Life is too short, really. There's not enough time to do all the things you want, to see all the things there is to see, to fully experience everything life has to offer. That's why I'm happy that during my brief existence I'm spending part of it reading stories about The Shadow.

For those of you who don't know about The Shadow, he's a pulp hero who started out as, of all things, a voice introducing radio programs in the early 1930's. The voice was so popular that someone came up with the brilliant notion of spinning the voice off into it's own stories. Walter Gibson, writing under the pen name Maxwell Grant, was hired and subsequently wrote an inhuman amount of stories starring The Shadow. While on the radio The Shadow managed to get promoted from being a spokesman to having his own show it was in the pulp stories that The Shadow really came into his own. A tall, thin guy clad in dark clothes, dark cape and dark hat, The Shadow wasn't a typical heroic figure but instead looked like he should be the villain of the week in some other pulp story. He also tended not to talk a lot and instead a majority of his communication with others was through a haunting, humorless laugh. Coming across as some sort of conglomeration of Sherlock Holmes and Gibson's interest in magic along with a vigilante streak where he solved most problems by shooting away with an automatic in each hand [decades before John Woo made that style of fighting fashionable] The Shadow was unlike any character around at the time. Another unique trait of The Shadow is that unlike a lot of "dark heroes" that came after him The Shadow never expresses any angst or feelings of guilt that his actions weren't done in the standard do-gooder style. If anything, he seemed to be having the time of his life. Going from how often he cracked himself up in an average story he was certainly able to find the humor in his current lifestyle.

Note: Yes, he's actually referred to as The Shadow instead of simply the Shadow. Perhaps in some story I have yet to read there are a lot of other people running around with "Shadow" in their name so he felt the need to differentiate himself from the pack.

Perhaps I can explain my interest in The Shadow and the zany world he resides in by discussing one of his stories. For this bit I'll talk about the story "Gray Fist", an adventure of The Shadow first published in 1934. Most Shadow stories contain the usual action story staples of fighting, villains, and so on but "Gray Fist" has all those elements jammed together into a way that makes it come across like an enticing cocktail instead of a plate full of leftovers. That was an awful analogy but, in the spirit of pulp writing, I'm going to put down the first thing that comes to mind and go with it.

There's a new criminal mastermind in New York going by the name of, as the title of the story suggests, Gray Fist. Having taken over the underworld without hardly anyone knowing his actual identity, Gray Fist is now amusing himself by extorting money out of well to do citizens. His latest bit of extralegal tomfoolery has left the police baffled but The Shadow knows what's up with what's going down and sends his agents out to gather information. Too bad The Shadow's agents aren't as clever as their employer.

The Shadow rarely has to go it alone since he has a small army of people wildly loyal to him on his payroll. Not only do they act as lookouts, spies, and chauffeurs for The Shadow they also often provide a human face to the stories since The Shadow is so much larger than life he can across as a bit of a cold fish. His agents are usually pretty reliable as long as The Shadow tells them what to do but this time one of them accidentally lets himself be seen making a telephone call to The Shadow's hot-line. This small bit of information is all Gray Fist needs to track down The Shadow's secret lair.

Everyone needs a place to get away from it all including The Shadow. His secret lair seemed to be used as a repository for his notes and information on past cases which he kept under strict lock, key, and explosive device. The Shadow never referred to these files when on a case, however, and instead spent any free time in his secret lair sitting alone, writing notes to himself in disappearing ink, and cackling at the walls. Since The Shadow mostly used his lair as a poorly lit place to put up his feet it's temporary loss may not seem that important but it became critical when he ends up on the run.

Using his underworld connections, Gray Fist organizes every thug in the city to go after The Shadow. From then on the book details The Shadow's one man war against an army of thugs as they pursue him for days on end. One problem with The Shadow is that he doesn't always have good opponents. He's so good at what he does that common criminals don't stand much of a chance against him. The Shadow's obsessive personality sometimes seems like overkill but when doing something like taking on an entire city of gangsters all by himself he really gets to come into his own. Only a man dedicated enough to not only have several hideouts scattered around the city but several fake hideouts as well could possibly triumph against the assembled might of goondom.

This story is also a good example of how The Shadow is The Shadow's actual identity. Most characters who have more than one identity spend a majority of their lives as mild mannered reporters, foppish members of the upper circle of society or what have you and only become a hero in times of emergency. The distinctive outfits and names they put on are disguises to protect their normal, true life. For The Shadow, however, being a mysterious force for good is his entire existence. He may sometimes pretend to be the idle millionaire Lamont Cranston or one of several other identities but those are only used to further his work as The Shadow. When The Shadow is on the run for several days straight he has no problem staying "in character" because The Shadow is his actual persona. I suspect Gibson wanted The Shadow to be as mysterious as possible and intentionally neglected to give him any sort of life outside of his adventures but the side effect is a character who feels most at home sneaking around in the dark shooting at people.

Even though it isn't a very long story "Gray Fist" has almost everything you could hope for: gun fights, fist fights, a trip to Chinatown [The Shadow often ended up taking it down to Chinatown since it offered a setting that seemed exotic for the 1930's without the trouble of leaving the city] disguises, double dealings, The Shadow terrorizing a crook through nothing more than his own incredible will-power and a criminal kingpin who named himself Gray Fist for seemingly no other reason than it gave him the opportunity to waggle his gray gloved fist in people's faces.

The Shadow pulps are definitely products of their time and place -I would say that characters who aren't white American males can occasionally fall into the realm of caricature but none of the characters in the story are particularly realistic- but when viewed for what they are they are great fun. Now when are these stories going to get properly reprinted?

Questions, comments, and discussions about what evil lurks in the hearts of men can be sent to gleep9@hotmail.com. If you're done here sneak on back to either the Literature or Main page.