Customer Reviews

Lingo and Partners of Peril (Shadow (Nostalgia Ventures))

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This book reprints the original story that was used in the creation of Batman by Bill Finger and Bob Kane.

Lingo is a great story were each mob boss gets stymied by the Shadow until the mob turns on him and removes him (permanently) and sets up a new boss. Eventually, a boss named Lingo takes over. This is where the story gets good.

The second story in the book is the original story Bill Finger used when he and Bob Kane were creating Batman. The first Batman stories had him carrying two colt 45s and being a socialite friend of the chief of police. Change the names to Lamont Cranston, The Shadow and Commisioner Weston instead of Bruce Wayne, Batman and Commisioner Gordon and you have the exact same story! (With the exception of a nephew turning into a niece, that is.)

The historical articles in this book tell the story of the first Batman comics, as well as an interesting article from Jerry Robinson, who joined Bob Kane and Bill Finger to create the most memorable villain of all time, the Joker!

This thicker-than-normal book is a great read as well as a fount of historical information from the early days of superheroes. Get it. You'll love it!

Years ago, in Jim Steranko's History of The Comics Volume One, the Batman's first scripter and arguably, his Co-Creator, BILL FINGER, mentioned that his first BATMAN script, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate" was a "take off" on a SHADOW story. No one knew what he was referring to but the most important thing about the article
was where he spoke of how he made suggestions to his studio boss, BATMAN creator BOB KANE on how he could improve a concept which he called the "BAT-MAN", who at the time looked like Superman wearing a Zorro mask, black and red leotards with two stiff bat-wings! Partly inspired by the Phantom's costume (which Bill acknowledged)Finger suggested changes that led to the Caped Crusader we are more familiar with! Unfortunately, some fans (including a handful of whom would become comic book industry professionals)would take these suggestions and use them to infer that Bill Finger actually created the character--despite the fact that Kane was the one who drew both versions-- the original and the final one! Well guess what, they're still at it!

The discovery of the original Shadow story, "Partners in Peril", created a minor firestorm which had terrible con-sequences the publishers, discoverers and the writers and contributers to the introduction (veteran comic book creators JERRY ROBINSON and ROY THOMAS among them)never intended: it revealed that Bill "borrowed" more from the Shadow story than he acknowledged! Simply put, Bill "swiped" more than just the plot but a good chunk of the entire story! His backers were so intent on "proving" Bill created Batman, they exposed Finger as an outright plagiarist! Now, in fairness, it has to be acknowledged that just about every Bob Kane creation was a knock-off of previous concepts. And Kane himself frequently "swiped" action poses from other cartoonists (most notably, Alex "Flash Gordon" Raymond) but even so, artists and writers have been "quoting" each other for centuries--how many times has the plot of "Romeo and Juliet" been "sampled", just naming one example! But, plagiarism is something that is frowned upon, no matter what the medium, for it involves not just "swiping" poses or plots but out and out thievery lock, stock and barrel and unfortunately, that is what we see here. The main difference between the two stories are the names of the characters--which were changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

As for the issue of "Who created Batman", I accept Finger's explanation, that he gave Kane some suggestions about the costume and what is NOT in dispute is the fact that Bill came up with the name, "Bruce Wayne"! However, some point to the fact that because other characters called "Batman" appeared in pulp magazines, and since Bill read pulps, ipso facto, he created the concept: which actualy puts him in an even WORSE light, given the "Partners in Peril" evidence! However, I notice that NONE of these previous "bat-guys" bear even a slight resemblance to "our" Batman! Besides these pulp magazines, there was the movie "THE BAT WHISPERS" (which Kane acknowledged as an influence), DRACULA (Lugosi version), MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, THE BAT-MEN OF JOBA (the red and black garbed characters from the Clyde Beatty serials), DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, the re-release of the Lugosi film in anticipation of this sequel and I'll just bet there were others after 1939--so, with all these myriad "bats" flying around, how could Kane NOT create a bat-man?

