What do you think?
Rate this book
The Shadowed Circle Compendium
179 pages, Hardcover
Published May 18, 2024
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 7, 2024
Yikes! As impressed as I’ve been with the first six issues of the pulp journal, The Shadowed Circle, this new book really knocked my socks off (and nearly took a couple of toes with them).
The Shadowed Circle gang (otherwise known as Steve Donoso, Tim King, Steve Novak, John Sies, Sam Oakley, Rebecca Robinson and Joseph Booth) took it into their heads to celebrate their first two years of publication with this fantastic collection, presenting some of the best articles delivered so far, along with six new ones created especially for this book.
The new pieces are GREAT, and one of them (which I’ll tell you about in a moment) is worth the price of admission all by itself. But the encore articles are very cool, too, because they’re now presented in color, and are eye-poppingly larger (8 ½ x 11” as opposed to 7 x 10”). At 179 pages, this a very attractive package.
“The Shadowed Seven,” the all-new article that no Shadow fan on the planet should miss, is a 24-page collaboration by 21 famous and infamous enthusiasts revealing which seven adventures—from all media—they would choose to take with them on a desert island. I have to suspect that what the editors conceived as a fun idea resulted in much more than they envisioned. As presented here, it’s an insider’s guide for Shadow fans new and old, advising us where to find the best of the best in Shadow novels, comics and radio shows.
This is a treasure beyond price, because there have been literally hundreds of entries in all three categories. I’d be willing to bet that dang near NO ONE (except maybe Will Murray, who never sleeps) has found time to read and listen to them all. Personally, I’ve been a Shadow fan for over 50 years, and this article introduced me to dozens, of great things I’d never seen or heard (or even heard of), that I’m now eager to dig into.
In other new articles, Steve Donoso offers an in-depth survey of fan publications devoted to Our Hero, from 1965 up to the present. (Again, much of this was new to me.) Then Steve and Tim King present a guide to building a Shadow reference library, giving us the lowdown on eight important works published over the past 50 years. “The Lost Shadow Dossier” gives us categorized lists identifying the roles of some 70 characters from the pulp novels, and noting when they first appeared. And if that weren’t enough, we get a much-needed index of all 325 pulp novels, noting when they first appeared, who authored each, and in which Sanctum Books volume they were (or were not) reprinted.
Among my favorites of the previously presented articles is a 15-page stunner investigating how the Shadow and his crew—had they really existed—might have financed their extensive operations. There’s a 13-page interview with comic book creator Michael Uslan that’s sure to send you looking for work—beginning with DC’s Shadow title from the ‘70s, and later with the Dynamite books, including team-ups with the Green Hornet, and later with Doc and the Avenger. And Will Murray (still awake) takes us on a look behind the scenes at the filming of the 1994 Alec Baldwin film.
There’s more—much more—including some, never-before-seen artwork, and many gorgeous color photos of pulp and comic covers, and other cool stuff. The Shadowed Circle Compendium is a feast for the brain—and the eyeballs—and deserves a place of honor on your bookshelf!
The Shadowed Circle gang (otherwise known as Steve Donoso, Tim King, Steve Novak, John Sies, Sam Oakley, Rebecca Robinson and Joseph Booth) took it into their heads to celebrate their first two years of publication with this fantastic collection, presenting some of the best articles delivered so far, along with six new ones created especially for this book.
The new pieces are GREAT, and one of them (which I’ll tell you about in a moment) is worth the price of admission all by itself. But the encore articles are very cool, too, because they’re now presented in color, and are eye-poppingly larger (8 ½ x 11” as opposed to 7 x 10”). At 179 pages, this a very attractive package.
“The Shadowed Seven,” the all-new article that no Shadow fan on the planet should miss, is a 24-page collaboration by 21 famous and infamous enthusiasts revealing which seven adventures—from all media—they would choose to take with them on a desert island. I have to suspect that what the editors conceived as a fun idea resulted in much more than they envisioned. As presented here, it’s an insider’s guide for Shadow fans new and old, advising us where to find the best of the best in Shadow novels, comics and radio shows.
This is a treasure beyond price, because there have been literally hundreds of entries in all three categories. I’d be willing to bet that dang near NO ONE (except maybe Will Murray, who never sleeps) has found time to read and listen to them all. Personally, I’ve been a Shadow fan for over 50 years, and this article introduced me to dozens, of great things I’d never seen or heard (or even heard of), that I’m now eager to dig into.
In other new articles, Steve Donoso offers an in-depth survey of fan publications devoted to Our Hero, from 1965 up to the present. (Again, much of this was new to me.) Then Steve and Tim King present a guide to building a Shadow reference library, giving us the lowdown on eight important works published over the past 50 years. “The Lost Shadow Dossier” gives us categorized lists identifying the roles of some 70 characters from the pulp novels, and noting when they first appeared. And if that weren’t enough, we get a much-needed index of all 325 pulp novels, noting when they first appeared, who authored each, and in which Sanctum Books volume they were (or were not) reprinted.
Among my favorites of the previously presented articles is a 15-page stunner investigating how the Shadow and his crew—had they really existed—might have financed their extensive operations. There’s a 13-page interview with comic book creator Michael Uslan that’s sure to send you looking for work—beginning with DC’s Shadow title from the ‘70s, and later with the Dynamite books, including team-ups with the Green Hornet, and later with Doc and the Avenger. And Will Murray (still awake) takes us on a look behind the scenes at the filming of the 1994 Alec Baldwin film.
There’s more—much more—including some, never-before-seen artwork, and many gorgeous color photos of pulp and comic covers, and other cool stuff. The Shadowed Circle Compendium is a feast for the brain—and the eyeballs—and deserves a place of honor on your bookshelf!
