|
|
The year was 1930. To boost sales of their Detective Story Magazine, pulp publishers Street and Smith decided to sponsor a radio program where an announcer read stories from the magazine.
Rather than referring to him as "the guy who reads the stories," a man at Street and Smith's ad agency suggested naming him The Shadow.
Soon customers began asking for a pulp magazine of that name.
No such magazine existed at the time -- but Street and Smith knew an opportunity when they saw one, and quickly decided to created just such a title.
In time The Master of Darkness recruited numerous agents, among them the mysterious Burbank.
Little is known about Burbank, other than the fact that he is an "old friend" of the Master of Darkness, and that his mission is to facilitate communication among agents.
The Shadow copyright Advance magazine Publishers, Inc./ The Condé Nast Pubs.
|
|
|
|
|
REPORT 20:
 The Shadow by Jim Steranko
In our last report we examined the work of Jim Steranko (pictured right). Now, in part two, we present still more rare paintings, sketches and roughs by this fantastically talented  designer and artist.
Pictured above is Steranko's recreation of Rozen's classic Shadow pulp cover for "Partners In Peril," featuring what is perhaps the definitive Shadow portrait of all time. (The original pulp cover is seen on the left.)
The pencil roughs below are taken from Unseen Shadows (Supergraphics, 1978). We'll start with the pencil rough and finished painting for Pyramid paperback reprint #5, "Double Z" by Maxwell Grant aka Walter Gibson (Pyramid edition 1975). |
|
|
Here's a series of Steranko's concept sketches for "The Romanoff Jewels." We can see the designer's thought process at work as buildings are raised and lowered, figures are repositioned, smoke is added, then subtracted, until Steranko arrives at the finished layout, from which he effortlessly creates the final painting -- an all-time Shadow classic by one of his most talented raconteurs: the great Jim Steranko. |
|
|
|
| Finally, here's a pen and ink image of the Master of Darkness, drawn by Jim Steranko and colored by yours truly, the operator of this site, Burbank. |
|
|
 |
THE CLIFFHANGING THRILLER STARRING VICTOR JORY
SHADOW MOVIE SERIAL LOBBY CARDS!
|
|
|
|
