Pulp comics: ‘Girls in Trouble,’ Vols. 1 & 2

I previously posted on comic strips that ran in the pulps with Sally the Sleuth, which appeared in Spicy Detective, and noted all the other risque comic strips that ran in other spicy pulps, as well as other pulps. But I lamented that there aren’t collections of the other strips from the pulps.

Then I discovered the two volumes of Girls in Trouble, published in 2019 by Licorne Prints who also reprinted the Zarnak comic strip from the Thrilling pulps. These reprinted many of these risque girlie strips from the spicys but I was disappointed that they weren’t as comprehensive as I would have liked.

But I felt that I also needed to do a more comprehensive posting on these pulp magazine comic strips as well, as they all came from the same studio run by Adolphe Barreaux (1899-1985), which I mentioned in my Zarnak posting. David Saunders had done the only biography of him that I am aware of, which you can read on his Field Guide to American Pulp Artists website, as well as in The Raven collection from Pulp 2.0. So let’s start with him.

Harry Donenfeld owned Culture Publishing that published the spicys. This was but one of several publishing companies he owned, including what would become DC Comics.

Adolphe and Harry first worked together when Donenfeld revised the weekly newspaper The Police Gazette in 1933, and Adolphe created comic strips for it. After selling it off, Adolphe would become the creative art director for Donenfeld’s DM Magazines. But probably to help separate things, Adolphe formed Majestic Art Studio to create the material for the magazines. This is credited as the first comic art studio or “comic shop” that would be copied by other comic book artists/writers like Will Eisner, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and others.

In 1934, Adolphe created Sally the Sleuth and soon other comic strips for the spicys by other artists. Writers are unknown at this point. They even did a trio of strips for Thrilling, of which Zarnak was one. This may have come about due to connections to Ned Pines, owner of the Thrilling line.

The studio soon did comic book work for other publishers, one being The Raven for Ace Comics which was based on their Moon Man character. The Raven has been reprinted and I’ve posted on it.

This work continued as the spicys were transformed, with Culture becoming Trojan and the titles being renamed “Speed” instead of “Spicy.” Adolphe became editor-in-chief of Trojan magazines in 1949. And all the magazines ended in 1950. For a brief period from 1949 until mid-1950, many (all?) of their pulps would have a 16-page comic section with two comic strips each, promoted on the covers. I’m aware of at least five magazines that did this. I’m not sure if they had others.

Donenfeld and Adolphe then became co-owners of Trojan Comics with Adolphe in charge. This company existed from 1950 to ’55. One title was Crime Smashers, which reprinted the Dan Turner, Sally the Sleuth, Ray Hale, and Gail Ford stories from the recent pulps. Another was Western Crime Busters, which reprinted Six-Gun Smith, K-Bar Kate, Fighting Bob Dale, and Lariat Lucy from the recent pulps, along with new stories.

After that, Adolphe moved on to other work as in the early ’50s he shut down Majestic with the end of Trojan magazines and comics.

So what are these comic strips that ran in the spicy pulps? They are:

• Sally the Sleuth in Spicy Detective (1934-42), Speed Detective (1943), Private Detective (1949-50), 116 stories, by Adolphe Barreaux (most)
• Diana Daw (1934-43) in Spicy-Adventure Stories and Speed Adventure Stories, 146 stories, art by Clayton Maxwell
• Polly of the Plains (1936-37) in Spicy Western Stories, 14 stories, art by Joseph Szokoli
• Marcia of the Movies (1936-37) in Saucy Movie Tales, seven stories, art by Eric Browken
• Olga Mesmer, the Girl With the X-Ray Eyes (1937-38) in Spicy Mystery Stories, 11 stories, art by Watt Dell
• Vera Ray (1940-43) in Spicy Mystery Stories and Speed Mystery, 29 stories, art by Watt Dell
• Betty Blake (1934) in Super-Detective, five stories, art by H.L. Parkhurst
• Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (1943-50) in Hollywood Detective, 47 stories, written by Robert Bellem, art by Adolphe Barreaux (most)
• James Jaspar (1949-50) in Private Detective Stories and Private Detective, 12 stories, art by Ray McClelland
• Ray Hale, News Ace (1949-50) in Super-Detective, nine stories, art by Douglas March
• Gail Ford, Girl Friday (1949-50) in Super Detective, nine stories, art by Gene Leslie
• Queenie Starr (1949-50) in Hollywood Detective, 12? stories, art by Jim Barry (one), R. Brown (one), and Gene Leslie
• Six-Gun Smith (1949-50) in Six-Gun Western, seven stories, art by Bob McCarthy
• K-Bar Kate (1949-50) in Six-Gun Western, seven stories, art by Ken Battenfield
• Fighting Bob Dale (1949-50) in Fighting Western, nine stories, art by Bill Zeller
• Lariat Lucy (1949-50) in Fighting Western, nine stories, art by Wally Wood and Rex Maxon/R. Mason

Now the two volumes of Girls in Trouble reprint selections of the first six strips. Just not as many as I’d like on some.

