I’ve posted on comics inspired by pulps, but this time I’m posting on a comicstrip series that ran in the pulps. This one is Sally the Sleuth, one of the first and longest-running comicstrips to run in the spicy pulps of Culture Publications.
Yeah, you got that right, the spicy pulps ran short comicstrips in their pulps. That’s funny when you consider that Harry Donenfeld who owned Culture also owned DC Comics, not to mention that these pulps were clearly aimed at adults. Were they inspired by the “Tijuana bibles” of risque comics?
From what I know, the other comics in the spicy pulps include Diana Daw (1934-43) in Spicy-Adventure Stories and Speed Adventure Stories; Polly of the Plains (1936-37) in Spicy Western Stories; Marcia of the Movies (1936-37) in Saucy Movie Tales; Olga Mesmer, the Girl With the X-Ray Eyes (1937-38), and Vera Ray (1940-43) in Spicy Mystery Stories and Speed Mystery. Later when Culture toned down the soft porn and became Trojan, they brought back comicstrips in their pulps in 1949, many of which were later reprinted in the comics they published in the 1950s.
I recently obtained a reprint of Sally the Sleuth strips published by Bedside Press in 2018. It includes all the strips that ran in Spicy Detective from 1934-42, but not the strips that ran in Speed Detective. And then the longer stories that appeared in Trojan’s comicbook series Crime Smashers in 1950-53 that themselves were reprinted from the pulp Private Detective.
Having seen the occasional Sally the Sleuth stories, I knew what to expect. The strips that ran in Spicy Detective where all short, at two pages each at first, though in later 1940 they extended to four pages. There are only three continuing characters in this strip, Sally (of course), The Chief (Sally’s boss, who looks the standard detective), and Peanuts (the kid sidekick). But with the longer stories, Peanuts was dropped.
In each of these adventures, Sally gets into some kind of trouble during her investigations, losing part or all of her clothing, as do on occasional other women in the strip. This was toned down when the stories got longer. She is oftentimes in danger, with hints of torture, usually to be saved by either Peanuts or The Chief. There is never any hint of hanky-panky with The Chief. While she does get into trouble, you have to admit that she is brave and resourceful, often being the one to work out the mystery and unmask the criminal.
The later comicbook stories that appeared in Private Detective/Crime Smashers are longer, clocking in at seven to eight pages. While the danger and violence is still there, the hints of nudity, or even underwear, is no longer there.
This volume was edited by Hope Nicholson who has a few other books on female comicbook characters you may be interested in. It also had a nice introductory by comics historian Tim Hanley. I think he makes a bit too much the role in Sally the Sleuth in the development of comicbooks, as the spicy pulps were over to the side. They were aimed at an adult audience, while comics were aimed at a largely juvenile audience. While those who owned these companies had their hands in different things, the comic creators often didn’t work in both areas. I was disappointed that he didn’t even name Major Wheeler-Nicholson, passing over his role in creating what would become DC Comics, making it seem it was all Donenfeld.
I would also like to see more of these other strips. Diana Daw lasted about as long as Sally the Sleuth, but don’t think I’ve ever seen her strips. And I would like to see something about Olga Mesmer and Vera Ray, as they are both SF strips. And has anyone looked overall at comicstrips in the pulp magazines? I don’t think I’ve seen any work that looked specifically into this area of research.
I would advise that if people want this volume, they might want to get it while they can, as the publisher was recently shutdown.
