Number 2034: Sal was quite a gal

Sally the Sleuth was created for the sexy pulp, Spicy Detective magazine, in 1934 by Adolphe Barreaux. Barreaux was in business with Harry Donenfield, who later became the publisher of DC Comics. Barreaux and Donenfield were partners in an art service, and later partners in Trojan Magazines, which published much cleaned up versions of what the Spicy pulps had published in the thirties. When Sally was a pulp magazine comic feature she usually lost her clothes. In Crime Smashers, where she later appeared, she kept her clothes on, but still got in fights. Her boss, the Chief, sent Sally where she was usually in deadly peril, but with some good moves (like the skirt-pulling in this episode), she came out on top. They weren’t having the conversation in 1951 about equal pay for equal work when Crime Smashers #3 appeared with the story, “Dirty Politics,” a subject still on the public mind all these decades later. Considering what Sally went through for her paycheck, she probably did not get what she was worth.

The Grand Comics Database gives Adolphe Barreaux credit for writing and drawing the story using the name Charles Barr.

Number 1843: Ravin' for the Raven

Dexter Manning is a 1941 millionaire, when a million was a real chunk of change. Dexter can afford a castle, a manservant, and yet keeps his wealth in cash. He plans to abscond with the swag but first he gives his manservant a .45 caliber retirement plan. No wonder Dexter has a bad reputation.

Enter the Raven. Unlike many costumed heroes with no superpowers, Raven is not a wealthy playboy. This so-called Robin Hood is a detective both masked and unmasked, who goes after evil one-percenters.

The story is from Ace’s Four Favorites #1 (1941), and is credited to Adolphe Barreaux. Barreaux is also known for his sexy Sally the Sleuth stories from Spicy Detective, one of DC's line of sexy pulp magazines. Barreaux is one of the earliest comic book artists, having done the Sally strip (and I do mean strip, since the girl could not keep her clothes on) since 1934. The Spicy line was kept separate from DC, and Barreaux ran his own art studio. Later he was editor of the Trojan line of comic books, yet another DC side business.

Number 1430: Sally and Dan

Henry Kujawa of the Professor H’s Wayback Machine blog did me a big favor by coloring a black line strip scheduled for today. “Sally the Sleuth ‘Winning Her Stripes’” was scanned from a reprint in Malibu Comics’ Spicy Tales, but was originally published in the pulp magazine, Spicy Detective, in 1942. Henry did a great job enhancing the strip. He didn’t have the greatest copy to work with...the blobby black line is because the strip came from a pulp magazine, where drawings were reproduced on paper a step below what most of us find in our bathrooms. During printing the ink hit the porous pulp paper and spread into the fibers, making fine lines next to impossible.

Thanks to Henry. You can see more of Henry’s handiwork in his blog, where he does restorations of comic book covers, and even the “Tales of the Great Book” feature from Boy’s Life.

The artwork is credited to Adolphe Barreaux, art editor of the Spicy titles. Those titles were published by some of the same folks who gave us DC Comics, and were more than a shade on the seedy side. They upset postal inspectors and bluenoses of that era. The titles were soon changed from Spicy to Speed, and in my opinion lost about 90% of their desirability. But, that was then. Cheesecake, even slightly kinky cheesecake involving spies with whips and sexy girls who are out of their clothes more than they are in, seems a lot tamer now than it did 70 years ago.

To go along with Sally, we have Dan Turner, the Hollywood detective. It’s also signed by Barreaux and by writer Robert Leslie Bellem, who had a gift for slang-filled dialogue like, “Butched! He’s defunct!” which will probably make more sense when you see it in context.

Sally is from Spicy Tales #2, and Dan Turner is from Spicy Tales #4, both from 1988:

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More Sally and Dan! Click the picture:

Number 1178: A roscoe sneezed

Adolphe Barreaux is a pioneer in the history of comic books. He started out drawing comic book-like stories for Harry Donenfield (who later went on to take over DC Comics from its founder, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson). Barreaux drew the sexy Sally the Sleuth stories for Spicy Mystery Stories, an under-the-counter pulp Donenfield published before he took over DC Comics. Donenfield set Barreaux up with an art shop, with himself as co-owner, to provide artwork for his line of pulps. Here's an example of Sally the Sleuth, from its days as a two-page strip (and I mean that literally...Sally could not keep her clothes on), from Spicy Detective (March, 1935). The scans are from the 1988 Malibu Comics reprint.

Later Barreaux became editor of Trojan Magazines, Crime Smashers, and other titles, a small publisher also bankrolled from the DC empire. The story of DC's secondary business interests is a complicated one of silent partners, publishing names and different addresses, but it all goes back to Harry Donenfield. He was a sharp businessman who had his hand in the comics business, publishing and distributing, in a big way.

Barreaux is credited with drawing these Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective stories. The color story is from Crime Smashers #7 (1951), and the second is originally from the pulp Spicy Detective (January, 1943), by way of the Malibu Comics reprint, Spicy Tales #1 (1988). Robert Leslie Bellem is credited as the writer. He created Dan Turner for the pulps, and was known for his overcooked dialogue like "a roscoe sneezed," and "Jeepers! Baldy's been skewered through the ticker! He's defunct!" Bellem went into writing for television after the pulps were skewered through the ticker. He did scripts for The Lone Ranger, Adventures of Superman, 77 Sunset Strip, and many more. He died in 1968.

In looking at the artwork for these Dan Turner stories I'm venturing the opinion that despite Barreaux's credit they are shop jobs. Maybe he had something to do with them, and maybe not. In "Off-stage Kill" Dan Turner is shown mostly from the back in a very static layout. The only time the story comes alive is when the girls are fighting. "The Murdered Mummy" has some of the same faults, but is much livelier in its layouts.