Shadow Comics #6 [6]
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeShadow Comics Vol. 1 #6 (August 1940) marks the final appearance of The Avenger — Richard Henry Benson — in the first volume of the series, closing out a five-issue run that gave Street & Smith's third major pulp hero his only sustained comic-book showcase for more than three decades. The issue is also notable as a concentrated cross-media snapshot: the lead Shadow story adapts a 1935 pulp novel while borrowing its cover directly from the original pulp magazine, a production practice that underscores how fluidly Street & Smith recycled its intellectual properties across formats in the early Golden Age. Together with its siblings in the run, this issue demonstrates the anthology model that would define Street & Smith's comics line — one that brought pulp fiction's most crowded stable of heroes into the emerging comic-book format while the superhero genre was still being defined.
In "Czar of Crime," writer Theodore Sturgeon and artists Jack Farr (pencils and inks) deliver a high-stakes interplanetary showdown as Iron and Andarminot plot to weaponize the moons of Magya with Munro's Aggie Coils, aiming to crush the enemy planet Teff-el. With Munro and his fleet poised for battle, the tide shifts when the Tefflen leadership springs a hidden countermove—setting the stage for a clash of strategy and survival. Cover by Jerome Rozen captures the cosmic tension of this 1940 thriller.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Shadow Comics was launched in early 1940 as a deliberate cross-promotional vehicle: Street & Smith used the title to funnel younger readers toward its broader pulp magazine catalog, with each issue opening on a Shadow story and filling the remainder with strips adapted from other house heroes. Editorial control rested with pulp editor John Nanovic alongside Walter Gibson, who adapted his own Shadow Magazine stories for the comic and continued scripting the Shadow feature through 1947. The lead story in issue #6 was drawn directly from Gibson's 1935 pulp novel 'Lingo,' and the cover image was recycled from George Rozen's original painted cover for Shadow Magazine #75 — an economical production shortcut that was standard practice in the early run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published August 1940 by Street & Smith as Shadow Comics Vol. 1 #6 — the sixth issue of a series that ran 101 issues total from 1940 to 1949.
- The Shadow lead story is a condensed comic adaptation of the pulp novel 'Lingo' by Walter Gibson (as Maxwell Grant), originally published in Shadow Magazine #75 (April 1935); it features The Shadow in his Lamont Cranston identity, Margo Lane, and Detective Joe Cardona.
- The cover reproduces George Rozen's painted cover art from Shadow Magazine #75 ('Lingo'), making it one of several early issues to repurpose existing pulp cover paintings rather than commission original artwork.
- The Avenger (Richard Henry Benson) appears in his final outing in Shadow Comics Vol. 1, concluding an uninterrupted back-up run that began in issue #2; the story pits Benson and his allies against anarchists wielding a disintegrator ray, and the closing caption promises a return that never materialized in this volume.
- The Avenger's comic stories throughout the Vol. 1 run were adapted from pulp novels by Paul Ernst, writing under the Street & Smith house name Kenneth Robeson — the same pseudonym used for the Doc Savage stories.
- Carrie Cashin (and her partner Aleck) and Click Rush the Gadget Man — characters originating in Street & Smith's Crime Busters pulp magazine — appear in this issue as back-up features; Carrie received six total stories across Shadow Comics while Click Rush received three across the Shadow Comics and Doc Savage Comics titles.
- Nick Carter and Chick Carter also appear as back-up features, continuing the anthology's role as a showcase for Street & Smith's deep roster of pulp detectives.
- The series ran at a cover price of ten cents per issue and, according to contemporary circulation data, averaged approximately 425,000 copies sold per issue in 1941, evidence of strong early readership for the anthology format.
Cast · 12 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Iron and Andarminot plan to hollow out and equip each moon of Magya with Munro's Aggie Coils, then they will be hurled at the enemy planet of Teff-el. Munro and his fleet will engage the Teff-el fleet and destroy them, then have his ships encircle Teff-el and destroy its ground forces. But the Tefflen leadership pulls a surprise on Munro.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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