Norgil the Magician

Did you know that Walter B. Gibson created another character named Norgil the Magician?  Not only did Gibson write the vast majority of The Shadow stories, he also created the character of Norgil the Magician and penned over 20 short-stories featuring Norgil.  

November 1937 edition of Crime Busters

The first Norgil story was published in November of 1937 in Street and Smith's Crime Buster pulp.  In all, 23 Norgil stories were published.  Just like The Shadow, Gibson wrote using the Maxwell Grant pen name.  Norgil the Magician has a supporting cast made up of Miriam, his assistant and Fritz his stage assistant.

The Mysterious Press reprint

In 1977 and 1979, a collection of the original Norgil stories were published by The Mysterious Press.  These books featured original cover art by Jim Steranko and introductions by Walter B. Gibson.  Only 16 of the 23 Norgil stories were collected in these two books.

Sanctum Books has republished some of the Norgil stories in their reprints of The Whisperer.

Sanctum Books reprint of The Whisperer

While I have not read a single Norgil story, I am looking forward to reading them and getting to know this character.  Based on what little I do know, he sounds like a bit of Mandrake the Magician and The Shadow mixed together!  I know Walter B. Gibson was a master magician himself so I'm sure his knowledge and craft was woven into the stories.  Hope you've enjoyed this brief look at another one of Gibson's great pulp characters!

Harry Vincent's Hometown

A few days ago I was reading The Shadow story, "The Crime Cult" (this story was originally published on July 1, 1932.  I was reading the Pyramid paperback edition.) and ran across one little sentence that got me started on an investigation into Harry Vincent's hometown!  

On the bottom of page 25 I read the following:  "Matters had been quiet during the past month, and Harry had been considering a short trip to his Michigan home in the little town of Colon."  When I first read that, I thought Colon, Michigan must be a made up town.  Then I thought, if it is a real town in Michigan, why would Walter B. Gibson (Maxwell Grant) use it as Harry's hometown?  With Harry's hometown clew, I began to investigate if it was a real town or not!

To my surprise, Colon, Michigan is in fact a real town - more accurately, it is a village!  It is in southern Michigan and was incorporated as a village in 1904.  The village of Colon takes up only 1.75 square miles and according to the 2010 census has a population of 1,173 people.  That answered my first question as to whether or not Colon, Michigan was a real place.  

Undated photo - but I'm guessing from the 1930s.
This must be what it looked like when Harry Vincent lived there!

Now I had to press on to answer my next question - why would Walter B. Gibson use a small village in Michigan as Harry Vincent's hometown?  My investigation revealed that Colon, Michigan is known as "The Magic Capital of the World!"  In 1925, the magician Harry Blackstone, Sr moved to the little village and it became the base of operations for him and his crew.  Colon is also the home of the Abbott Magic Company and several other magic companies.  Blackstone is buried in the Colon cemetery.

Magician Harry Blackstone, Sr was a personal friend of Walter B. Gibson and Gibson himself was a magician of renown!  Gibson was Blackstone's ghost writer on several books and Gibson himself wrote many books on magic and even invented several magic tricks.  I believe it is that magical connection that led Gibson to pick Colon, Michigan as Harry Vincent's hometown.  It makes me wonder if Gibson and Blackstone had a good chuckle together when this story published and if any of The Shadow's readers made the connection between Colon, Michigan and Gibson!

With that one clew of Colon, Michigan I was able to unravel the mystery behind Harry Vincent's hometown!