Tower of Shadows

A manor found overlooking a cliff along a desolate stretch of the California coastline, little is known of the origin of the fabled "Tower of Shadows", save that it eventually became the chosen home of gravedigger Roderick Krupp and Headstone P. Gravely. While tending the outlying cemetery, Roderick would often entertain passersby with tales of grim horror.^[1]

In later years, the Tower of Shadows became the base of operations for the vigilante anti-hero group the Night Shift.^[2]

Between Digger's tales of the old house and a resemblance in some artistic renderings of the Tower, the Tower of Shadows could have originally been “Shadow House”, home to a reclusive collector of curiosities who changed the Victorian-style manor into a gloomy museum of the occult. In pursuit of a rumored hoard of treasure hidden in the mansion, the old man was killed by his spineless nephew Lou Fowler and his gold digging wife Marie, who in turn fell into a mystic trap laid by the dead man’s spirit, condemning them to relive the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.^[1]

• Night Shift
  • The Brothers Grimm
  • Dansen Macabre
  • Digger
  • Misfit
  • Needle
  • Shroud
  • Tatterdemalion
  • Werewolf
• Lou Fowler's uncle (deceased)
  • Lou Fowler
  • Marie Fowler

Characteristics[]

At one time, the Tower was shown to be equipped with a number of death traps -- stairs that collapsed into a slide, trapdoors that dropped into pits of fire, spring-loaded knives, and others fit for the Gothic structure. These were shown when the Tower had been invaded by the Moon Knight and intended as a test of his skills by the Shroud, so they may have only been a temporary addition.^[2]

• Tower of Shadows was also the name of a horror anthology series hosted by Roderick "Digger" Krupp and Headstone P. Gravely. The series ran for nine issues from 1969-1971 whereupon its title changed to Creatures on the Loose until its cancellation in 1975.