Yes, Bob Kane acknowledged a DaVinci flying machine in addition to the aforementioned "...Whispers" because it makes a sexy story, but if I wanted to play the speculation game too, I would point to Superman,Zorro,"...Whispers" and the Lugosi movie as the primary influences! Bela Lugosi had a penchant for holding his cape up in his hands so that it resembled bat-wings--it was demonstrated in several posters and the opening credits for that film feature an enormous "man size" bat with its wings outstretched--very similar to Kane's original "Bat-Man"-- who was a "super-man" who had his wings strapped to his wrists! Simply adding a "-Man" to the name of the villain from "...Whispers", The Bat, doesn't sound like too big a struggle for Bob! Finally, Jerry Robinson claimed he had become friends with Finger, well, if Bill HAD created Batman, I don't think Jerry would have had to speculate about the character's origins like everyone else--Bill would have told him! As a "...novel that inspired (the creation of) BATMAN", "Partners in Peril" simply ain't so! Case closed.

But having said all this, is THE SHADOW: "Partners in Peril" worth having beyond its connection with BATMAN? I don't know, it's not really my cup of tea! I find Walter B. Gibson (and his "ghost" assistants, all writing under the pen-name "Maxwell Grant") to be pretty dry reading but I have to admit that when it comes to prose, I tend to enjoy authors who have a distinctive style, like a CHARLES DICKENS or a STEPHEN KING--but someone else may like his work, after all, it's still a nice little mystery! (I didn't read the lead story, "Lingo" and don't know if I ever will; when it comes to The Shadow, I prefer the radio dramas that ORSON WELLES narrated!Shadow: Greatest Radio Adventures (20-Hour Collections)) but whether as an item of Batman history or for it's own sake--this item IS worth having.

Nostalgia Ventures and Anthony Tollin have teamed up to do a comprehensive reprint of several Street & Smith pulp heroes. At present, they are doing double reprints of The Shadow and Doc Savage. Shortly, they will start new series reprinting The Avenger and The Whisperer. All have complete pulp texts (no edits or removals, like past reprints), tho reset so its easier to read, the original illustrations, reprinted covers (one is used as the cover of the book, but both original pulp covers are shown on the back), and several additional articles and extras as space permits.

Hopefully, they can succeed to reprinting all these characters in these new editions, they are all excellent.

With The Shadow having over 325 pulp novels, only a few reprinted, for the most part they are avoiding those that have been reprinted. They do try to pick two that more or less 'go together' in terms of a common theme.

With this book, #9, we have "Lingo" (April 1, 1935) and "Partners in Peril" (Nov 1, 1936). The common theme of these is the influence of The Shadow on the creation of Batman. The cover of "Lingo" is used as the cover of this volume, and both pulp covers are shown on the back cover. ALSO, there is a variant cover of this volume (the only Shadow volume so far which has a variant cover). The variant cover uses the cover of "Partners in Peril" for the volume cover, but is otherwise the same.

"Lingo" has The Shadow fighting a new underworld kingpin named Lingo Queed. The Batman connection? The story gives the basis for the Batarang!

"Partners in Peril" is notable as the basic plot of the novel was used as the plot of the first Batman story, as noted in the accompanying articles. Its ALSO the first Shadow novel written by Theodore Tinsley, NOT Gibson. Tinsley was hired to provide 4 Shadow novels a year, while Gibson produced 20 (with The Shadow coming out twice a month, they needed 24 novels a year).

As extras in this issue are:

An Foreword by Jerry Robinson, the creator of The Joker and an early writer on Batman. This foreward, keeping with the theme of the volume, focused on the influences of The Shadow on the creation of Batman.

An article by Will Murray on the Shadow Origins of Batman.

A 'Spotlight on the Shadow' by Anthony Tollin, again focusing on the influences of The Shadow on The Batman, and some cross influence as well. This leads into the next extra:

"The Grim Joker", a "Bulldog" Black novelette by Theodore Tinsley that appeared in a 1937 issue of "The Whisperer". The villian of this story, "The Joker", may have had an influence on the creation of the classic Batman villian, but its unknown.

A short bio of Tinsely.