The Shadow - 1st Day of Story!

I waited for years to find myself the perfect Shadow strip. The funny thing is that as far as Shadow dailies went, I really hadn't decided what parameters would suit my idea of a "perfect" daily. I guess I just figured I'd know it when I saw it. I do know that one of those parameters would've been to have The Shadow with his famous laugh, but I'd never seen a single daily in which he does that.

Then along came this beauty. Not only was I jazzed about getting the very first daily from a story, but it comes complete with the (mostly) hand drawn story title at the top left, but it also has that cool introductory 1st panel which describes The shadow and what he's all about. The amazing thing about the image of The Shadow in that panel is that USUALLY it is a stat, but here it is completely hand drawn!

But wait, the greatness continues! In just 4 brief panels of this daily, you see gorgeous images of The Shadow's alter ego, Lamont Cranston, then ending with Cranston putting on his Shadow costume and that STILL isn't the greatest thing about this example. If you take the time to read the dialogue, you'll see that in the final 'transformation' panel, The Shadow utters the quintessential dialogue he is known for: "The Shadow knows... HA HA HA HA HA"!

How amazing is that?! Very rarely does an art deal go absolutely perfectly in every way, but this was one of those times. For me, this example has EVERYTHING I'd ever want to make THE 'perfect' Shadow daily (if there even IS such a thing), and best of all? I was willing to pay 7 times the amount it actually ended up costing me! : )