THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK (1979)

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The latest addition to the collection, a first edition of Walter Gibson’s THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK. Here’s the title page, signed by Gibson:

Gibson, on his writing days (which produced 282 +/- of the 325 SHADOW issues (plus comics) that Gibson, as Grant, penned):

I was turning out first drafts at a rate of four pages an hour, each page running over 250 words. That meant a little over thirty pages in an eight-hour day, or better than 8,000 words. At that rate, I could finish a 60,000-word story in less than eight days, but I never wrote one that mechanically. Usually I was slow in warming up or took a few too many breaks, so I felt lucky if I got beyond twenty pages on the first or second day. But once the story was rolling, & didn't care about the hours. With a few breaks, _ would work up to ten or even twelve hours a day, hitting as high as forty or even fifty pages.

I generally started around nine o'clock on the morning of the first day but seldom worked steadily until five or six o'clock. I might take the afternoon off and finish my stint in the evening; or go out in the evening and put in a few hours after I came in around midnight. In the latter case I wouldn't begin my second "day" until about noon, which would push the third "day" even further ahead. A few more hours of extra work would push the following "day" still further on, and there were times when I slept so late that I didn't start until early evening but kept going until the following dawn.

The whole book is available via The Internet Archive; stoked to have a physical edition –the signature makes it even more wonderful. Will add more from it as I peruse and read.

THE LIVING SHADOW / THE SHADOW LAUGHS

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Yesterday and today being two very very good mail days:

Both are the first hardcover edition Ideal reprints of the first SHADOW story – THE LIVING SHADOW (originally published in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE No. 1, April 1931) – and the third – THE SHADOW LAUGHS (originally published in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE No. 3, October 1931), from 1935 and are in stunningly good condition. My shelves, they sing - and will sing even louder next week: just found the second Ideal reprint, THE EYES OF THE SHADOW, (THE SHADOW MAGAZINE No. 2, July 1931), which will complete the trifecta.

links/2023w09

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