First up, in Volume 1 we get a lot of Sally the Sleuth. Now, having obtained the reprint volume from Bedside Press, which includes all the strips from Spicy Detective, as well as from her later comic book appearance in Crime Smashers (which reprinted in color the stories from Private Detective), I don’t need more Sally reprints. Here we get 47 strips, about half of the nearly 100 strips that ran in Spicy Detective.

For those not aware, Sally the Sleuth is a female detective, usually working undercover for her boss, The Chief. In the earlier, short strips, there was also a kid sidekick named Peanuts. The stories started off as two pages, then later expanded to four. During the course of the stories, Sally and usually any other female character would lose some or all of their clothing. As with many of these strips, there is a level of sadism with whipping and torture, or the threat of it. Later on, the level of nudity dropped, such as they were still in their underwear. But I do have to say that Sally was no shrinking violet, usually being the one to confront and defeat the bad guy in the end and save the day.

For the rest of Volume 1, we get just one strip each of Marcia of the Movies, Olga Mesmer, and Vera Ray. I really would like to see complete reprints of at least Olga and Vera due to the science-fictional elements.

First up, Olga Mesmer. She is the daughter of Queen Margot of Venus and Dr. Mesmer, who had experimented on Margot with “soluble x-rays,” gave her x-ray powers. When Olga was born, she had x-ray powers and super strength. She soon rescued Rod Prescott, and through a blood transfusion, he gained super strength. They fight against Ombo who has overthrown Queen Margot. At 11 strips, I don’t know if the storyline was completed.

Next, Vera Ray was also experimented on by her scientist father. Her touch can paralysis or give super strength. Which she does to her companion, Tom Parnell. They travel through space and have various adventures. This one had 29 strips, and both Olga and Vera were by the same artist. Neither character gets as exposed as Sally or other characters do. At least not in the examples I saw here.

Finally, Marcie of the Movies. Marcie is your typical character hoping to make it big in Hollywood, ideally by finding a rich man to wed. Here, she winds up showing us quite a bit of her assets. As this one seems more of a humous strip, I wonder if it lacks the sadistic elements of the others?

With Volume 2, we get Polly of the Plains and Diana Daw. We get 12 of Polly’s 14 stories. And for Daw, we get 46 strips from Spicy-Adventures, but only up to 1941. So about a third of her stories.

Polly of the Plains is a western series. She is a brunette, born in the West, but educated in the East, returning as her father is ailing. She then gets into a series of perils, all of which have an element of sadism, some with her blonde friend Jean. Sadly, the strip ended on a cliffhanger.  All were two pages long.

Diana Daw is an adventure strip that would later become more of a science-fiction adventure a couple of years in. The strip is first set in Africa, again in a series of perils. She soon meets Ted Morton, who will become her companion but will at times disappear in her perils. The strip has the characters move from Africa to Asia to Europe in the early part of WWII, then in 1940 to outer space in longer stories, moving from two to four pages each.

Now another strip mentioned but not reprinted is Betty Blake. This ran for just five stories in the original Super-Detective magazine which was later revised as the vehicle for Jim Anthony. Art was by H.L. Parkhurst, who was doing the covers of the magazine as well as interior artwork. I know nothing else about this one.

Rounding out both volumes are a pair of articles by the editor Corrado Sesselego. In Volume 1, we get one on Harry Donenfeld and his early work as a publisher and the establishment of his various risque magazines, including the spicys. In Volume 2, we get one on Adolphe Barreaux. I’m not sure of the source of his information, as it has stuff not in David Saunders’ bio.

As with Sesselego’s work on the Zarnak volume, he has a bad habit of using initials instead of first names. And no DC Comics does not stand for Donenfeld Comics but Detective Comics, one of their first titles. Both articles are a great addition and a big reason why I decided to get the volumes despite their incompleteness.

Now, as to the others I have mentioned above, I decided to hold off at present on going over them until I can get a hold of reprints of them to review.  Plus this posting is pretty long. The only other reprints of these comic strips from the spicy pulps is a group from Pulpville Press. I may have to get them to see the strips I don’t have here.

Gwandanaland Comics had at one point reprinted the Trojan Comics titles I mentioned, but are no longer available, but will be at some point. But I would really like to see a complete reprint of Olga Mesmer, Vera Ray, and Diana Daw, more because of the science-fictional elements.