The Shadowcast #1 - THE LIVING SHADOW
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- From the mists of mystery emerges The Shadowcast!
In this first episode, we explore the origins of the Dark Avenger with the very first pulp story: THE LIVING SHADOW, and review The Knight of Darkness's first film appearance in the rare 1931 DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE Film Shorts!
"Your life," said the stranger's voice slowly, "is no longer your own. It belongs to me now. But you are still free to destroy it. Shall we return to the bridge?"
"I don't know," blurted Vincent. "This is all like a dream; I don't understand it. Perhaps I did fall from the bridge, and this is death that I am now experiencing. Yet it seems real, after all. What good is my life to anyone? What will you do with it?"
"I shall improve it," replied the voice form the darkness. "I shall make it useful. But I shall risk it, too. Perhaps I shall lose it, for I have lost lives, just as I have saved them. This is my promise; like, with enjoyment, with danger, with excitement, and- with money. Life, above all, with honor. If I give it, I demand obedience. Absolute obedience. You may accept my terms, or your may refuse. I shall wait for you to choose."
"I accept," he said.
-'The Living Shadow' (Walter B. Gibson, 1931)
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theshadowcastknows.blogspot.com/
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Will this come to Apple Podcast?
I discovered The Shadow in 1975 and I've been reading his adventures, ever since!!
My dearly departed Grandfather would have loved this. He was a huge fan of the radio serials. Thank you.
This podcast changed my life.
I was listening to it today at work and it made me realise something about myself: multitasking just isn't my thing.
Multitasking is a lie anyway. People saying they can do it are using machines or such to do their work anyway
What works the best about The Living Shadow is the uncertainty and ambiguity of the title character. It's clear in later stories that The Shadow is on the side of good, but in The Living Shadow it's not made clear what side he's on. If Walter Gibson revealed at the end of the story that The Shadow was the true villain at the end, it honestly would have worked with the way he builds the story up.
Thank you Razörfist, for bringing back My Dad's Favorite Pulp Hero, of all time.
He was born in 1937, at the age of 5-6, and in 1942-43 his dad got him into The Shadow.
Just Like I was born in 1978, Troy was Mine in 1983, and Batman in 1966 and Batman in 1989 and 1992. At the same age as he got into the Shadow with his dad.
R.I.P.
Godspeed With God's Blessings Razörfist!!
The Shadow needs his own game
I'm going to buy some blue coal to celebrate
The finest Pennsylvania anthracite!
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadowcast knows. Fantastic first episode and always glad to have more material talking about this great character, The Shadow deserves to be way more popular than he is.
That final still of the shadow with a pair of mini uzis was sick. I remember seeing that in the blood and judgement comic. It’s such a perfect 80s upgrade from his 30s Thompson.
I don't think anything is an upgrade from the Thompson
@@imperialbricks1977 Honestly have to agree. Uzis have been so done to death at this point that I'd rather a gunslinger be wielding any variation of hand pistol, revolver semi auto or otherwise. Feels infinitely more classy and interesting than the Uzi, at least to my preferences.
The sun is shining
...but the ice is slippery.
The possibility that The Shadow's face was completely ruined in an accident was masterfully done in Sam Raimi's severely underrated and unknown movie 'Darkman'.
Only 2 years late, wish I knew about this sooner.
At long last, the Shadowcast is no longer clouding my mind, so I cannot see it!
Razor would you consider doing full audio books of the cream of the Shadow-pulp crop?
I, too, would like to "Cast" a vote for Razor recording the Pulps in audio form. It would be awesome as extra content here (Patreon perhaps) or at least on Libravox. Please, Razor!
Razörfist's rendition of Reading Rainbow? I would be down for that.
+1
All for it
Do the hybrid approach. Book adaptation but with a full voice cast, music, and sound effects. The best kinds of fictional audiobooks.
Literally within days of me finishing The Living Shadow....you make this
The Shadow needs more support. Thank you for bring this to my attention.
Thank you Razorfist you’ve made me a big time shadow fan, this character rules
holy shit how have i not even heard of this series till now its amazing
Just joined. I love The Shadow. I discovered a few of the pulp novels in my local library when I was a kid. About that same time, I stumbled onto re-runs of Escape!, Dimension X, and Doc Savage on a local NPR station. So cool...
Old Time Radio is easily found in podcast form - not all of it has the audio cleaned up, so fair warning.
