Sanctum Books, formerly Nostalgia Ventures, continues to reprint old Shadow pulp novels from the 1930s and 1940s, especially the ones that have not been reprinted in paperback during the 1970s. The quality of the pulp reprints is on cheap, thin paper which allows the text on the back side of the paper to bleed through. Most pulp reprints from other companies (such as Girasol Collectables) have thicker paper to prevent this issue.
The reprinting of the original interior pulp illustrations by Tom Lovell and Paul Orban is a nice touch, also being done by Girasol Collectables. I wish more people inserted the art among the text like Girasol and Sanctum.
In the first novel, The Shadow goes undercover in Chinatown to battle a legendary oriental demi-god in "The Living Joss." It's not one of the better Shadow novels, but the editor, Anthony Tollin, romantically talks it up as if it was one of the better novels. But then again, he's read all 200 plus issues so he can compare this novel to all the others and be a better judge. In the second novel, the more action-packed story, we discover what can prevent "Judge Lawless" from making a mockery of the law. The Shadow investigates and smashes this crooked operation. In the back of the book there is a reprint of an old-time radio script for a "lost" Orson Welles thriller that does not exist in recorded form, "Djaruti, Goddess of Death." For old-time radio fans this script is a must-read.
The historical commentary by Anthony Tollin leaves me with secondary thoughts. Much of the information in his essay about the early Shadow radio program appears to be a reprint of material from a book I recently read, The Shadow: The History and Mystery of the Radio Program by Martin Grams. When Grams branched into obscure trivia such as Frank Readick being the star of two radio programs, Tollin's essay does the same. Coincidence? Might be when you're talking about history but I could cite half a dozen other coincidences which makes me wonder if Anthony Tollin wrote The Shadow book under the pen name of Martin Grams, or if he's lifting material from the Grams book. I don't want to open a can of worms so I'll leave it as "shades of suspicion." I never would have caught this had I not recently read Grams' book, but this isn't the first time I've seen repetition from one book to another on other subjects.
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I suspected that was the case. Too much repetition and Tollin's reputation for using material from other people is a wicked combination. He has reprinted other people's research without giving them credit. This was revealed in the past. Shame he's carrying on that tradition in his pulp reprints.
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