Sunday, December 30, 2007

"Blood on Christmas" (Dec 30, 2007)

Blood on Christmas
The ShadowIt looks like my little Christmas project has been successful (thank you, everyone, for the kind words about it) so I couldn't let it go without giving it a proper lobby card, in the tradition of Pulp Sunday :)
I also loved the idea that this was some sort of "Margo Year One" so I decided to include a little portrait of the faithful companion of our hero.

Holiday season is still on so I hope everyone is having a great time and I wish to you all and your families and friends a wonderful, serene, and pulpy 2008! :)

Have a Pulp Sunday and see you next year! ;)

Francesco

Monday, December 24, 2007

"Blood on Christmas" part 5, Dec 24, 2007

Blood on Christmas
Hello dear Pulp Fans,

Here is the final chapter of this short Christmas tale titled "Blood on Christmas". When I first showed this to my wife, she gasped and said "Poor girl... she is going to be scarred for life" and I replied "well, that's what pulp/noir is all about!" ;)
Anyhow, I really hope you guys have enjoyed this little thing I crafted for you and I hope you will escuse me while I go off to celebrate the Christmas with my wife :)

Thank you, everyone, and have a Pulp Christmas!

Francesco

Blood on Christmas - Part 5

Blood on Christmas

Sunday, December 23, 2007

"Blood on Christmas" part 4, Dec 23, 2007

Blood on Christmas
Hello dear Pulp Fans,

Welcome to the fourth installment of "Blood on Christmas". Things are getting crazy, and not just in this short tale of the Shadow. We are approaching Christmas so fast and there is much to do (shopping for gifts and then wrapping them ;) but mostly spending some quality Holiday time with my lovely wife :)) I barely had time today to do this strip, but I am glad I found the time. Don't miss the grand finale tomorrow - I hope you'll like what I have been cooking for ya :)

Enjoy and have a Pulp Christmas!

Francesco

Blood on Christmas - Part 4

Blood on Christmas

Saturday, December 22, 2007

"Blood on Christmas" part 3, Dec 22,2007

Blood on Christmas
Hello dear Pulp Fans,

We should have expected it. Guns, knives, fists, hitting, stabbing, knocking... we should have expected all that mess would wake up our little angel... And now what?
While you think about it, I hope you enjoy the third installment of "Blood on Christmas". And please leave a note or two, if you feel inclined to. :)

This episode has been brought to you commercial free (no Blue Coal at all ;))

Enjoy and have a Pulp Christmas!

Francesco

Blood on Christmas - Part 3

Blood on Christmas

Friday, December 21, 2007

"Blood on Christmas" part 2, Dec 21,2007

Blood on Christmas
Hello dear Pulp Fans,

Welcome to the second strip of "Blood on Christmas". As you can see, I didn't make you wait too long before introducing our villain and, of course, our hero. But it is really everything over already? Will the Shadow be able to solve this situation without harming the poor sleeping girl?
I guess you have to wait until tomorrow to find out ;)

Enjoy and have a Pulp Christmas!

Francesco

Blood on Christmas - Part 2

Blood on Christmas

Thursday, December 20, 2007

"Blood on Christmas" part 1, Dec 20,2007

Blood on Christmas
Hello dear Pulp Fans,

I hope you didn't think I forgot about you all since I am a bit late with this week installment ;) The fact is that I am pretty busy with my upcoming Zorro book and, also, I was looking for some Holiday themed episode of the Shadow but I couldn't find any. (if you have any pointers, feel free to let me know).
That's why I decided that, if there is no Xmas Shadow story, I should do one of my own :)
Starting today, for 5 days, you will get a strip a day (in the tradition od the Sunday paper cartoons of yesteryear) of this Shadow Christmas tale titled "Blood on Christmas". Is that a pulpy way to get to Christmas or what? :D
To make it more interesting, I'll try to have it without balloons (just SFX and, of course, the Shadow's laugh, if needed). Since the radio show are all about audio, I thought a sequential strip should be all about images ;)
Here's the first strip to get things started.
Hope you , Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy the strips and feel free to let me know if you do (or don't ;)).

Enjoy and have a Pulp Christmas!

Francesco

Blood on Christmas

Blood on Christmas

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Pulp Spotlight: The Spider

Pulp Spotlight
New Feature: Pulp Spotlight

I have been illustrating several radio show of the Shadow in these past months, but it is my goal to cover also other characters of the Pulp Golden Age and other media as well. While I am planning to go back and do a few more Shadow radio episodes in the next few weeks, I would like to introduce a monthly new feature, called Pulp Spotlight. In this monthly appointment, I will provide a quick (illustrated) profile of other Pulp Heroes, based on suggestion you have been giving or on personal evergreen favorites.

