The Shadow
Two Complete Novels: The Golden Vulture & Crime Insured.
Reviewed by Anthony Feinman
02/03/07

As mentioned in my first review of The Golden Master (see Shadow Review for details) Nostalgia Ventures, since the end of last year, has been releasing reprints of the original Shadow and Doc Savage Novels. Their goal is to reprint all of them, two at a time, just like it was done over sixty years ago. For a fan of The Shadow and/or Doc Savage, this is HUGE! Reprints were done in the mid 60's-70's in paperback form but to be able to get these great stories with their original illustrations is awesome. Since I'm just this guy with a 7-4 job, I can not afford to go hunting around for the original pulp novels and drop $100.00+ for each copy. These reprints allow fans to collect what the public has been missing for over 20 years. A reasonably price trade paper book at $12.95 is more than worth the investment.

A long time ago, I was able to download a copy of The Golden Vulture from a now defunk website. I had it tucked away safely on a disk for many years and never printed it out to read. When I decided to rediscover Superlative Tales (Click here for more details on ordering) I got out the disk and sent it via email to the many contributors as an example of what kind of writing I was looking for on the replication of the new pulp. I still did not read it. It was a mistake.

The Golden Vulture was a test story that Smith & Street Magazine had Lester Dent write as a backup for Walter Gibson if ever he went on sabbatical. It was many years before it was published but it helped Lester Dent gain the contract to write for Doc Savage. Of course, the rest is history. I have to admit to reading more Doc Savage novels than The Shadow due to their scarce abundance. So when I finally read this story, the idea of a Shadow story being so gadget oriented was a unique perspective. For those that don't understand, let me explain. Dent's writing is geared more towards a readership that loves science, is fast paced with not a lot of character development. His writing is mostly story. Absolutely nothing wrong with that and was very popular at the time. Walter Gibson's writing was probably the opposite. The Shadow was most often behind the scenes of his adventures and the stories leaned more towards misdirection. So the idea of reading a story that both writers contributed to (Gibson rewrote the original story to better fit the Shadow style) is more than unique. It is, in my opinion, remarkable. The one and only time that, when it was released, the general public got a chance to see what a collaboration between these two literary giants of their time would have done on a story. Of course then, nobody knew this fact since all the stories for The Shadow and Doc Savage were written under the magazines' house name. So here is my two cents, if you care to take it. Whether you are a fan of Dent or Gibson, read this story. You will be mildly surprised at the result it yielded and the read will take you a roller coaster ride that is unparallel. The story had me guessing as to the identity of the villain to the very end. It will most likely do the same for you.

Crime Insured is considered by many as Gibson's most enthralling adventure. Let me just set the mood quickly so that you can understand what I mean. A crooked insurance man has set up a front to insure criminals that if their crimes fail, their job is insured and they don't lose any money. Ingenious really if you think about. A criminal can pay a company a premium and be secure in their life of crime. Is this a fictional story or what? A crooked insurance company can clean up on this business but what happens when The Shadow interferes with the crime? The insurance company has to pay off for every failed crime and they begin to lose money. So how does a man who is running a business stop losing money? Get rid of the obstacle that is preventing his business from staying in the black. Wage war on THE SHADOW!

This adventure is a great read and involves a multitude of The Shadow's agents. For anyone who is not a familiar with the Shadow character, it gives the reader a great look on how the Shadow operates via his many vigilant agents. The Shadow himself is compromised in this story. A distinct difference from many Shadow stories that I have read thus far. The closest story that I can site that is parallel to this is from The Shadow Strikes comic book series by DC Comics in the mid 90's. Shiwan Kahn captures the Shadow agents much like they are captured in Crime Insured and puts The Shadow on the defense. Another awesome read that can be enjoyed by all.

Each book includes commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin, two experts of the genre. If you would like to obtain your copy of this first reprint volume or the Doc Savagage volumes for $12.95 plus s/h as well as future volumes (The Second is The Chinese Disks and Malmordo for The Shadow), visit Adventure House at: www.adventurehouse.com
You may also be able to locate them at your local comic book store. I was lucky enough to get mine here in the Twin Cities at our only comic book retailer, Acme Comics.

Visit Anthony at MySpace for an occasional blog.

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