Shangra was a two-hundred-year-old Tibetan sorcerer and the king of Shangraland. [Crash Comics #1]
Born in July, 1737, as the seventh son of the seventh son of Shangra the Great, king of Tibet, Shangra was endowed with mastery of magic, supernatural ability, and sorcery. Through his worship of the god Eterno, Shangra also discovered the secret of eternal life, allowing him to live for 200 years. He became king of the Tibetan region of Shangraland, named after his grandfather. His other activities for the first two centuries of his life are unrecorded.
In July, 1937, after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, U.S. reporters Jack Flynn and Joan Joyce were flying over Tibet en route to cover the war in China when they were forced to land in an unknown region due to engine trouble. There they were brought to meet Shangra and learned that it was Shangra's 200th birthday, which was a regional celebration. Shangra put his great-great-great granddaughter Lonna in charge of the Americans, but Lonna jealously sent Joyce away in order to keep Flynn for herself. She told Flynn that Shangra yearned to retire as king and wanted someone to whom he could teach all he knew of sorcery and eternal life, and who would become the new king of Shangraland, with Lonna as his queen. Learning that the plane's engine has been fixed by the Tibetans, Flynn played along in order to rescue Joyce, and they escaped together in the plane. [Crash Comics #1]
After locating the American reporters, Shangra teleported himself to their plane and began showing the skeptical Jack Flynn his magical powers. He then crashed the plane and brought the reporters in a strange aircraft of his own making back to Shangraland, where he imprisoned them. Shangra explained to Flynn that, while he did not care if he and Joyce left Shangraland, he wanted to cater to Lonna's desires, and that he if he wanted to bargain, he had to bargain with her. Flynn agreed to marry Lonna and was soon proclaimed the new king of Shangraland. [Crash Comics #2]
Shangra directed his guards to take Jack Flynn to a nearby sacred mountain to marry Lonna in the hall of the god Eterno, who would bless the couple with immortality, and the two were blasted with harmless bolts of lightning from the idol. Flynn and Lonna were then married and became the new king and queen of Shangraland. After the ceremony, Flynn requested to see Joan Joyce one last time, but when he did so, Shangra discovered his duplicity and forced him away. Flynn escaped once more and fled with Joyce, but they were caught once more in the woods nearby. Lonna, realizing that Flynn could not be happy with her as long as Joyce was still alive, ordered her to be beheaded. Instead, Flynn threatened to kill Lonna, forcing Shangra to let Flynn and Joyce leave peacefully with Lonna as their hostage. [Crash Comics #3]
Jack Flynn and Joan Joyce, with Lonna as their hostage, wandered through Tibet for several days before they were captured by a tribe led by Migo, Shangra's arch-enemy. Shangra, unable to rescue them, teleported himself into the prison and gave Lonna the revolver seized from Flynn. The three soon escaped from Migo's, but while Lonna got away, Flynn and Joyce were recaptured. Lonna and Shangra then returned and rescued them using Migo's automobile. [Crash Comics #4]
On the way back to Shangraland in Migo's automobile, Jack Flynn, Joan Joyce, Lonna, and Shangra were captured by a guerilla band led by Lapa. The guerillas planned to kill Flynn and send his body back to Shangraland in order to extort money for the safe return of Shangra and Lonna. Flynn finally agreed to allow Shangra to pass on some of his mystic powers to him, and when Lapa attempted to kill Flynn, the American reporter caused himself to become invisible. Flynn then defeated Lapa's guerillas and escaped with the others to Shangraland, taking Lapa as their hostage. [Crash Comics #5]
The specific details of the fates of Shangra, Lonna, Jack Flynn, and Joan Joyce remain undocumented at this time.