The Shadow #6 is titled "Night of the Ninja" and is again by the team of Denny O'Neil and Mike Kaluta, and as you likely suspect it pits The Shadow against some of the infamous Asian assassins.
The tale begins in Chinatown and the deaths of some minor drug figures by a masked Ninja. The Shadow intervenes in time to save one of the three junkies, but the Ninja escapes. Next we follow Lamont Cranston as he meets G. Oyle Proud a candidate for District Attorney who has (ahem) just returned from the Orient and is anxious to clean up the city. (Can you see this one coming?) The Shadow sends his agents into Chinatown where they a young woman who had just lost her father at the hands of the Ninja but she turns out to be pretty dangerous herself. Harry Vincent gets drugged, the D.A. disappears, and the Shadow is dodging death stars left and right. As it turns out Proud is the culprit, hoping to increase his profits in drug smuggling by killing off his partners. Needless to say, the Shadow brings him to justice in a most final manner.
The artwork by Mike Kaluta is a bit scratchy in this one, and as it turns out it's his final bow on the character in this initial DC run, at least on the interiors.
This is the only Shadow comic in this series that I have never seen. I was surprised when I first read that Kaluta was the artist, as by the time I read this new Frank Robbins was the established artist in my mind. I'll have a look at this on the link you provided (thanks for that link to a good resource). I wonder if Kaluta's plan was to come back to the strip or if late deadlines were the reason for his departure and this was a late issue. Regardless this was a great wee comic book.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that while I have these stories in the original, it is neat to read them online where the colors seem to pop a bit more.
DeleteI was so disappointed back in the day when Kaluta left. He was reason I got those comics. Perfect artist for the series.
ReplyDeleteI loved Kaluta on this series. It defined his work much like Swamp Thing and Conan helped define fellow Studio artists Wrightson and Windsor-Smith respectively.
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