Bring back the old days!
I am a simple kobold.
I see The Shadow, I subscribe.
I reeeaaallly wish I clicked on this sooner.
Top shelf stuff, Razor my guy.
I am SOOOOOOO Happy you are doing this series. I just read "The Living Shadow" and I have to say that although the Shadow is rarely "seen", his presence is FELT throughout. It's as if he is always there watching from the darkness and weighing the scales of justice against the actions of the guilty. Harry Vincent is a great stand-in for the audience, as an inexperienced Agent of the Shadow, his journey is our journey into the Shadow's methods. Next stop, "Eyes of the Shadow". Only 324 more to go, I can't wait.
I’m late but you got me. Saved playlists.
Hat's off to you sir and a salute to all the fans
I’m near the end of crime insured. Damn this is toooooo gooooood! If you do more radio shows of the shadow, Eve better be Margo lane.
You got me into the shadow. Just bought the second novel from from you Razorfist. GFS!
Use to have all these on tape when I was a kid! The Shadow was epic!
Complete. Badass. Will be watching this religiously.
After watching your Shadow video on your main channel it drove me to OTR Archives which had some excellent radio dramas from The Shadow that astounded me with audio foley theater and sharp storytelling. It's led me to rekindle my passion of voice acting and story writing in such a way that I could not describe but only thank you for leading me to the phenomenal writer Walter B. Gibson. Hope one day I can lend my voice talents and honor your next The Shadow radio show rendition.
This! Is! Awesome!!! Someone reading the novels!!! Thank you for this!!!!!!
One aspect that many of the Shadow stories have that I truly adore is the horror aspect you get to see through the criminals that the Shadow brings to justice.
Never knew the depth of the Shadow Mythos. I remember discovering the Shadow with the 94 movie (horrible movie I know) but I love the character. Thank you for this. Now I’m off to do my homework
very cool
Awesome awesome awesome! Thanks, Razor! So pumped you are doing this and a member of The Shadow Knows has already shared it on their page so all Shadow fans will be subscribing. Super pumped. I, too, think you should record the pulps in audio form. You would be awesome at it and actually know and LOVE the character. Thanks so much for this podcast!!
So I literally just discovered this character after subscribing to your channel, and now I'm definitely going to gobble up as much Shadow lore as I can. Thanks for the recommendation!
Now I've just discovered this 2 years 'late'. But after listening to the pilot. Informativ, nice excerpts, good length but not padded. Just hits the spot for me. Bravo Razor!
Awesome! You're barking up my tree now.
I’m glad I found these
My first introduction to The Shadow was a beat up trade of Howard Chaykin's Blood & Judgement miniseries from DC. That inspired me to go and look up what else I could find about him, and I've been a fan of the character ever since.
I’m not even a big Pulp fan but this is fascinating!
Thank you so much for doing this podcast. I was becoming afraid that The Shadow was fading into obscurity.
I've been a Shadow fan ever since I heard the radio play "The Nursery Rhyme Murders" on a library cassette in 1981. That episode is still one of my all-time favorites.
Lovely ShadowCast! Your research is fantastic and the clips of Gibson are so wonderful! Thank you and can't wait for the next episode!
Absolutely superb! I only found out how big the character was through your videos about him, being from Europe and all, but I grew up watching and rewatching the 1994 movie to death on VHS. This is such a find for me. Godspeed, Razor!
Razor -- thank you, thank you, thank you, sir, for this endeavor! Well done! The Shadow has been and remains my absolute favorite character in all of fiction, for going on 40 years, now. If I had the technical resources and know-how, I might have beat you to this particular punch long ago! So, thank you again for stepping up to the pulp plate!...
Realizing it's probably too early to contemplate, but I wonder if you might ever consider the occasional guest for future discussions? I understand that you're in Arizona, while I'm in the St. Louis area, but, if the stars ever aligned properly, I'd consider it the purest pleasure to confab with a fellow Shadowphile for a bit (even a longer-form discussion -- ?). Just throwing my (slouch) hat in the ring, as it were...
Just another thought: since you've referenced the excellent DUENDE History of The Shadow Magazine, herein, I wonder what you might think about structuring your podcast's initial seasons along the lines of what that book describes as the 3 major phases of the magazine: i.e. the Formative, the Expansive, and the Established phase, tailoring the content to reflect those particular aspects of The Shadow and his mythos? Again, just a thought...
