the character was a quick fan favorite and already had his own pulp magazine less than a year later. Walter Gibson created the crime-fighting hero and never had any idea how large his character would grow. A large part of the popularity of The Shadow is due to the radio drama and its famous host. Orson Welles provided the charismatic voice of The Shadow to the delight of listeners.

In the subsequent magazines and comic books, The Shadow had the power of being able to read minds. The pulp magazines format was perfect for the character and had fans waiting for the next issue. While Gibson was responsible for most of the writing, the demand for two issues a month was heavy and other writers, such as Lester Dent and Theodore Tinsley stepped in to help create new narratives for the hero. The Shadow pulp magazines lasted nearly twenty years, with the last issue appearing in the year of 1949.

However, the legend of The Shadow was not even close to being over. In the year 1994, the character was brought back to life as one of six motion pictures that have been made about the here. The 1994 version featured star Alec Baldwin playing in the film and received mixed reviews. A new project has been announced that will once again return The Shadow to glory. The director Quentin Tarantino and Sam Raimi may be involved and the film is slated to be filmed sometime in 2011. It seems that The Shadow will never die as fans continue to bring him back to life.