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.

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The Shadow copyright Advance magazine Publishers, Inc./ The Condé Nast Pubs.