The whole outfit looks amazing! Great work!
Have a great time and comic-con, and please provide a full report with some lovely pics!
[ETA] Which you already did! 
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Sounds like your crafty friend was pretty knowledgeable!
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Aw nuts⌠I just realized I didnât turn the collar down so you could see the red lining like in the pulpsâŚ
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For the record, Iâve been a fan of the Shadow since I first came across the radio plays. That was⌠gosh a lot of years ago. 1992 or so, already more than 60 years after they came around (coincidentally also my intro to Orson Welles). Then I read some of the comics, but it started as an imagination thing for me. And really, awesomely done on your part.
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Outfit looks fantastic, the BLAMS are popping!
I suggested the chamber fill just because you donât want to be able to chamber anything like a round or blank, etc.
Steel is REAL! real heavy lol.
Yes on these I found something called a jack nut (I think that is what it is called). It is like an anchor you would use in a wall. You turn a screw into the jack, it expands and locks into place. I did that and added a bunch of that epoxy steel putty. around it and filling about the first 2-3 inch of the receiver end of the barrel. Then I painted the screw head and jack nut base orange to flag it as plugged.
Theoretically one could probably drill out that mess, but I bought these barrels for the price of shipping for the purpose of plugging them. Coupled with removing the firing pins, spring, and back plate, they are 100% inoperable at this point. Yes I plan to convert them back, but the way they are now are rendered safe. These would be similar to what one would do to hero guns in the movies. Guns where they arenât shot but used for close up scenes.
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I probably discovered him about the same time. I am not 100% sure when I first learned of him. There was a local comic shop that was a total hole in the wall called "The Shadowâs Sanctum, which was a total hole in the wall I heard. I am not sure I ever went there because he had weird hours. This was during the huge comics boom in the 90s, so you would think he would be doing ok, but I think it was more like a collector who had a half ass store. I saw him one time at like a fair or something and he had a book with a ton of the shows on tape.
There were ads in some of the DC comics for their two comic series. I did get some of those in the past as back issues. For some reason I knew of, and saw some of the old 70s stuff, but I think I only ever had 2 of those back issues back in the day. I know I got Kalutaâs 1941 at some point.
But starting in the early 90s I was on an Art Deco kick. Tall building designs, fedoras, the Anastasia font, and trench coats were right up my alley. I bought a blue trench coat with a black hat - which I guess would be a slouch hat, vs a fedora. Yes I was that kid in high school.
When Kaluta started to do his Dark Horse mini-series I was enthralled. Holy hell, his art work was amazing. And technology increase from the 70s meant his fine line work wasnât muddled up, and the colorists were able to compliment his style perfectly.
Around then, I too found two tape sets of Shadow radio plays - complete with ads for Blue Coal! I asked my grandma about it, and she remembered listening to him on the radio. And he had a bit of a resurgence in 1994 with the movie. Which wasnât great, but not horrible either.
I was aware of, and wanted to buy a pulp or two, but never found one. Early in the 2000s I bought a CDROM off of ebay with most of the pulp covers and stories scanned and/or converted to text. (I never did get through all those stories.) I STILL havenât bought a real pulp, though that is on the list for future searches. I have a handful of vintage pulps, and it is a sort of happy/sad thing. To posses something so old and connected to the history - but it is also a brittle, yellow mess due to the horrible quality of paper.
So I think the combination of Kalutaâs amazing art, the classic mysterious vibe of the character, the stark red/black contrast (red/black was my color scheme back then), taking place in the Art Deco filled 30s/40s, the voice work of Welles, the .45s, and my sort of romantic love of history all culminated into me being a fan.
The Shadow is harder to find than my guilty pleasure Doc Savage.
Do you have any of the Nostalgia Ventures reprints which much more readable than the computer screen.
You know, in the past there was a guy with some pulps at the comic con. But he wasnât there this year. His Shadows were more pricey, like $40-$50 for the cheap ones. I got a couple old Sci Fi themed pulps a couple years ago for like $10 each. But he wasnât there this year.
I will check out those reprints. There is another classic book I need called The Shadow Scrapbook which has early history and check lists of radio shows etc (though I bet all the info is on the Internets now).
Thanks for the links. When I recoup money wise from the event, I will have to check them out.
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My grandfather was a DJ in the early days of WLW, and would tell me how fantastic old radio dramas were; his favorite was The Shadow. He loved to tell me that everyone knew what The Shadow looked like even if theyâd never seen art of him, because he was such a great character.
Years later (mid-90s), I discovered a station in Cincinnati that played all old timey radio dramas, and I listened to a lot of The Shadow and The Great Gildersleeve. Lots of fun.
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Oh - it wasnât all Shadow!
My two big buys were Transformers.
I have wanted a Soundwave for forever. I found a Japanese reissue with Laserbeak. Later I came back and had to get a used Ravage to complete them. Box had a minor defect, but overall it was in great shape. (I still want the Masterpiece reissue of this.) Looking online, though, I payed only half of what they are listed as on Ebay (well I saw one starting at the same price, but with 5 days to go, I bet it will go up.)
And then I found something I have never see before - a Japanese Dark Skyfire.
Now I always wanted a Jetfire, as he was basically a Robotech Veritech fighter rebranded as a Transformer. Dark Skyfire is an update of the old design to be more articulated, and this is a DECEPTICON version. So he is black and purple my favorite color combo. He will look bitching next to my masterpiece Skywarp.
So he is basically a purple black veritech fighter. What more is there to love? Oh, the fact that I got him for half to a forth of what he is going for on ebay.
And finally I found the Disney exclusive repaint of Boba Fettâs blaster, which they donât make anymore.
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I guess the ebayer is now offering the cape style on her page.
I think that is mine in her pics. The price is a bit more, but I am guessing crepe is more expensive than the shiny fabric. And the collar is reversible, so a bit more work.
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Theres a shop here in Japan that sells nothing but deactivated guns. Horrendously expensive but I guess its a limited market.
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Damn Mister.44, you made out!
Sigh, I get nostalgia sad whnever I see those toys. My mom would always get me the J version of transformers from Jtown shops in LA, so much more die cast and metal, and I had a bunch of Southern cross Macross stuff like veritechs, and Mechas with changeable armor and armamentsâŚso wish i had those to play with my sonâŚ
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God damn it. I had two more pics to post - and flikr just wonât work. I guess I will try later.
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OK - got it working. I forgot one thing - to show Tim Bradstreetâs two prints. And then a shot of my cube wall with all my Shadow art and the Dave Dorman Boba Fett print.
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