Today's spotlight is dedicated to The Spider.

The Spider
The Spider was initially created as competition for The Shadow. The Spider, Master of Men!!, appeared in a series of pulp magazines from October 1933 to December, 1943. Six writers using the pen name of Grant Stockbridge kept America spellbound with the epic battles of Richard Wentworth (as the Spider) against the crime world. The Spider was known to be quiet strong and sometime ruthless in bringing justice where needed, most of time killing the bad guys first and asking questions later ;)

Eventually the success of this pulp hero was enough to grant a couple of movies and a constant revival of his "adventures" through the 20th Century (lately brought back to pulp life by Moonstone in the form of illustrated prose).

A good starting point to know more about the Spider is, as usual, the related topic page on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spider .

Hope everyone enjoy the illo and have a great Pulp Sunday!

Cheers,
Francesco

Sunday, December 2, 2007

"Message from the Hills" (Jul 31, 1938)

Message From The Hills
The ShadowI could say I choose this week episode of the Shadow because in it we discover the Shadow can hear (hypnotically) from long distances. Or because this is a story about diamonds and we all love diamonds, don't we? (our wives do anyway ;)) Or because this episode is about the tough life of mining people, who have to deal with mining (of course) and with a band of bloody crooks who are willing to kill everyone just to get those filthy diamonds (yeah, filthy... sure! ;))

The truth is that I picked this episode because the idea to draw a 1938 airplane piloted by the Shadow was too good to pass on ;)

Enjoy the episode and have a Pulp Sunday!
Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, November 25, 2007

"The Voice of Death" (Dec 26, 1937)

The Voice of Death
"Beware of meowing dogs..."
While trying to reach Arthur, an old friend of Lamont, in the Louisiana bayou, Margo is attacked by large dogs who apparently can trick you by meawing from behind the bushes. Lamont manages to scare the dogs before Margo is hurt.
The Shadow
They finally reach Arthur's house which is pretty run-down and apparently abandoned. Arthur had a life-long problem with his voice which pushed him to retire in this remote area (since he believes everyone was making fun of it). The problem is that Arthur is also a scientist and, when our duo shows up to his doorstep, he seems to have resolved his "problem". The voice is now fixed, but what about his un-stable mind?
I can't help to think about mad scientist messing with nature like the Dr Moreau or even South Park's Dr Mephisto. This last one came to mind because of the apparently useless results of some of Arthur's experiments.
Those mad scientists: gotta love'em :)

Enjoy the show and have a great (pulp) Sunday!
Francesco

Download this Episode

Sunday, November 18, 2007

"Death from the Deep" (Jun 12, 1938)

Caverns of Death
Once it was enough to have your own luxury yacht to leave just about anybody in the dust...e rrr... in the waters. But after a few years, too many mere mortals could afford one. And you can only get so far by trying to impress with size. So what do you give to yourself when you are so darnly rich and you already have everything and want to impress the other "poor" people? What about a personal submarine? That would impress people, right? What if you arm it with torpedos and start to sink ships and shoot the survivors with your personal machine gun? That would impress even more.. and that would make you one of the most evil villains ever ;)

The Shadow That's what happens in this beautiful episode: an insane(ly rich) hunter, Barry Vinton, has a costum-built submarine so he can destroy ships at sea and machine gun the helpless crews, just for fun (or sport, as he says).
"Ah, this is the life, there's nothing like it. The sighting of fresh quarry in this periscope. The excitement of the chase and the spine-tingling thrill as the torpedo finds its mark. And then the climax, on deck with a machine gun, shooting them down like scurrying rats. Ha ha!"

It looks like this is a mission in high seas for the Shadow.
BTW, Barry would be disappointed if he knew that a few years later you could buy your own submarine on a catalogue for only $6.98, as shown in this REAL period Ads :)
Caverns of Death
Enjoy the epsiode and have a Pulp Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, November 11, 2007

"Caverns of Death" (Sep 11, 1938)

Caverns of Death
The ShadowWhile visiting a cave just opened to the public, a few students fall down a pit when the rail gives way. A rescue team is sent to find eventual survivors (or at least to recuperate the students' bodies) but they found nothing. It seems a case for the Shadow! As matter of fact Lamont and Margot go down the cave to investigate and they discover a series of sinister activities in the lower levels of the caverns.

I have to admit I was fascinated by the description of the villain of this episode: a man who wears a gas mask all the time so no one has ever seen his face. Pretty cool, uh? That was definitely calling for being the main subject of my illustration.
Speaking of which, if any of you wants to see a particular episode of the Shadow illustrated here, feel free to post suggestions and/or titles.

