The Shadow: Belmont Book Series

The last The Shadow pulp magazine published in the summer of 1949 with the Walter B. Gibson (writing as Maxwell Grant) story, "The Whispering Eyes."  There were no new Shadow stories until on September 1, 1963, Walter B. Gibson's story "Return of The Shadow" was published by Belmont Books in a paperback.

Belmont published a total of nine Shadow paperback stories.  While Walter B. Gibson wrote the first one ("Return of The Shadow"), Dennis Lynd would write the following eight stories under the pen name of Maxwell Grant.  These new stories placed The Shadow in modern times (the 1960s) and made some changes to The Shadow's skills and abilities.  There were familiar names and places in these stories (Harry Vincent, Commissioner Weston, the Cobalt Club, etc.) but The Shadow was cast as being more of a spy than a crime fighter.

Here is the list of the Belmont Shadow paperbacks including the author and publishing date:

• Return of The Shadow, by Walter B. Gibson,  published September 1, 1963
• The Shadow Strikes by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published October 1, 1964
• Shadow Beware by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published January 1, 1965
• Cry Shadow! by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published April 1, 1965
• The Shadow's Revenge by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published October 1, 1965
• Mark of The Shadow by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published May 1, 1966
• Shadow-Go Mad! by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published September 1, 1966
• The Night of The Shadow by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published November 1, 1966
• The Shadow-Destination: Moon by Dennis Lynds (as Maxwell Grant), published March 1, 1967

I have a copy of "Mark of The Shadow" and have started reading it, but I must say it's not as well written as the Walter B. Gibson stories.  Additionally, there are some things I don't particularly like about the 'new' Shadow.  For example, Lamont Cranston is The Shadow but he has to become The Shado!.  On page 26 we read, "The power to cloud men's minds, learned so long ago from the great Chen T'a Tze, required the secret black cloak, the black slouch hat, and the fire-opal girasol ring.  The power was not in these things, it was a power of the mind, it's source was not known even to Chen T'a Tze, but it could not be used without the cloak, the dark hat, the glowing ring on the long finger of The Shadow."

I'm trying to collect the entire Belmont Shadow paperbacks, and will post overviews and reviews of them as I read through them.  While I am a big fan of the original 1930s and 40s Shadow stories, I'm interested to see a different take on the character.