And, again, thank you for this -- I certainly appreciate it, and hope you'll continue with it for a long time to come.
You have one hell of a tallent for audiobooks.
Alex Ross led me here. This is cool!
Thoroughly enjoyed this and looking forward to future episodes. ✌
Just got done reading the shadow strikes, hyped for more forays into the world of the dark avenger
Just found you! Love the radio broadcasts!
You're doing the lords work here with this podcast
Just found this-fantastic, thanks. Would buy your audiobooks.
So glad you're doing this. I remember when I first listened to the original radio show in my english class and I was just captivated by the story.
Personally i enjoyed this immensely. Huge fan of the shadow myself, I guess it started with me growing up I rented the shadow movie from my local video store, watched it at least 3 times, and i was hooked.
From there I started tracking down the pulp reprints the comic books and even the serial
Exited to see you delve into this character more and more. Brilliant first episode here, eternally hyped for sure!
Hooray! When you mentioned you were starting some sort of mysterious new podcast, The Shadow is exactly the topic I hoped it would turn out to be about. Hopefully this will come to the Apple Podcasts app soon, but I’ll be listening avidly regardless.
This was fun
My 1st birthday present of the day!
I'm going to love this podcast...I mean Shadowcast! Can't wait for more episodes! Keep it bro!
Looking forward to the future of this channel. Thanks to your previous videos on the character, I've begun reading many Shadow stories (though my first story was City of Crime) and they are amazing. Much better than the junk Hollywood is pumping out. Godspeed Razor.
Very happy to have just discovered this channel, and excited you're doing more on The Shadow Razor. Looking forward to more excellent content
Agent Dregan reporting. Thank you Razör. I enjoyed this podcast. If I ever get a chance to meet you, I will shake your hand, say “thank you” a thousand times over, and take you out for a bite to eat. You are awesome Razör.
Great show! i Defiantly need to read this asap!
this is great, I don't usually find you going so in-depth on writing, also the subject is so interesting because most pulp from that era I'm just not able to relate, like the writing from aliens of another planet, it doesn't hit. but this video does make it come to life. GJ
I am starting to get the pulp reprints little by little. I wanna write something for the Shadow. Either a comic book or a movie script. But I want to bring back the Shadow to the masses but I wanna do it with ultimate respect to the character and the creators that would have come before me.
I wanted to do a story where the manga character The Laughing Salesman was an apprentice of The Shadow. He can see the desires that are in the hearts of men and, if they are greedy or evil, tricks them into incriminating themselves.
Good one, man.
I wish they had the Shadow books on Kindle.
Buying used paperbacks is going to get expensive.
Already shared to a big Facebook group. Here is hopin it draws in extra viewers.
Much appreciated, Agent!
Awesome !
What a great find! An excellent, well-researched podcast. I grew up on the Pyramid and HBJ paperbacks with the great Steranko covers, the DC comics w/ Kaluta, and the LPs of the radio show.
Superb. Glad to have found this channel. Time to catch up!!
Just finished this episode. It reminded me that there was a film in the early 80`s starring Tom Selleck, called "The High Road to China" where he plays a WWI aviator who gets lost in Asia. "The Razor`s Edge" or "The Lost Horizon" it wasn`t but had a good low-budget pulp feel to it nonetheless. I wonder if it was inspired by the Shadow`s origin?
Have you read Paul Malmont`s, "The Chinatown Deathcloud Peril"? It features Walter Gibson as one of the protagonists. I enjoyed it very much.
Good stuff, Razor! Very enjoyable and informative, I look forward to many more.
An awesome pilot 😁 👏
Cheers! 🍻
I rather wish you’d shill this at least occasionally sir. This should have more views than it does.
How is it I only today discovered the existence of this podcast?
Razor, do you have a FB, Twitter for The ShadowCast? Also, hopefully you can also get on Stitcher and Podcast Addict for more exposure. I will spread the word. I agree. The Shadow deserves way more recognition and this could very well be what does it. Thank you!! On a side note, your Stryper Metal Mythos rocked!
Facebook:
facebook.com/TheShadowcastKnows/
Web Blog:
theshadowcastknows.blogspot.com/
SoundCloud:
soundcloud.com/theshadowcast
Is there a website that I can access where I can get my hands on these pulps?