Enjoy the epsiode and have a Pulp Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, November 4, 2007

"Ghosts Can Kill" (Jan 15, 1939)

Ghosts Can Kill
The ShadowThey have tried to convict him many times int he past, but he always had a "bulletproof" alibi for each murder. This time something went wrong, and there is no one who can save this murderer gangster from the deathrow. That's why he promises revenge upon those who put him to death: he will come back from grave and kill all of them.
When, after the execution, the people on the list starts to get killed by the "ghost" (who announces his "apparitions" with the same music the murderer was used to play), the Shadow steps in to unveil the real killer.

Enjoy the epsiode and have a Pulp Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, October 28, 2007

"The Tomb of Terror" (Aug 28, 1938)

The Tomb of Teroor
The ShadowWe can't have Halloween without some ol' classic mummy curse, right? ;) That's why the choice for this Pulp Sunday was an easy one, even if, as we will discover, the supernatural has a very little play in this case.

An entire Egyptian tomb is taken to the Museum of Natural Hystory where a large crowd is ready to visit the exceptional archeological discovery. Three men of the expedition crew enter the tomb to inspect it and all 3 die soon after. Is it a curse, or something more "material" is behind it? The Shadow knows ;)

Little trivia: this episode is sponsored not by the famous Blue Coal but by a brand of tires. The Shadow himself is usesd as testimonial in the commercial.

Enjoy the epsiode, have a Pulp Sunday and, most of all, a Happy Halloween everyone!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, October 21, 2007

"Gun Island" (Oct 23, 1938)

Gun Island
The ShadowWhile on a cruise in the Caribbeans, the yacht Lamont and Margot are travelling on gets hijacked and taken to a near, secret island. Here, the Shadow will discover that these are not the usual pirates but part of something that can affect the "National security".

Interesting to see how the Shadow uses a captive Margot to get informations out of the "pirate" capitain and funny to see the capitain falling for some simple trick about his ego to give away precious infos ;)

Enjoy the epsiode and have a Pulp Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, October 14, 2007

"Murders in Wax" (Jul 24, 1938)

Hounds in the Hills
The ShadowAfter the poison and the sniper episodes of last week, here's another tale of revenge and murders. In this case the list of victims is full of main politics figures, which will lead the Shadow to find out who is the brain behind the "killing hand". The settings of the wax museum gives to the story a nice horror vibe (who can't forget the many wax museum movies with Vincent Price?) and I almost wish the story would have been even more in that direction. Enjoyable nonetheless so listen to the episode by clicking on the link below.

Enjoy the show and have a great (pulp) Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, October 7, 2007

"The Laughing Corpse" (Mar 10, 1940)

Silent Avenger
"You Will Laugh but not from Joy, You Will Laugh and the Laugh Will Be the Laugh of Death"
This note is the one-way ticket to the land of the dead for those unfortunate victims of this week episode of the Shadow. Once again, we are dealing with a scientist gone mad (or bad - most of the times it's both). Revenge is what is pushing the killer in developing a poison that leaves the victims with a big "grin" on their faces (the chemical affects some of the facial muscles, as it is explained by The Shadow).
The Shadow
It's interesting how this Modus Operandi is the same adopted for the Joker in the Batman stories (which will debut later that year). We can't really tell for sure if Batman creators were inspired by this episode, but killing people by making them "laughing" to death is not a very common cause of death, not even in today world ;)

Enjoy the show and have a great (pulp) Sunday!

Francesco

Download this Episode

Sunday, September 30, 2007

"Silent Avenger" (Mar 13, 1938)

Silent Avenger
After the outdoor/country and exotic tones of the last two episodes, we are back in the cement jungle made of crowded streets, high buildings, and perfect shooting sites for a... sniper!!! When a convict is sentenced to the deathrow, he asks to his brother - a shell-shocked war sniper - to avenge him by killing the people who are responsible for his execution. Bodies start to fall under the precise shots of the sniper. Can the Shadow stop him before the killer accomplishes his deathly list?.
The Shadow
Shell-shocked war veterans who turn in killer has been the subject for many "recent" famous movies (Taxi Driver comes to mind) and have been, sadly, also on the real news not too long ago. So it's interesting to see that it was a subject for stories also back in the '30s.
Enjoy the show and have a great (pulp) Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, September 23, 2007

"The Temple Bells of Neban" (Oct 24, 1937)

The Temple Bells of Neban
Beautiful exotic dancers, snake charmers, ancient Indian Mysticism, deadly cobras, telepathy: this episode has them all!
We get chance to glimpse at The Shadow's past as he finally meets someone who has been trained in the remote and mysterious area of India where he learned his power to control minds and make himself invisible. As matter of fact, the exotic woman knows how to pierce in that power and unveal the Shadow so to be an easy target for a gun or even a deadly cobra.
The Shadow
It's funny that in the very intro (the story then will play as a flashback that will bring the listeners to the point the episodes starts with) the woman is threatening the Shadow by saying this is the end of his carreer: and here I was thinking that fighting the crime was more a mission than a carreer ;)

The quality of the audio of this particular episode is not one of the best but we are talking of 70 years old recordings here, so we can't really complain, can we?

