Happy Holidays from the Sanctum Productions pulp reprint team .... Will Murray, Joseph Wrzos, Michael Piper, Carl Gafford, and yours truly, Anthony Tollin.

All indications are that 2008 will be another very special year for our Sanctum Productions/Nostalgia Ventures pulp reprints. We ha ve some very special features coming up in soon-to-be-published volumes of THE SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE. Upcoming releases include:

Shipping 2nd week of January:
THE SHADOW #14: The Grove of Doom/The Masked Lady
DOC SAVAGE #13: Brand of the Werewolf/Fear Cay

Shipping 2nd week of February (ORIGINS MONTH):
THE SHADOW #15: The Shadow Unmasks/The Yellow Band
DOC SAVAGE #14: The Man of Bronze/The Land of Fear (Introduction by Lester Dent)

Shipping 2nd week of March (EDD CARTIER MONTH):
THE SHADOW #16: The City of Crime/Shadow Over Alcatraz (Foreword by Edd Cartier)
DOC SAVAGE #15: Terror Wears No Shoes/The Red Spider (with unpublished Edd Cartier art)/Return from Cormoral/Doc Savage, Supreme Adventurer

Shipping 2nd week of April:
THE SHADOW #17: The Fate Joss/The Golden Pagoda
DOC SAVAGE #16: Secret in the Sky/The Giggling Ghosts

February 2008 will be our special "ORIGINS MONTH" as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Man of Bronze's debut by reprinting the first two Doc Savage thrillers, and also the novels that introduced Kent Allard and uncovered The Shadow's greatest secrets. DOC SAVAGE Volume 14 leads off with a never-before-published remembrance of Doc Savage written by Lester Dent in 1953, and concludes with a similarly unpublished autobiography by the Man of Bronze's main writer. Both of these were, of course, unearthed by Will Murray, the literary agent for the Dent Estate and the author of most of our historical articles and commentary.

BTW, we're offering the Bama Variant edition of DOC SAVAGE Volume 14 ("The Man of Bronze"/"The Land of Terror") as a free bonus with a new (or renewed) 12-book subscription. You can get this edition by subscribing/renewing for 12 volumes of either DOC SAVAGE or THE SHADOW, or by subscribing for six issues each of BOTH series. (12 volumes for $144 via First Class/Priority Mail or $132 via Media Mail.)

March 2008 will be "EDD CARTIER MONTH" as we continue our celebration of Doc Savage's 75th anniversary. DOC SAVAGE Volume 15 features four Doc Savage thrillers, plus an article on his illustrious father by Dean Cartier. THE SHADOW #16 leads off with a foreword by Edd Cartier, one of the few survivors of the Street & Smith hero pulps.

Edd's introduction recalls his years studying at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, his career at Street & Smith ... and also explains why as a student he turned down an invitation to become Norman Rockwell's assistant. Cartier of course also recalls his professional association with legendary ASTOUNDING editor John W. Campbell.

Cartiers, Tollin

I visited my friends Dean and Edd Cartier on my recent trip to New Jersey, and they very kindly allowed me to scan around 300 printers proofs of Edd's classic illustrations from THE SHADOW MAGAZINE and DOC SAVAGE. Street & Smith's press proofs were printed on much better paper than their pulps, so you'll be seeing much better reproduction of Edd's work in future issues. Also, one illustration from "City of Crime" was badly cropped in its original pulp publication, but you'll be seeing the full piece of art (about a third more) when the story is reprinted (paired with "Shadow Over Alcatraz" in THE SHADOW Volume 16.

With the single exception of "The Murder Master," we've been avoiding reprinting Kent Allard stories until The Shadow's true identity is introduced in "The Shadow Unmasks." That's also limited the use of Edd Cartier-illustrated stories. However, with "The Shadow Unmasks" being reprinted for the first time in THE SHADOW Volume 15, you'll be seeing a lot of both Kent Allard and Edd Cartier in 2008.

