The Shadow #23
Created by Walter B. Gibson
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Giovanni Timpano
Colors by Fabricio Guerro
Letters by Rob Steen
Covers by Alex Ross, Dean Motter
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: March 19, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

Dynamite’s The Shadow is a retelling of the Walter B. Gibson stories best known from radio plays that starred, among others, Orson Wells. As a comic the stories take on a new life. I was a fan of the radio programs so I asked to see what this new Shadow might be. The cover art by Alex Ross is spectacular, invoking the period and sensibility of the 1930s around the start of WWII. I found the heavy-handedness of the line art by Giovanni Timpano to be evocative of the older comics I have seen like Sgt. Rock books from the ’70s.

As the series continues to develop the stories are very like the radio program but with a darker, more violent tone, while lacking most of the humor that I remember when listening as a kid. It seems very difficult to manage the right balance of serious and funny in a story like this.

The newest is the tail-end of a particularly convoluted story arc that begins in issue #19, and through the succeeding books gave us a wider look into The Shadow’s past, through the eyes of his closest compatriots. Of special note is Fabricio Guerro the use of color and texture to embellish memory sequences.

I am looking forward to the next installment as this book series develops.