The Shadowed Circle Compendium

After months of waiting, The Shadowed Circle Compendium has been released. This book is a mixture of both old and new articles from The Shadowed Circle magazine. At the time I am writing this blog post, the magazine has six issues out. 

After a cursory glance of the table of contents, I am prompted to provide a quick commentary about compendiums which I have said verbally spoken about for years, and I can finally put that into writing.

Keep in mind this has happened a number of times in the past... a number of magazines went out of their way to produce a limited edition book reprinting articles from back issues. While this cool from a collectible standpoint, the practicality goes out the door. And every book, magazine and fanzine should always have a practical purpose and intent -- avoiding, if at all possible, a financial cash grab. As an example, for non-fiction, documenting information from archival materials is meant to serve as a form of preservation. But magazines and fanzines also become desired when back issues are difficult to acquire due to a lower print number (compared to later issues). 

My gripe is that the value of the back issues drops when those same articles are reprinted in a compendium. As an example, I once had a complete run of a monster magazine and the first issue was not only out of print but often sold for $125. Issue number two often sold for $50. Starting with issue number four, they were easy to find and could often be purchased for $10 or less. Having a complete run, I was a proud possessor of the set. One day the editor wanted to reprint all the articles from the first three issues into a hardcover book. He publicly asked for feedback and my reply to him was “don’t do it.” I explained how the value of those first three issues would drop once he did. But he still went ahead and printing his compendium and two years later the first issue of that magazine sold for an average of $60 on eBay. Hence the demand dropped for those early issues of his magazine and, in my opinion, diminished the value of his magazine altogether.

With today's technology, print-on-demand removes the limited aspect of the print run so early issues almost never go out of print. So it may be that compendiums of today's magazines will not diminish the value of those early issues from a collectible aspect... time will tell. 

 

Which leads me to this hardcover (and paperback) edition of The Shadowed Circle Compendium. Both editions arrived in my hands the other week and many of the articles in here were reprinted from past issues. In fact, the only new articles I could observe during a cursory glance was “The Shadowed Seven” in which different Shadow authors and fans listed their seven favorite Shadow novels, and “The Shadow in Fan Publications,” which spoke about The Shadow's history in fanzines.

As a fan of The Shadow, I enjoy reading anything about the fictional character, regardless of whether it is the pulp version of radio incarnation. Whether it be perspectives, reviews or trivia unearthed in archives, any new article written about the character is welcomed with open arms.

While these new articles are featured in the Compendium, and not elsewhere, fans of The Shadow who want to collect one of everything will no doubt rush out and make a purchase. I bought my copies to support the cause, as I would with any kickstarter, and would gladly do so again. But as someone who bought all the issues of The Shadowed Circle, I question the value of my purchase of what is clearly the same articles I already bought last year. Of the 179 pages, only 30 contained new material.

 

Keep in mind that this is my opinion, but I certainly would have loved to have purchased a book whereby all of the articles were new. But if you do not have any of the back issues, this book is worth getting for your collection and comes with my recommendation… especially if you are a fan of The Shadow. 

The link to make a direct purchase, digital, paperback or hardcover is listed below.

https://www.theshadowedcircle.com/index.php/compendium 

DICK TRACY: The RKO Pictures Collection

The comic-strip crime-fighter Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould, was part of the Saturday matinee serials, starring Ralph Byrd, from 1937 to 1941. They were standard Republic Pictures fare but lots of fun despite the fact that the lead could have been assigned any name and still been just as fun.

In 1945, RKO revived the Dick Tracy series, with Morgan Conway chosen to portray the lead in a pair of feature films: Dick Tracy, Detective and Dick Tracy vs. Cueball. RKO's earliest publicity photos posed Conway in profile, hoping to imitate Gould's square-jawed caricatures that was prominent in the newspaper strip. Although Conway's screen Tracy did not resemble the newspaper print in the flesh, Conway's dramatic interpretation was faithful; he gave the role a humble, businesslike quality while keeping with police procedure. Morgan Conway is considered by many to be the best on screen Dick Tracy. 