Enjoy the show and have a great (pulp) Sunday!

Francesco

Download this Episode

Sunday, September 16, 2007

"Hounds in the Hills" (Feb 20, 1938)

Hounds in the Hills
The ShadowI haven't gone through all the episodes yet but this is definitely one of my favorite so far. The reason is the somehow more horror vibe that you get from listening to this story.
We are in the outdoors, the boondock region of North Carolina. Some crazy lady and her hunchback son have been kidnapping kids for quite some time now, and they do it again while Lamont and Margo are in the area visiting a friend. The Shadow jumps on the case and soon finds the old (haunted?) mansion where the kids are segregated. The horror tones turn into the more familiar (to the Shadow) crime story when we find out that the old house is also the hideout of two crooks. These will hunt the Shadow down in the woods, with the help of the kidnappers' ferocious, cross-breed hounds.

Definitely the episode that inspired one of Mr Burns' (of the Simpsons fame) best tag lines: "Release the hounds!" :)
To find out how the Shadow will get out from this hillbilly/Deliverance situation, listen to the episode by clicking on the link below.

Enjoy the show and have a great (pulp) Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, September 9, 2007

"Poison Death" (Jan 30, 1938)

Poison Death
"Crime does not pay...
The Shadow knows."


The Shadow knows and takes it very personal when a murderer is trying to poisoning the city water blackmailing the Mayor using the Shadow's name.
Our Lamont notices some peculiar type font in the blackmail letter left by the impostor and, with margo's help, will track the typewriter used for it and, subsequently, the killer.

The Shadow
The first rendezvous doesn't end good for The Shadow: will he be able to stop the killer before more innocent people die? You never know, when you deal with a "mad chemist"!!!

Enjoy the show (by clicking on the link below) and have a great (pulp) Sunday!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, September 2, 2007

"Deathhouse Rescue" (Sept 26, 1937)

Deathhouse Rescue
HAHAHAHAHAHA
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"
HAHAHAHAHAHA
"The Shadow knows."


With this laugh and with these words, exactly 70 years ago, the Shadow was introducing himself in the house of thousands of listeners.

This is known to be the very first radio episode of The Shadow. It was believed lost for a long time and the quality of the recording is not exceptional, but it represents the debut of this pulp hero (with the voice of Orson Welles) on a very popular medium of that time: the radio.

The Shadow
In this episode, the innocent Paul Gordon gets arrested, after a car chase, for bank robbery and murder and sent to the death raw. The Shadow knows Paul is innocent, but will be able to proof it in time by framing the real murderer before Paul sits on the "chair"?

Enjoy the show (by clicking on the link below).
Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Sunday, August 26, 2007

The Good Ol' Times


The good ol' times, when you had to rely on your imagination to truly enjoy a radio tale or a written adventure. No television was available, just a few illustrations (mostly for covers or movie posters) to help your imagination to build the setup or to give a face to the hero. And there was, of course, the theater where the magic happens. :)
Since most of the stories were told in print, the need to reach a wide audience pushed the publisher to pursue two main objectives: having a very cheap paper to print on (so to have affordable books/magazines) and having a series of genres which would appeal to most of the readers and not just the more sophisticated.
That was the origin of the so-called "Pulp Fiction", a series of books & magazines, printed on cheap paper, telling short stories about money, sex, and violence, the three engines that make the world go around. Criminals and crimefighters were chasing each other in a labyrinth of tales that ranged from exotic nuances to the crude, raw cement of the city.
Serialization was a key part since it let the readers/listeners get familiar with the characters and look forward to the next installment.
As a long time fan of the Pulp genre and a recent listener of those old radio shows, I thought to bring a bit of the feel of that period by illustrating, weekly, those radio shows: some sort of Lobby Card if those shows were movies, or even some sort of ad you could have found on a period newspaper to announce an upcoming episode of your favorite pulp show.
I am starting with the Shadow radio show, aired in the US between 1937 and 1949.
Tune in each Sunday (starting on September 2nd) for a new Shadow thrill and during the week for other pulp-related goodness.

Cheers,
Francesco