Interesting...
Razor for the love of god, put this on spotify or google music ffs. I wanna listen on the go.
You can actually download each episode in full on Soundcloud (or listen on the soundcloud app, just like spotify, but without bullshit commercials):
www.soundcloud.com/theshadowcast
Razor; do you think a Shadow tv show could work? I mean something like the Daredevil or Punisher Netflix series, or even an animated version but one handled with the care and devotion such a character deserves. The Shadow, or any hero of the pulp era would be a nice change of pace.
I think The Shadow would work far better as a TV show than a movie. However, I think a character like The Shadow is a difficult character to sell to an audience who are used to having the title character(s) on screen for most of the show/movie.
To adapt The Shadow to a movie or TV Show, you have to make his agents interesting and engaging, and The Shadow mysterious and ominous. We as the viewer must view the adaptation mostly through the agent's eyes, with the occasional scene where we focus directly on The Shadow's actions.
Frank Reddick sounded downright creepy as The Shadow. No wonder criminals feared him so much
This guy has the voice of a political commentator. Who happens to like heavy metal
Fun fact the writer and creator of the Unknown Soldier comic Robert Kanigher based the unknown soldier on the shadow from this time period with the face and bandages and the disguises. all good stuff and I think the Unknown Soldier would make a great Tv show or movie also.. the original would I have no used for the remakes lol sometimes the best part of a character is the mystery
you should move your shadow plays you did with those youtubers over to this channel too. id love to hear about all the imitatuers. i dont know much about the pulps i would say the spider was one but dont know much about him other then the 2 guns and he wore fake fangs. not sure about justice inc the avenger.
The Shadow is amazing. Batman ripped him off.
What was the place you recommended to get the first 10 stories? Wonderful podcast. My father used to listen to these as a kid. Subscribed!!!
www.adventurehouse.com
What do you think of Eisner's The Spirit?🗿
Without this character I don’t have Batman one of western comics most successful and recognizable characters.
Can someone list the suggested books for the shadow's begining?
Edit:
Never mind! Suggestions start at 26:40 or so. Issues he suggested are 47, 48 and 49 of the nostalgia ventures for the opening trilogy, plus 91, 101, 125, 129 and 130.
Who would you pick to play the shadow if they where going to make a shadow movie or tv show?
Tom Hiddleston would be my top pick. Failing that, Adrien Brody or John Hamm.
Great Shadowcast Raz0r! I have a question about something else~ the Solomon Kane board game. Do you think this one is worth getting (all the goodies come to $513 w/shipping). I've watched the game play yt videos and it seems... confusing?
Jesus, has it really been four years?
Are these Shadow pulps in the public domain? Cause I'd put down money to hear you narrate some and sell on Audible!
Quite a few Shadow pulps are already available - fully voiced, with music and sound effects - on Audible. They even released them physically last year.
www.audible.com/pd/The-Black-Falcon-Audiobook/B078S8XNMY?pf_rd_p=b90291d6-3a3c-4837-a58c-990231a0d057&pf_rd_r=RKMH91EP5G3H20ETBEYA&ref=a_pd_Partne_c13_moreAuthors_0
Where do I get a copy?
It's difficult to get a copy. It is available for free online, but if you want a physical copy, you can track down the Sanctum Books reprint (vol 47), the Bantam books version or the Pyramid books edition.
I can't find issue #1 anywhere. Any help please?
The Living Shadow is not an easy or cheap story to track down. Sanctum Book reprint 47 is far too expensive nowadays. There is the Pyramid Books and Bantam Book reprints, which are easier to find, but not that much easier.
If you can, try contacting Anthony Tollin. He might have some back issues available.
@@Ryan_Thompson_Guitarist Yes, very hard to find. Even the DC comic book.
Internet archive
ju
I wanted to like this, but you lost me when you stated the Shadow went weekly for nearly half of it's 30 year publishing history." Wrong on multiple counts. The Shadow was published from 1931 to 1949. That's 18 years. Not what I would call "nearly 30 years." Also, it was published bi-monthly for roughly half the 18 years. That's twice a month, not every week.
Makes me wonder what else will be incorrect... I'll try to continue but huge mistakes like that aren't a good sign.
He was talking about Street and Smith's publishing history, not just The Shadow Magazine
Did you recently buy out Jesse James comics' Shadow content 😑