City of Crime

ABOVE: "City of Crime" illustration as it appeared badly cropped in the 10/1/36 issue of THE SHADOW MAGAZINE. You'll be able to see the full uncropped Edd Cartier art in THE SHADOW #16.

By the way, this won't be the first instance where we restored an illustration in our trade paperbacks. How many of you noticed that our reprint of Theodore Tinsley's "Partners of Peril" featured a great Tom Lovell two-page illustration for the story that had been dropped from the original pulp due to lack of space? And in DOC SAVAGE Volume 13, we replaced a Paul Orban illustration for "Brand of the Werewolf" that was dropped from the pulp and used only in a S&S house ad.

Best of all, Edd Cartier is allowing me to print the never-published art he did for "In Hell, Madonna" (aka "The Red Spider") in 1948. The story, tabled by editor Daisy Bacon when she took over the editorial chores in the final year of the DOC SAVAGE pulp, was finally published in 1978 by Bantam, but minus the illustrations that Edd had done for the story. (DOC SAVAGE #15 also features Bob Larkin's striking cover for "The Red Spider," and reprints the very first Doc Savage story, "Doc Savage, Supreme Adventurer" by John L. Nanovic, the 1932 novelette that predated and was the prototype for Lester Dent's "The Man of Bronze."

And to make our lead-off books of 2008 extra special, the cover art on our January and February SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE releases is scanned from the original art, not printed pulps ... which means you'll be seeing the same crystal-clear clarity you previously witnessed with our reprinting of Baumhofer's "Pirates of the Pacific" cover on DOC SAVAGE Volume 6.

Our Doc Savage Origin month will be celebrated with variant cover editions, respectively featuring Walter Baumhofer's and James Bama's classic covers for "The Man of Bronze." This is made possible by the continuing generosity of Robert Lesser, Bob Chapman (of Graphitti Designs) and Scott Cranford. (BTW, Bob Chapman still has some of his high-quality art prints of James Bama's Doc Savage paintings available at www.graphittidesigns.com. I recommend them highly.)

Again, Happy Holidays from your friends at Sanctum Productions.

AUGUST 9, 2007

Hi, Anthony Tollin here.

Welcome to the first installment of The Shadow Sanctum Blog, where I hope to regularly provide advance glimpses of our upcoming Sanctum Productions/ NostalgiaVentures books.

During the past year, I've received a number of requests for SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE letter columns. There are technical reasons we can't include a lettercol in our 1books, but we will soon be launching an online lettercol at this site. If you have comments or questions regarding the Man of Bronze, the Master of Darkness, our books, historical articles and website, please email your comments to letters@shadowsanctum.com.

And if you'd like to say "hello" in person, I'll be attending the opening ceremonies of the new Lester Dent pulp museum in La Plata, Missouri in October. The following weekend (October 18-21, 2007) I make my annual pilgrimage to the annual FRIENDS OF OLD-TIME RADIO Convention at the Holiday Inn North at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. This year, I'll be directing an X-MINUS ONE cast reunion, and also a JACK BENNY recreation starring the wonderful Eddie Carroll and Shirley Mitchell.

By the way, former FOTR-guest Rosa Rio is still performing concerts. "The queen of the radio organists (who provided the mysterious melodies on the Orson Welles Goodrich SHADOW broadcasts) was recently interviewed by the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES as she celebrated another birthday. Which one? I'll never tell, but you can find out for yourself by clicking here.

If you like this new website, kudos go to Kirk Kimball, the creator of the highly-recommended and soon to be reactivated DIAL B FOR BLOG comics site. Kirk (aka Robby Reed) joins our regular Sanctum Productions team that also includes popular-culture historian Will Murray, copy editor Joseph Wrzos, 4proofreader Carl Gafford and graphics wizard Michael Piper.

My special subscription offer is still in effect. For a limited time, anyone who subscribes (or renews) for 12 books (either six volumes each of THE SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE, or twelve issues of one or the other, receives our DOC SAVAGE #2 Bama Variant as a bonus book. A 12-book subscription costs $144 via first class mail or $132 via media mail. This offer is valid only on subscriptions ordered directly from my Sanctum Productions, which mails out all subscription copies packed between protective cardboard. (As far as I know, this bonus-book subscription offer is not currently available on subscriptions ordered from Nostalgia Ventures or Adventure House.)

