{"id":36085,"date":"2026-07-29T17:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=36085"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:34:37","slug":"the-shadow-blood-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/07\/29\/the-shadow-blood-judgment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shadow: Blood & Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Howard Chaykin<\/strong> with Ken Bruzenak<\/strong>, Alex Wald<\/strong> & various (Dynamite Entertainment)
\nISBN: 978-1-60690-327-8 (TPB\/Digital edition) (978-0-9302-8916-4 (DC comics 1989 TPB<\/p>\n

This book contains Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic effect and to piss you off.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a fan of The Shadow<\/strong> ever since I was a kid in the 1960s, picking up a couple of sixpenny paperbacks as a kid in my local Woolworth\u2019s. Over so many decades I followed various comic and screen interpretations with mixed feelings but grudging general acceptance. However, when Howard Chaykin had a crack at the venerable trenchcoated crime-crusher at the height of the turbulent game-changing 1980\u2019s, I nearly blew a gasket. I was appalled.<\/p>\n

And that was the point.<\/p>\n

Chaykin has for his entire career lovingly cultivated his reputation as an iconoclast and cultural bombast over many years, and the four issue miniseries from 1987 collected here certainly ruffled a few feathers – those of severe unrepentant traditionalist me included.<\/p>\n

As originally disseminated in the days before comic books, The Shadow<\/strong> gave thrill-hungry fans their measured doses of extraordinary excitement via cheaply produced periodical novels dubbed Pulps (because of the low-grade paper they were printed on) and over mood-drenched airwaves via his own radio show. Pulps were the TV of their day, published in their hundreds of different titles every month, ranging from the truly excellent to the pitifully dire, and catered for every style and genre. However, for exotic adventure lovers there were two characters who outshone all others. The Superman<\/strong> of his day was Doc Savage, Man of Bronze<\/strong>, whilst the premiere dark, relentless creature of the night dispensing terrifying grim justice was our mysterious slouch-hatted hero.<\/p>\n

Originally the radio series Detective Story Hour<\/strong> (adapting stand-alone prose yarns from Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine<\/strong>) used a suitably spooky-voiced narrator (most famously Orson Welles, although he was preceded by James LaCurto & Frank Readick Jr.) to introduce each tale. He was dubbed \u201cthe Shadow\u201d, and from the start on July 31st<\/sup> 1930, he was more popular than the stories he introduced. Talking about soon evolved into participation and The Shadow<\/strong> became into a proactive hero solving crimes and mysteries and, on April 1st<\/sup> 1931, the dark Detective debuted in his own pulp series written by the incredibly prolific Walter Gibson under house-pseudonym Maxwell Grant. On September 26th<\/sup> 1937 the radio show officially became The Shadow<\/strong> with the eerie tag-line \u201cWho knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Men? The Shadow knows!\u201d…<\/p>\n

Gibson-as-Grant wrote 282 of 325 novels over the next two decades, published twice a month. The series spawned comic books, seven movies, a newspaper strip and all the merchandising paraphernalia you\u2019d expect of a superstar brand. The pulp series ended in 1949, although many novels have been written (by Gibson and others) since 1963, when a pulp fantasy revival gripped America, generating reprinted classic stories and a run of new adventures as paperback novels. Then he was gone again but the mesmerising master of menace always seemed to be lurking in the background…<\/p>\n

From June 17th<\/sup> 1940 The Shadow and his covert cohort of minions starred in a newspaper strip by Vernon Greene and – when comic books took off – he won his own four-colour title. It ran 101 issues spanning March 1940 – September 1949. Between 1964-1965 Archie Comics published a controversial contemporary version under their Radio\/Mighty Comics imprint, written by Robert Bernstein and Jerry Siegel, illustrated by John Rosenberger and Paul Reinman. In 1973, DC acquired the rights and produced a captivating but brief series of classic comic exploits unlike any other superhero title then on the stands.<\/p>\n

DC periodically revived their comic book iterations of the venerable vigilante and in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/strong>, The Dark Knight Returns<\/strong> and Watchmen<\/strong> tasked one of the industry\u2019s most controversial and popular creators with reviving the pre-eminent mystery man of all time. Fresh from an awe-inspiring, inspirational and transformative run on his satirical creation American Flagg<\/strong>, Howard Chaykin returned to DC to shake up everything with an interpretation which offended fans, purists (still including me) and franchise-owners Conde Nast, but which ultimately proved to be just the medicine the property needed to become relevant again.<\/p>\n

