THE SHADOW MATCHBOOK COVER

Matchbooks have always been miniature billboards for advertising and during the 1930's and 40's some of these little art masterpieces were just amazing.

This matchbook is advertising The Shadow radio show and has to rank as one of the best matchbook covers ever! I love the graphics on this little piece of cardboard of the prowling Shadow and the sinister skeleton that happens to be holding a bloody knife.

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When you turn it over you’ll find another Shadow image with his famous slogan “The Shadow Knows.”

Once you flip the Shadow down you’ll see that he’s captured the bad guys and thrown them behind bars with the words “Crime Does Not Pay!” printed above them.

This matchbook was called a “feature” matchbook because originally the matches themselves had printed imagery. Of course this one is missing all of the matches, but at least the cover remains.

Just for fun I reassembled some of the graphics from the front cover.