Posted in: Comics | Tagged: chris roberson, Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Orsen Wells, steve niles, the shadow

Gibson, Wells and Kaluta – Chris Roberson Talks Shadow Inspirations

Published Tue, 14 Jan 2014 19:00:20 -0600

As Dynamite Entertainment continues their peer to peer interviews, who better to interview The Shadow writer Chris Roberson than master of the macabre himself Steve Niles. The two writers talk about inspiration and the Shadows of the past.

STEVE NILES: The Shadow has appeared in a lot of different media since his creation. Was there one incarnation that inspired you more than the others?

CHRIS ROBERSON: My introduction to the character was the old radio shows with Orson Welles, but I think the pulp novels by Walter Gibson probably resonated with me more. So if anything, the Shadow that I have in my head sounds like Welles when he talks, but operates more like the one from the novels. A blend of the two!

SN: I'm a huge fan of the Kaluta run on the Shadow from DC comics in the 70's. Are you a fan? Did those issues inspire you?

CR: I came to those issues fairly late, actually. I'd seen them when I was a kid, but didn't read them until later in life. But absolutely, any time Kaluta turns his had to period stuff, and pulp/noir and art deco stuff in particular, I'm there in the front row!

SN: How does the Shadow differ for you from other caped heroes?

CR: I think the principle difference is that in the case of virtually every other masked hero, the mask is exactly that: a MASK. They might pretend to be weaker or more timid in their civilian identities, but when they put on that mask or cowl, they also tend to play up their more mysterious vibe, trying to come across as this relentlessly grim avenger. Alternatively, the Shadow IS the Shadow. It's only in his persona of "weird avenger of the night" that we ever get close to seeing the REAL guy. Ever other alias or identity he adopts, even his own "original" identity of Kent Allard, is a mask of some kind. And its' for this reason that I feel pretty strongly that the Shadow is a character best seen only from the outside, looking in. We should never be inside the Shadow's head, and should never hear what he's thinking.

SN: You're known for doing both licensed work and creator-owned. Do you approach licensed books differently than your creator-owned?

CR: Yes and no. With both licensed and creator owned stuff, my principle motivation is to find something that's going to make for a fun story, both for me to tell and for someone else to read, ideally. With my own creations, that's a slightly different process, since these are characters and circumstances that my collaborators and I are fabricating from the ground up. But when you're dealing with an established license, you're dealing with a character or characters that is already in place, and that's something that it's important to respect, I think. It's easiest if you're already a fan of that character yourself, so that you can tap into what it is that you love about the character and their world and build your story up from there. Granted, no two fans will ever agree entirely, and someone else might disagree with my interpretation of that character. But if nothing else, I've told the story that *I* most want to read about them, and that's one of the best parts of the job.

SN: Issue 21, the eighth issue of your run, hits the stands this week. What's happening with the Shadow in this issue?

CR: The Shadow is investigating a mystery that began in issue 19, that is leading him from place to place around the globe. Being the mysterious figure that he is, we only get glimpses of the larger mystery he's dealing with. But along the way, he encounters various individuals who knew him BEFORE he became "The Shadow," and each of them is embroiled in a smaller mystery of their own. And being who he is, the Shadow can't walk by and let an injustice go unanswered, or a crime unavenged. And so as this larger mystery plays out largely unseen in the background, we see the Shadow being drawn into smaller-scale problems from place to place. In issue 21, he is in Lhasa City, capital of Tibet, where an envoy from the Chinese government finds himself in the middle of what appears to be a string of bizarre murders. And of course the Shadow is on hand to get to the bottom of it.

The Shadow #21 goes on sale this week.