August 5, 2024
For any fan of the Shadow, this book is a wonderful thing . "The Shadowed Circle" has been around a couple of years now, describing itself as a "the first pulp-comic-radio journal dedicated to The Shadow in more than two decades." With contributions by Shadow scholars such as Will Murray, Michael Uslan, John Olson and editor Steve Donoso (among others), it has been stuffed full of cool Shadow-related articles from the get-go. If you are a Shadow fan, you need to be reading this.
The Shadowed Circle Compendium has been recently released, collecting both the cream-of-the-crop of articles published in the regular issues and a bunch of new materials. Every single article and essay in it is interesting, delving deeply into the Shadow mythos.
I do have some favorites from this volume:
"Shadow--and Substance," by Dick Myers, is absolutely wonderful. Myers makes intelligent estimates to exactly how much it would have cost the Shadow to fund his operations, including paying agents, ensuring a supply of .45 automatics and ammunitions, spare cloaks, vehicles, hide-outs, etc. Myers then comes up with a reasonable theory about where Kent Allard gets the literal millions of dollars necessary to run his campaign against crime. (As a sidenote--he also makes a strong argument that there must have been two Burbanks--perhaps brothers--as otherwise the poor guy would have been on constant duty for decades without a break.)
"The Boy Who Loved the Shadow: An Interview with Michael Uslan" is fascinating throughout. But my favorite part is his explanation of how he came to write his first Shadow story for DC comics back in the 1970s. It's a delightful story.
"Doctorow's Challenge: Why the Shadow Couldn't Prevent World War II," by Albert J. Emery, is an intelligent and fascinating discussion of why the Shadow couldn't have just killed Hitler and prevented or ended the war. The article considers both what skills the Shadow has to pull of the job, then looks at what the consequences of his taking action against the Nazi leader would have been by examining real-world history.
"The Shadowed Seven" asks various authors and Shadow fans to pick what seven Shadow stories they would want if they were stranded on a desert island. Choices can include the pulps, comics and/or radio stories. Lists like this are always valuable because they remind readers of cool stories that they themselves need to read or re-read. It can also change opinions. I'm not a huge fan of the Dynamite Comics Shadow from the 2010s, but some of these ended up on lists with good arguments about their quality. Now I'm thinking that perhaps I need to give them another try.
Those are my favorites, but every entry here is a gem. There's a look at a 1954 pilot for a Shadow TV series, a theory about how Walter Gibson came up with Burbank's name, an article by an under-30 Shadow fan about how he came to love the character, a Will Murray article about his set visit to the 1994 film, a defence of the Shadow stories written by Bruce Elliot, and much more.
Once again, if you are a Shadow fan, the Compendium is essential reading
The Shadowed Circle Compendium has been recently released, collecting both the cream-of-the-crop of articles published in the regular issues and a bunch of new materials. Every single article and essay in it is interesting, delving deeply into the Shadow mythos.
I do have some favorites from this volume:
"Shadow--and Substance," by Dick Myers, is absolutely wonderful. Myers makes intelligent estimates to exactly how much it would have cost the Shadow to fund his operations, including paying agents, ensuring a supply of .45 automatics and ammunitions, spare cloaks, vehicles, hide-outs, etc. Myers then comes up with a reasonable theory about where Kent Allard gets the literal millions of dollars necessary to run his campaign against crime. (As a sidenote--he also makes a strong argument that there must have been two Burbanks--perhaps brothers--as otherwise the poor guy would have been on constant duty for decades without a break.)
"The Boy Who Loved the Shadow: An Interview with Michael Uslan" is fascinating throughout. But my favorite part is his explanation of how he came to write his first Shadow story for DC comics back in the 1970s. It's a delightful story.
"Doctorow's Challenge: Why the Shadow Couldn't Prevent World War II," by Albert J. Emery, is an intelligent and fascinating discussion of why the Shadow couldn't have just killed Hitler and prevented or ended the war. The article considers both what skills the Shadow has to pull of the job, then looks at what the consequences of his taking action against the Nazi leader would have been by examining real-world history.
"The Shadowed Seven" asks various authors and Shadow fans to pick what seven Shadow stories they would want if they were stranded on a desert island. Choices can include the pulps, comics and/or radio stories. Lists like this are always valuable because they remind readers of cool stories that they themselves need to read or re-read. It can also change opinions. I'm not a huge fan of the Dynamite Comics Shadow from the 2010s, but some of these ended up on lists with good arguments about their quality. Now I'm thinking that perhaps I need to give them another try.
Those are my favorites, but every entry here is a gem. There's a look at a 1954 pilot for a Shadow TV series, a theory about how Walter Gibson came up with Burbank's name, an article by an under-30 Shadow fan about how he came to love the character, a Will Murray article about his set visit to the 1994 film, a defence of the Shadow stories written by Bruce Elliot, and much more.
Once again, if you are a Shadow fan, the Compendium is essential reading
July 30, 2024
This Compendium is full of great artwork and great articles celebrating the many forms the Shadow has taken over the years — in novels, comics, radio, television, and film. My favorite piece is ‘The Shadow’s New York’, which combines images of 1930’s NYC from famed photographer Berenice Abbot with evocations of the gritty locales that were the Shadow’s stomping grounds. I also liked ‘Stories of World History and the Shadow,’ which recounts times when the Shadow crossed paths with historical figures from Germany and Russia. Also noteworthy is ‘The Dark Avenger in Military Heraldry,’ which tracks the recurrence of the Shadow’s image in military and intelligence circles. This is a great way to dive into the history and mythology of the Shadow, whether you’re a long time fan or a newbie.
August 22, 2024
A compilation of reprint articles from the magazine about the pulp hero along with several new contributions.
September 8, 2024
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
September 20, 2024
Excellent source material for any fan of The Shadow! :D A must read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews