Who knows what convention lurks in the heart of PulpFest? The Shadow knows!!!
During 2025’s successful revival of Doc Con – the convention for the “Fans of Bronze” – a few devotees of The Dark Avenger approached the PulpFest organizing committee, asking if we’d be interested in hosting a convention for fans of The Shadow.
The character known as The Shadow was introduced to the public on July 31, 1930, serving as the mysterious narrator for The Detective Story Hour, a CBS radio program sponsored by the Street & Smith pulp chain. The show dramatized stories from the publisher’s Detective Story Magazine.
When it became apparent to the publisher that customers were not asking their newsdealers for Detective Story Magazine, but “that Shadow magazine,” Street & Smith decided to give readers what they wanted — a single character magazine featuring The Shadow.
Hiring Walter B. Gibson to write the initial stories, the first two issues of The Shadow, a Detective Magazine, flew off the stands. Within a year, Gibson was creating two adventures of The Shadow, each and every month.
Lasting 325 issues and spanning eighteen years, The Shadow pulp revived the concept of the single-character magazine, serving as the template for other hero pulps and, later, scores of comic book superheroes.
In 1937, The Shadow debuted on radio and had a long and popular run on America’s airwaves. Not long thereafter, the first of two Shadow movie serials appeared. Later, the character would appear in comic books, newspaper strips, B-movies, and more.
Now, after all of these years, Walter B. Gibson’s Dark Avenger will finally have a convention. Starting with PulpFest 2026, we’ll be hosting The Shadow Con. We hope it will be the first of many more in the years to come.
What’s in store for you at The Shadow Con 2026? We’ll get things going with “The Haunted Shadow,” a look at some supernaturally charged adventures of The Dark Avenger. It will feature Tim King, a lifelong fan of The Shadow who has spoken several times at PulpFest.
“The Haunted Shadow,” scheduled for Saturday afternoon, will be followed later that day by “A Night at the Cobalt Club” in the Ember & Vine Lounge and Restaurant at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry.
The organizers of The Shadow Con are also planning a luncheon for Shadow fans at a time to be determined. It will have a Chinatown theme, and those who prepay will receive a collectible pint glass to thank them for their support.
We’ll have more on The Shadow Con 2026 in the months to come. So stay tuned to pulpfest.com. And don’t forget to follow The Shadow Con page on Facebook.
Your PulpFest membership also makes you a member of this year’s Doc Con, FarmerCon, and The Shadow Con. That’s 4 conventions for one price! You can’t beat that, especially if you’re a Doc, Farmer, Shadow, and pulp enthusiast!
Make your plans now to head to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania, from July 30 to August 2 for all four conventions. You’ll have an Amazing time!
Our featured image is excerpted from George Rozen’s cover for the June 15, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine, illustrating the story, “The Ghost of the Manor,” written by Walter B. Gibson.
Our lead image is John A. Coughlin’s cover for the March 7, 1931 number of Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine, part of the publisher’s lead-in to the debut of The Shadow, a Detective Magazine, released on March 6, 1931.
Our final image was adapted by William Lampkin from Graves Gladney’s cover for the July 15, 1940 issue of The Shadow, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s “Gems of Doom.”
To learn more about The Shadow and Shadow Con 2026, please visit our YouTube Channel to catch Craig McDonald’s new video, Shadow Con Joins PulpFest!
And while you’re there, please be sure to subscribe!
Kenneth Grant is a writer and popular culture enthusiast who began writing for our website in 2022. He particularly enjoys the hero pulps and has written about pulp villains, Ron Hill’s documentary, We Are Doc Savage, Talking Pulp with Craig McDonald, and more.