 

Although Conway's Tracy was praised by critics as the closest to Gould's original concept, the public seemed to prefer Ralph Byrd, who returned in the role for the final two RKO features. To them, Ralph Byrd was Dick Tracy. (Byrd even reprised the role for a series of low-budget television series in the mid-1950s.) Dick Tracy's Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome followed a similar formula of the films and serials prior: original concepts for villains that were not featured in the newspaper strip that proved a challenge as the detective followed the clues and tracked them down. The villains, always fleeing or attempting to set a trap for Dick Tracy, fell into a gruesome peril... just like the newspaper strip.

 

For the fourth and last film, Boris Karloff spices up the feature as the fearsome bad guy known as Gruesome. Film buffs and fans of blood and thunder crime melodramas seem to agree in unison that this was a series that should have kept going with more sequels. A darn shame.

All four movies had many of the visual features associated with film noir: dramatic, shadowy photographic compositions, with many exterior scenes filmed at night. In addition, RKO stocked the films with familiar faces, creating a true rogues' gallery of characters. Max Allan Collins, who took over the writing of the Dick Tracy strip from Chester Gould, has provided informative on-screen introductions for each film in a new, exclusive VCI release. Restored from archival elements using the highest standards, the new BluRay release is far superior in picture and sound than any prints released prior.

 

To explain: these four Dick Tracy movies fell into the public domain decades ago, so film prints vary in quality. DVD releases vary in quality, too. This was one of those series where upgrading was possible over the years but thanks to VCI, we now have a definitive upgrade that is worthy of purchasing. (A photograph of this specific BluRay is pictured above, and link at the bottom of this blog post, so you can make sure you get the correct one.)

 

DICK TRACY DETECTIVE (1945): Tracy, in his inimitable fashion, brings to justice a psychotic, scar-faced, thug known as “Splitface” who has been bumping off the members of a jury that once convicted him. After many intriguing and suspenseful situations, the criminal is tracked down by the master detective, Tracy, and his faithful side kick, Pat Patton. 62 minutes 

 

DICK TRACY vs CUEBALL (1946): A braided cord is his only clue as Tracy (Conway) searches desperately for a gang of jewel thieves. Following a trail of murder, violence and robbery, Tracy tracks down the bald-headed leader known as “Cue Ball,” who has a penchant for strangling his victims. 63 minutes

 

DICK TRACY'S DILEMMA (1947): Tracy must track down a murdering fiend called “The Claw.” The tension builds to a shocking climax as Tracy solves one of his most difficult cases ever. Fun and exciting! 60 minutes

 

DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (1947): Violence and armed conflict provides the background. Boris Karloff is great as the criminal, “Gruesome,” who can hold people in suspended animation with his nerve gas. 65 minutes

Link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Dick-Tracy-Pictures-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B0D187G8XH/ref=pd_sbs_d_sccl_2_1/147-7301333-4669264?pd_rd_w=bbAvV&content-id=amzn1.sym.d95de1d6-8400-4c9d-8ae8-144769325aef&pf_rd_p=d95de1d6-8400-4c9d-8ae8-144769325aef&pf_rd_r=TFPYAPFJBQ9NBK3P1F49&pd_rd_wg=M9khc&pd_rd_r=b811a098-7e8a-4336-a836-6cfe2082013e&pd_rd_i=B0D187G8XH&psc=1

 

THE BIG BOOK OF THE CONTINENTAL OP

Dashiell Hammett is the father of modern hard-boiled detective stories. His legendary works have been lauded for almost one hundred years by fans, and his novel The Maltese Falcon was adapted into a classic film starring Humphrey Bogart. One of Dashiell Hammett's most memorable characters, the Continental Op made his debut in Black Mask magazine on October 1, 1923, narrating the first of what would become twenty-eight stories and two novels that would change forever the face of detective fiction. 

