Now here's an oddity that I was never aware of until a friend of mine, Alex Daoundakis, brought it to my attention. In fact, he recently bought one and handed it to me to check out. It seems in the late seventies, a fan club for The Shadow generated a newsletter that members received for free. These were the days when the internet did not exist so fan clubs like these rarely reached the 1,000 figure. According to most estimates, many of these clubs rarely reached the 100 figure. The newsletters are not easy to come by and when they are offered for sale, the prices are sometimes astronomical. A friend of mine who does research on pulp art said newsletters and fanzines from the 1970s and 1980s often provide information you cannot find elsewhere.
Case in point: this issue reveals conventions Walter Gibson was featured as a celebrity guest, collector edition posters for sale (I saw one of these once and wondered who made it and when they were made), the Steranko paintings and the cover art for new paperback reprints, and a tease for the up-coming Shadow Scrapbook authored by Walter Gibson. Here's a scan of issue number 3 (courtesy of Alex) for your amusement. Click on each page to enlarge.
