The Shadow and Doc Savage in "Hombres Audaces" (Spain, Argentina, 1936-1953)

(updated with more pulps)

"Hombres Audaces" started being published by Editorial Molino in Spain in 1936 and stopped a few months later because of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Molino then moved to Argentina and continued publishing from 1936 until 1953, as Editorial Molino Argentina, for a total of 373 issues. They resumed publishing in Spain in 1941, and some titles exist in both editions with different covers. Hombres Audaces reprinted The Shadow (La Sombra), Doc Savage, Bill Barnes, Pete Rice and The Avenger, mostly with the original covers.

The collection has two numberings, a general one (from #1 to #373) and a separate one for each character. Some issues of the Argentinian edition were never published in Spain, but Molino kept the Argentinian numbering on the spine of the issues published in Spain.

Overall, the pulps were not published in chronological order, many issues being skipped (probably due to censorship problems) and others switched around. For Bill Barnes, character and airplane names were changed, paragraphs skipped and others inserted in order to adapt the plot to its random publishing order.

Here are all the issues I have in my collectiom. Enjoy!

The Shadow

Spanish Edition

   

#1 (4) April 25, 1936                         #3 (12) June 20, 1936

 

#4 (16) July 18, 1936                                      #11 (47) 1939

 #14 (79) December 1944                            #20 (103) August 1945

   #21 (107) November 1945                             #24 (117) June 1946

  #25 (121) July 1946                             #27 (129) October 1946

#29 (142) May 1947                              #32 (153) September 1947

#39 (179) May 1948                              #40 (185) July 1948

Argentinian Edition

#1 (4) September 23, 1938

Doc Savage

Spanish Edition

#2 (6) May 2, 1936                            #4 (14) June 27, 1936

#5 (18) July 25, 1936

Argentinian Edition

 #13 (48) September 3, 1939                                    #51 (208) 1949        

 Pete Rice

Spanish Edition

 

#? January 1946                                          #? (65) February 1944

Further reading: 

• Tercera Fundación, in Spanish.
• Tebeosfera, "Los Hombres Audaces de Molino" by Hector Pérez Día. In Spanish.

The Shadow (March 15, 1940)

"The Shadow" (Vol.35, No. 3, October 1940)

A great cover by Graves Gladney and the pulp is in excellent condition.

"The Shadow Magazine" (April 1st, 1941)

"Ten Shadows in ten different poses marked this cover of the "Tenth Anniversary Number" as definitely unique. It involved a plotter called "The Time Master", who toyed with time once too often when he met the Timeless Shadow."

-- from "The Shadow Scrapbook" by Walter B. Gibson

April 1st, 1941. The "10th Anniversary Number". Cover by Graves Gladney.

This is my favourite Shadow pulp and it is in excellent condition. "The 10th Anniversary Number" has an amazing cover, almost a character style sheet for The Shadow. Inside, besides the story "The Time Master", there is an article covering the first decade of the Shadow's career, which you can find below.

And no, there weren't only three ratio stations broadcasting the adventures of The Shadow... The list continues on the next page, which is a column in very small letters (I didn't count them). It was impossible to miss an adventure!

"The Shadow Magazine" pulps

Here are my "The Shadow Magazine" pulps. Surely not the best copies available, but the thrill of holding a Shadow pulps is always there, no matter what shape the magazine is in!

November, 1933. Cover torn, but interior complete. I love it for the girasol ring
in the center.

December, 1934. I still can't fathom why someone would cut up the cover
in this fashion. The Shadow attracts some rather strange readers...

December 1st, 1936. Again, the cover was cut in a peculiar fashion, probably
the same reader as above?

July, 1945. Digest size.