In the 1930s-40s
The Shadow was big!
I mean REALLY BIG!
We're talking "
Harry Potter"-level popularity here!
Between a bi-weekly magazine (and hardcover reprints), a radio show, b-movies and a serial, a newspaper comic strip, a comic book, big little books, and lots of collectible merchandise, He Who Knows What Evil Lurks was one of the FIRST multi-media and merchandising phenomenons!
It was inevitable that rich playboy-turned-cloaked avenger imitators would pop up.
Some were obvious and blatant like
The Whisperer.
Some were obvious, but had a really distinctive style, like
The Spider.
And some were...well...unique, like
The Green Lama!
The Green Lama was rich playboy Lamont...I mean Jethro Dumont who spent a decade in a lamasery in Tibet learning how to become a Buddhist priest (or Lama).
This training gave him amazing mental powers including the ability to cloud mens' minds. (This is not to say
all Buddhist priests go around doing that sort of thing. Jethro apparently took some extra-credit courses.)
Jethro also picked up radioactive salts which gave him physical enhancements as well , including super-strength and enabling him to fly.
Upon returning to America, Jethro resolved to use his abilities to right wrongs, punish evildoers, and in general, fight crime.
Like
The Shadow, who had several other identities besides "Lamont Cranston", Jethro also used the identity of "Dr. Pali" to go places rich playboy Dumont couldn't.
Unlike
The Shadow, he never used a gun, instead depending on his mental powers (and, if necessary, his physical prowess) to deal with villains.
Experienced pulp writer Kendall Foster Crossen was hired to create a character to compete with
The Shadow on the newsstands.
He conceived
The Green Lama and penned, under the name "Richard Foster", over a dozen tales about him for the pulp magazine
Double Detective from 1940 to 1943.
(While
The Lama was
always the cover feature from his first appearance onward, he
never had his own pulp, like
The Shadow.)
The Lama also appeared in comic books, first in
Prize Comics from #7 in 1940 to #34 in 1943, then moving into his own comic for eight issues until 1946.
Crossen wrote most of the comics, which were illustrated by Mac Raboy, one of the best artists of the period!
Three years later, the character was revived in a summer-replacement dramatic radio show which ran only 11 episodes starring Paul Frees, who sounded eerily-similar to Orson Welles, who had played
The Shadow on radio!
In all these incarnations, efforts were made to portray Buddhism sympathetically, if not always accurately. For example,
The Lama's primary incanation to invoke his powers; "om mani padme hum", is a mantra used while praying or meditating, not going into battle!
After the radio show ended,
the Lama faded away except for the occasional reprint...until 2007, when Alex Ross revived the character as one of the major players in the new
Project SuperPowers line of comic books using long-lost comic book characters.
In addition, Dark Horse Publishing recently published high-quality hardcover reprints of his title's long out-of-print 8-issue run!
We at
Atomic Kommie Comics™ want to do
our part in re-presenting
The Green Lama to the pop culture world with a
line of kool kollectibles including t-shirts, mugs, even a
Classic Green Lama 12-Month Calendar for 2010!
So
have a look at
The Green Lama, today!
And "om mani padme hum" to you! ;-)
BONUS! A pre-Halloween "treat" for our faithful fans: a
link to FREE mp3s of some of the
Green Lama radio episodes!
And remember...pick up
Project SuperPowers, where
The Green Lama LIVES!
NOTE: We've temporarily deactivated our FaceBook account.
Too many tech problems on their end and their "Help" section seems out of date, referring to links and tabs that don't actually exist (but may have in the past)!
We've had several requests for more SherlockStuff using the sepiatone photo of Basil Rathbone as The Greatest Sleuth of All™ on the cover of our popular Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes 2010 12-Month Calendar, so we set up a standalone storefront HERE to accommodate your wishes!
(Carolyn)
(Betsy Polsheck)