The Op is a tough, wry, unglamorous gumshoe who has inspired a following that is both global and enduring. He has been published in periodicals, paperback digests, and short story collections, but until now, he has never, in all his ninety-two years, had the whole of his exploits contained in one book. 

 

A large 750-page book was published recently, The Big Book of the Continental Op, featuring all twenty-eight of the original standalone Continental Op stories, the original serialized versions of Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, and previously unpublished material including an incomplete story. This anthology of Continental Op stories is the only complete, one-volume work of its kind. If you love 1920s detective fiction, especially the pulp era feel, this is a must-have.

 

The Continental Op stories are rooted in Hammett’s experiences as an operative for Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency. Although Hammett worked for Pinkerton’s for a scant five years—before and after his service in the U.S. Army during World War I—the job inspired both his writing career and his worldview. Some influences are plain. The Continental Detective Agency, for example, is modeled on Pinkerton’s, their Baltimore office located in the Continental Trust Company Building, where Hammett had been hired. Hammett said his cases largely involved forgeries, bank swindles, and safe burglaries, a solid factual basis for the Op’s fictional adventures, albeit considerably enlivened. 

 

The Continental Op stories were published individually during the early years of Hammett’s writing career, between 1923 and 1930. All but two were featured in Black Mask, the leading light of pulp magazines—a favorite among working-class readers, crime-fiction aficionados, and anyone who longed for a coin’s worth of well-crafted thrills. In June of 1929, near the end of the run, Hammett sent a note to Harry Block, his editor at Alfred A. Knopf. He had just sent Block a draft of his third novel, The Maltese Falcon, which he described as “by far the best thing” he’d done so far. 

 

Between 1951 and 1961—the last decade of Hammett’s life—virtually no one published the Op, Sam Spade, Ned Beaumont, Nick Charles, or any of Hammett’s fiction. It was the era of the Red Scare, with its blacklists and committee hearings, and the beginnings of the Cold War, rife with anti-Soviet fear mongering and jingoistic conservatism. Hammett had made no secret of his left-wing affiliations, and with the taint of the Red brush, he became unmarketable. His income was devastated, his publishers wary, the radio shows based on his work canceled. 

 

Many consider the Continental Op a far better character than Sam Spade. Spade is not a particularly nice guy, on the other hand the Op's first person voice is like that of an old friend's. The Op is a Roaring Twenties lawman who breaks heads and takes names as well as turning a blind eye to Prohibition, as eager to go into a speakeasy as the next man. It's worth mentioning there's a lot more Continental Op material than there is about Spade too, about six times as much.

 

A number of the Continental Op stories have been published over the years but never a complete run until this book and to avoid confusion, I am featuring a photo only of the book that you want to get.

The Best Hitchcock Book You Will Ever Read

In Hitchcock, film critic and director François Truffaut presents fifty hours of interviews with Alfred Hitchcock about the whole of his vast directorial career, from his silent movies in Great Britain to his color films in Hollywood. The result is a portrait of one of the greatest directors the world has ever known, an all-round specialist who masterminded everything, from the screenplay and the photography to the editing and the soundtrack. 

 

Based on a 1962 dialogue between Hitchcock and Truffaut, in which the two directors spent a week in a room at Universal Studios talking about movies, this entire book is one long conversation/interview. The transcript was originally published under the title Hitchbook — first in France and then in the United States. An interview book may sound boring but remember this is two directors talking about directing. After briefly discussing his childhood, Hitchcock discusses each of the movies he directed in England, chronologically, moving onto the Hollywood productions. How certain camera shots were accomplished, why he wanted to take on certain challenges, film by film Hitchcock reveals so much. 

 

François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in 1962.

Alfred Hitchcock discusses the inspiration behind his films and the art of creating fear and suspense, as well as giving strikingly honest assessments of his achievements and failures, his doubts and hopes. This peek into the brain of one of cinema’s greats is a must-read for all film aficionados. And of all the books ever published about Alfred Hitchcock (which numbers more than 100), this is the one book you have to have on your shelf.