The Collected Shadow Comic Strip

The Shadow began to appear in newspaper comic strips (through the Ledger Syndicate) on June 17, 1942.  The stories were written by Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson and the artwork was provided by Vernon Green.  Unfortunately the comic strip was ended after only two years of publication.  According to one account, it was ended due to the impact of World War II on newspapers - needing more room for war news and printing fewer papers due to the paper shortage.

In 1988, Eternity Comics began publishing The Shadow comic strips in a collection entitled, Crime Classics.  There are 13 issues, with the final issue publishing in November of 1989.

I was able to find a copy of Crime Classics #1, here are a few pictures from the comic.

Front Cover

Inside Front Cover

I like that the stories are written by Walter B. Gibson and the artwork is pretty good.  I can imagine the difficulty in taking a book-length Shadow novel and trying to make it appealing in comic strip form.  However, some of the depictions of The Shadow aren't that great - like in the photo above where The Shadow says, "My own automatic!"  I'm trying to figure out what that is covering his face!  But the picture below it is awesome - classic Shadow!

If you want to read all The Shadow comic strips, I recommend you get your copies of these Crime Classics!

The Shadow in Print

Here's a timeline of The Shadow in printed form.

April 1, 1931 - Summer 1949  The Shadow Magazine (325 issues)

The Shadow #1

January 12, 1940 - June 24, 1949*  Shadow Comics (101 issues)

Shadow Comics #1

June 17, 1940 - June 13, 1942  The Shadow comic strip (syndicated through the Ledger Syndicate)

As you can see, The Shadow had an impressive print run from pulp magazines to comic strips from 1931 to 1949!

*According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics