The Shadow (1987) in review

The success of the 1986 Shadow miniseries, written and drawn by Howard Chaykin, led to DC publishing an ongoing, modernized version of the character in 1987. This is series, written by Andy Helfer and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz, Marshall Rogers and Kyle Baker, took the Shadow in a bizarre, satirical direction that may have caused it to be abruptly cancelled.

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[kidzoki]

I spoke with Andy Helfer in the early '90s when pitching a graphic novel for Paradox Press (which DC had rebranded the former Piranha Press).  He said Condé Nast actually loved the all crazy directions taken in The Shadow, including the robot body cliffhanger.  When asked whether he'd end up finishing his run, Helfer said he hadn't thought of it since the series stalled but would definitely be interested.  The unspoken implication was that Kyle Baker had moved on and Helfer was reluctant to finish the series with another artist.

[mmickle]

I like when the oldest comic characters get a brought into the modern era.

[kidzoki]

The Shadow was actually celebrity aviator Kent Allard, who became known as the Dark Eagle while flying for the French in WWI, and later faked his death in the jungles of South America. Allard often assumed the identity of his friend, the wealthy world traveler Lamont Cranston, while operating as The Shadow in NYC. Cranston spent a lot of time abroad and bore a resemblance to Allard, which provided The Shadow a double-secret identity. Chaykin used this confusing pulp lore as the basis of his comic -- making Lamont Cranston the villain. Yin-Ko supposedly translates as "Dark Eagle" in Mandarin.

[jacob_ian_decoursey_the_author]

Whenever I look at 80s gritty DC comics, what always stands out to me is the immense influence (bordering on imitation) of Frank Miller/Klaus Janson’s art on Dark Knight Returns.

[psychomammoth]

I love the shadow, he’s an amazing character

[J-Loe]

I absolutely loved this series and was heartbroken when they never continued the story.

Sometimes I check the bins for issue 20
I’m still waiting

[johnsena]

Love the Denny O'Neil run as well as the Chaykin mini series. The Shadow is a difficult property to grasp in the modern era. It seem to only have worked in a by gone era of the 20s and 30s.

[troycruikshank]

I actually just bought the 87 run 1-7 . I loved the Shadow stuff from dynamite. It was fantastic. And last month I picked up some of the 70s stuff. The Shadow is definitely one of my favorites to read.

[psychomammoth]

I also love other dynamite characters like “The Spider” “Green Hornet” and “Black Terror”.

[robinstigator]

The 1987 Shadow miniseries and the shadow monthly were fucking AWESOME. I have every issue. From Sienkevich's art in 1-7 to Kyle Baker's awesome style in later issues. all GOLD all VIOLENT!

[jeremycline]

In the mid- to late eighties DC tried almost every pulp character, if the ads I see in my comics from the time are anything to go by.

[pablom.g-m]

Excellent vid, as usual. Going as the Shadow for Halloween.

[dfcsons]

I really disliked everything mentioned here until they got back on track with The Shadow Strikes, it just didn't fit or resonate with me on any level, and felt like they were treating such a revered character as a joke. That being said, a well researched and put together video.

[Theteam]

In the pulps the shadow clauds the minds of criminals to be invisible but you could still see his shadow that could explain the art, he could be invisible but there is a shadow in the wall showing where he would be.

[Shadow-Rider-]

Shadow turning to a ROBOT?!!! The writer must have been using some weird mushrooms!

[castironchaos]

Chaykin's original miniseries was ultra-violent, sadistic, sexist, mysoginistic...which, it could be argued, were actually qualities that had been in the character and series of the Shadow from the very beginning. Could it be argued that Chaykin himself had this qualities and was able to put them into the book because he was familiar with them? I know nothing about Howard Chaykin the man, so I can only speculate. I enjoyed the first dozen or so issues of American Flagg!, which had similar qualities but weren't *quite* as mysoginistic. Other then the way everyone slept around with everyone else.

[jrox]

Great video i was wondering in what order this trades went before i started ordering them & this was very helpful

[drawfiend]

Didn't the robot body idea come about because Robocop had been released around the same time?

[comicswatching]

A favorite …thing? Of mine is listening to AM740, a radio station out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada with a huge broadcast radius (I’m in west-central PA, US) I’ve spent many nights driving, listening to and bootleg recording that radio station, they specialize in music ranging from the 20s-80s and have a lot of great programming, in fact the most impressively cohesive and authentically broadcasted modern station that I can think of. In any case, I could talk about AM740 and my love for it all night, but this is all suffice to say that on weeknights, at 10pm EST, they have a program called ‘Theatre of the Mind” where they play back to back radio dramas from the 30s and 40s, *takes a breath* I’ve heard The Shadow episodes on that programming block, and I think that’s cool!

[franklinboyd]

I got a run of DC Shadow comics in a quarter bin a few years back and not paying attention to the covers, I was so confused. Some of the stories took place in the past and some in more modern times, with an oddball supporting cast...all good stuff though.