Once it was enough to have your own luxury yacht to leave just about anybody in the dust...e rrr... in the waters. But after a few years, too many mere mortals could afford one. And you can only get so far by trying to impress with size. So what do you give to yourself when you are so darnly rich and you already have everything and want to impress the other "poor" people? What about a personal submarine? That would impress people, right? What if you arm it with torpedos and start to sink ships and shoot the survivors with your personal machine gun? That would impress even more.. and that would make you one of the most evil villains ever ;)
That's what happens in this beautiful episode: an insane(ly rich) hunter, Barry Vinton, has a costum-built submarine so he can destroy ships at sea and machine gun the helpless crews, just for fun (or sport, as he says)."Ah, this is the life, there's nothing like it. The sighting of fresh quarry in this periscope. The excitement of the chase and the spine-tingling thrill as the torpedo finds its mark. And then the climax, on deck with a machine gun, shooting them down like scurrying rats. Ha ha!"
It looks like this is a mission in high seas for the Shadow.
BTW, Barry would be disappointed if he knew that a few years later you could buy your own submarine on a catalogue for only $6.98, as shown in this REAL period Ads :)
Enjoy the epsiode and have a Pulp Sunday!
Francesco
Download from the Internet Archive
6 comments:
Didn't they make a Bond movie about this?
I haven't seen all the Bond movies (I think) so I am not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if the took "inspiration" by this or any other plot of the Shadow. The radio shows were weekly and they went on for quite some time: the range of stories and topics has been very wide and I can definitely see how they could inspire writers, filmogrphers and artists (me included) even today :)
Cheers,
Francesco
Ciao Francesco, I really like these!!! and especially how you always manage to include the Shadow's silhouette.
The water lights here works really well (although the smoke shadow you did in the "Gun island" one is not less beautyful) :)
francesco -
Just wanted to let you know I linked to PulpSunday. I am definitely putting you in my sidebar links when I get the time this holiday.
Keep up the pulpy excellent work!
PS: I want to see your version of the Serial/Pulp hero The Spider. Your Green Hornet is tops!
Sincerely,
Your Mad Pulp Bastard
Thanks for all the great pulp!
Also, I'm very excited about your new Zorro book! Sweet action!
Federico: Grazie mille, amico :) And I am so glad you caught the Shadow in the ship's smoke of "Gun Island" :D
Bill: thank you so much: coming from a Pulp fan like you that's flattering :) I have a Spider illo ready to go, just waiting for the right moment ;)
Kyle: I am glad you are enjoying these and thank you for the congrats on the Zorro book: talk about Pulp heroes... ;)
Cheers,
Francesco
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