The Shadow #9 is titled "Night of the Falling Death". This one offers up artwork by Frank Robbins with inks by Frank McLaughlin. Joe Kubert though does the cover. The script though is done by Michael Uslan and there's definitely a different tone in the story.
It concerns a smuggling ring which somehow uses Niagra Falls. A man on death row points the Shadow towards a villain named "Murdock", but apparently that's all and several "Murdocks" fall unders suspicion. Shrevvy focuses on one who turns out to innocent, and the Shadow sends Shrevvy away on vacation, clearly a rebuke. The Shadow in this story is much tougher with his aides, less sympathetic. Eventually the action ends up at the Falls with Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane getting "married" to cover the investigation. The Murdock they are looking for turns out to be a woman who does some daredevil stunts at the Falls and she and the Shadow battle on a rope across the Falls before predictably she tumbles to her death.
One dandy addition to this issue is a two-page text piece on the history of The Shadow. It's titled "The Shadow: A Dossier" and it's written by then DC staffer Anthony Tollin, the same Anthony Tollin who gifted us with those wonderful Shadow Double-Novel reprints some years ago.
I always liked Frank McLaughln's art\inks but for me Robbins was
ReplyDeletealways best inked by himself or Frank Springer .
Springer is great on Robbins. Frank Chiramonte who inked his stuff at Marvel is also a fave of mine. But I agree on McLaughlin, I was excited this time when I saw his name, but the result didn't have that magic.
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