The Shadow, Vol. 1, No. 1

This issue of Shadow Comics from 1940 by Street & Smith Publications contains three main narratives. The lead feature is "The Shadow," a multi-chapter comic strip depicting the vigilante investigating sabotage at the Dukrow Munition Works. Foreign agents plan to destroy the facility; the Shadow infiltrates their operation, paralyzes the ring leader through hypnotic power, and apprehends the sabotage ring while revealing his civilian identity as Lamont Cranston.

The second serial, "Iron Munro, The Astounding Man," follows a space-opera narrative. Born on Jupiter's moon Ganymede in 2093 A.D., Iron Munro possesses superhuman strength from Jupiter's gravity. He builds a ship to reach Earth, meets Spencer Carlisle (son of his father's acquaintance), and together they launch a new spacecraft with advanced sun-tapping technology toward unknown space, encountering hostile alien vessels.

The issue includes puzzle features: code-cipher exercises teaching readers encryption methods, and a detective riddle ("One Mistake—a Third Degree Test") asking readers to identify which murder suspect made a logical error.

A prose fiction story titled "Dan Dugan and Tim Haley" begins, depicting two con artists who sell a rebuilt gas station, only to be ambushed in their hotel room by armed intruders seeking their $5,000 proceeds.