For those of you who haven't yet picked up THE SHADOW #9, a lot of those who have done so have been stunned by how much of Ted Tinsley's PARTNERS OF PERIL plot was "borrowed" by Bill Finger and Bob Kane in their first Batman story. ALTER EGO editor Roy Thomas has observed that the 5discovery has rewritten the history of Batman. It certainly puts to rest Bob Kane's frequent claim that Zorro was his primary inspiration for Batman.

Of course, there was very little of Johnston McCulley's swashbuckler in the early years of Batman; Bruce Wayne certainly behaved like the debonair Lamont Cranston and not the effete Don Diego Vega. Jerry Robinson, the golden-age Batman artist who created The Joker, has provided the foreword for our "Foreshadowing the Batman" extra-length edition. THE SHADOW #9 also reprints one of Walter Gibson's greatest novels, LINGO. It's another not-to-be-missed masterpiece of misdirection.

DOC SAVAGE #8 casts our historical spotlight on the real-life adventurer who inspired the creation of both Doc Savage and The Avenger. Will Murray has authored a dynamite article on Colonel Richard Henry Savage, a West Point graduate who later served his nation in a variety of military and diplomatic roles. In his later years, Dick Savage became a much-published author. One of his books was published by Street & Smith the year after Henry William Ralston joined the publishing house. Decades later, as Street & Smith's circulation manager, Ralston bequeathed the dynamic hero's surname to his new bronze hero.

Like THE SHADOW #9, DOC SAVAGE #8 also has a Batman connection. In addition to Lester Dent's THE SEA MAGICIAN, the volume reprints Harold A. Davis' THE LIVING-FIRE MENACE which 2introduced Doc's yellow utility belt, which Batman's Bill Finger acknowledged as inspiring the Caped Crusader's similar belt.

Hot on the heels of our July "Foreshadowing the Batman" theme, THE SHADOW #10 features a super-villain theme, reprinting THE CITY OF DOOM (the second Voodoo Master epic) and THE FIFTH FACE (in which The Shadow battles the master of disguise known only as Five-face). Our August SHADOW release should be of special interest to science fiction fans. Just hours before I departed for San Diego's annual Comic-con International, I received Harlan Ellison's foreword. The book also features a "lost" SHADOW radio script by Alfred Bester, the author of THE DEMOLISHED MAN (winner of the first "best novel" Hugo Award) and the classic THE STARS MY DESTINATION. If you have friends who are fans of SFWA grandmasters Alfred Bester and Harlan Ellison, please let them know that our super-villain special will be shipping to stores in August.

In addition to THE MAJII and THE GOLDEN MAN, DOC SAVAGE #9 features a photo-illustrated article by Will Murray on the Street & Smith Building. Will has included firsthand recollections by Walter Gibson, Isaac Asimov, John Nanovic, Daisy Bacon, Frederick Pohl, DOC SAVAGE cover-artist Robert 3Harris and many others including my late friend Sam Moscowitz. As Will reveals, Street & Smith saw itself as a printing company more than a publishing house. The printing plant, bindery and loading docks were housed in the same Manhattan building as its editorial department. A single month's magazine output would have equaled a pile 44 miles high. It's a pretty amazing story, not to be missed.

Late-breaking news: Master-magician Mark Wilson has just agreed to write the foreword for THE SHADOW #9, an extra-long edition chronicling "The Magic World of Walter Gibson." Future forewords will be written by legendary artists Edd Cartier and Everett Raymond Kinstler, as well as Gerry Conway and Margot Stevenson (who costarred as "the lovely Margot Lane" opposite Orson Welles in 1938... and decades later knitted my daughter's first baby blanket).

Next time, I'll be covering some of our Sanctum Productions/Nostalgia Ventures plans for Doc Savage's upcoming 75th anniversary in February and March, 2008. Until then, remember ...

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay. The Shadow knows!"