That crucial year 1949 is the embarkation point for this flashy, savage, witty and utterly captivating updating. This is not a reboot. Chaykin was extremely careful to accept and utilise those decades of established canon, deftly accommodating old material whilst infilling information gaps by scrutinising world history and tacitly accepting that a do-gooder who exploited and expended his own agents whilst kidnapping, brainwashing and slaughtering the bad guys wasn\u2019t what most people would consider a hero…
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\nDevised and delivered as a glittering, frenetic avalanche of graphic and text material (spectacularly made comprehensible by the calligraphic skill of lettering wizard Ken Bruzenak and the understated colour-palette of Alex Wald) the story opens with a series of increasingly brutal murders. It doesn\u2019t take long to connect the victims: old people from all walks of life rumoured to have worked for an old urban legend known as The Shadow<\/em>…
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\nThat mystery manhunting vigilante vanished in 1949, abandoning his grim, fanatical crusade to destroy criminals. Now (for which read 1987) a hidden mastermind is systematically eliminating every surviving member of his former organization. Before long, a figure comes out of the closeted east, easily slipping past Communist China\u2019s \u201cBamboo Curtain\u201d and returning to the blighted, benighted USA with a new band of striking followers in tow…
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\nChaykin even had the chutzpah to provide the eternal Man of Mystery with a Real Origin, something he never really had before as the murder-marathon unfolded but soon and suddenly – amidst a broiling sea of sex, perversion and increasingly violent death – The Shadow is back in style and in full force. Dealing out bloody justice to petty thugs in search of the true mastermind, the desperate race against time sees an impossibly young, still vital Lamont Cranston<\/em> reunite with his surviving agents to track down his oldest enemy and thwart a deadly plan to bring about nuclear annihilation.<\/p>\n

However, as arrogant and officious as ever, the now-unmasked master manipulator is probably in more danger from the elderly colleagues he abandoned than the gun-toting punks and maniacs dogging his smartly-shod heels. Inevitably, as chaos escalates and bodies keep dropping, \u201cCranston\u201d tracks down his unseen nemesis and – with his own sons in attendance and learning the ropes and family traditions on the job – proves again how the weed of crime bears bitter – but so very fragile – fruit…
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\nBonus features include a cover gallery, Marc Guggenheim\u2019s Foreword \u2018Looking Back on the Shadow\u2019<\/em> plus text closer \u2018The Light Behind The Shadow\u2019<\/em>: an interview with Chaykin and Joe Orlando which first appeared in the 1987 trade paperback collection.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why I used to dislike this book so much: Although I still feel the proper milieu for the character is the iconic era of mobsters, militarists and madmen (by which I mean the 1930s and 1940s, not right here right now) I see what Chaykin\u2019s getting at. Those threats and motivations were common enough in the Eighties and even more so nowadays.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the author\u2019s trademark trick of confronting misogyny, racism and suppressed sexuality by seemingly advocating them just wore a bit thin when applied to such a treasured old friend. There\u2019s certainly a disquieting amount of adult themes, kinky sex and graphic violence on offer. With sufficient distance, though, I now must honestly pronounce this a terrific thrill-ride; stylish and compelling, if a little \u201cin your face\u201d and \u201con the nose\u201d… Enough readers must have liked it back then: Blood and Judgment<\/strong> spawned a fascinating follow-up series (by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker and others) before DC reverted to The Shadow Strikes<\/strong>: a series safely restored to its natural pre-war time period.<\/p>\n

Out of print from 1991 until Dynamite picked up the option this is a vital and vigorous read which inspired some of today\u2019s very best creators, and acts as a perfect introduction to the character. You can – and should – complement the experience by tracking down DC\u2019s first experiment with the character, partially collected as The Private Files of the Shadow – <\/strong>and Dynamite\u2019s serial continuations and new edition of The Shadow: Hitler\u2019s Astrologer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After all, a crime fighter this durable must have something to him…
\nThe Shadow \u00ae & \u00a9 2012 Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. \u2122 & \u00a9 Conde Nast. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1954 writer\/colourist\/inker\/Digital Chameleon co-founder Lovern Kindzierski<\/strong> (Shame<\/strong>, Lunatik<\/strong>, Agents of Law<\/strong>, Black Widow<\/strong>) was born, followed a year to the day later by wonderful, gifted, tragically-short-lived Dave Stevens<\/strong> (The Rocketeer<\/strong>, Tarzan<\/strong>, The Bettie Pages<\/strong>); comic bok letterer Rus Wooton<\/strong> in 1970 and devastatingly brilliant writer Gail Simone<\/strong> (Birds of Prey<\/strong>, The<\/strong> Movement<\/strong>, Villains United!<\/strong>, Secret Six<\/strong>, Lara Croft<\/strong>, The All-New Atom<\/strong>, Welcome to Tranquility<\/strong>, Wonder Woman<\/strong>, Red Sonja<\/strong>, Batgirl<\/strong>, Uncanny X-Men<\/strong>) in 1974.<\/p>\n

Today in 1985 Jimmy Johnson<\/strong>\u2019s still-running, ever-kvetching, surreal domestic commentary romcom strip Arlo and Janis<\/strong> began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Howard Chaykin with Ken Bruzenak, Alex Wald & various (Dynamite Entertainment) ISBN: 978-1-60690-327-8 (TPB\/Digital edition) (978-0-9302-8916-4 (DC comics 1989 TPB This book contains Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect and to piss you off. I\u2019ve been a fan of The Shadow ever since I was a kid in the 1960s, picking up a couple … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Shadow: Blood & Judgment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,75,105,225,127,428,107,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-crime-comics","category-mature-reading","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-pulp-fiction","category-science-fiction","category-the-shadow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9o1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36092,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36085\/revisions\/36092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}