Looks like the Shadow in the comics had the power of invisibility, as he did in the radio show. (In comic books, "invisible" and "translucent" are the same thing.) The villain on #16 looks like Ming from Flash Gordon. Maybe it's Shiwan Khan, or maybe a generic "evil Oriental mastermind." By 1942, though, Khan would probably be politically incorrect; the distinction between Chinese and Japanese became important, since we were at war, with the former as our allies and the latter as the enemy. And that pun of the hero "nips the Nipponese" was probably common during the war. I think it was also used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
The comic book Shadow went through a brief phase of showing off his invisibility on covers in late '41 and early '42, then thankfully got over it. Yep, that's Khan, because the story is an adaptation of The Golden Master. Khan appeared on the cover again in Oct '42, and there's a guy who looks like him in Jan '43, but didn't make the cover again for the rest of the run, which went into 1949.
Looks like the Shadow in the comics had the power of invisibility, as he did in the radio show. (In comic books, "invisible" and "translucent" are the same thing.) The villain on #16 looks like Ming from Flash Gordon. Maybe it's Shiwan Khan, or maybe a generic "evil Oriental mastermind." By 1942, though, Khan would probably be politically incorrect; the distinction between Chinese and Japanese became important, since we were at war, with the former as our allies and the latter as the enemy. And that pun of the hero "nips the Nipponese" was probably common during the war. I think it was also used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
ReplyDeleteThe comic book Shadow went through a brief phase of showing off his invisibility on covers in late '41 and early '42, then thankfully got over it. Yep, that's Khan, because the story is an adaptation of The Golden Master. Khan appeared on the cover again in Oct '42, and there's a guy who looks like him in Jan '43, but didn't make the cover again for the rest of the run, which went into 1949.
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