(Adolphe Barreaux’s career in pulp fiction.)
As Toonopedia mentions, Sally existed primarily to have her clothing torn off. Before the folks at DC Comics got into comics, they published a rather infamous line of pulp magazines known as the Spicy group. The firm went by a number of names, most commonly Culture Publications, at least in pulps. By whatever name their core business was actually in photographic smut, which is one of the reasons that it had invested in a high end Rotogravure press set up. When it wasn’t printing up its own smut, the firm printed up other people’s smut. From smut, they made the leap to Pulps.
The firm actually had two types of pulps: incredibly explicit girl beating pulps and not quite as graphic girl is simply naked and running around pulps. Generally the covers and titles of the two runs of magazines were the same. It seems the pulps started out as a method of recycling the non-smutty sections of their smutty magazines. Eventually they discovered there was a fairly big market in near smut and that became their focus.
The one thing the Spicy Line always had going for it was very high registry printing. As far as printing quality was concerned, few other publishers could beat the Spicy group—they had the finest line art and the most colorful covers. The set up almost cried out for them to do comic books—and the firm made two abortive attempts at getting into the field. Later they published Superman and then Batman. After that, comic books became their primary business. With the transition to comic books, the firm cleaned up its act considerably.
But before that, they started experimenting with comic sections in their pulp magazines. This is where Sally the Sleuth came in. Sally appeared in several Spicy titles, starting with Spicy Detective in 1934. She was largely the creation of Adolphe Barreaux, one of the few veteran cartoonists in Culture’s early employ. Below is a typical early two page episode.
Frame One: Sally and her eight year old sidekick Peanuts are lurking in a cemetery. Peanuts is rendered as a street urchin, common of the Little Rascals type( and greatly resembles the later Paddlefoot from Clutch Cargo.) Sally herself is a Thoroughly Modern Millie type, a blonde flapper similar to Fritzy Ritz. By way of exposition, Sally explains “I wonder if the maniac will show tonight(?) Goodness! This is an eerie place.”
Much like Batman, Sally has no problem with the prospect of endangering a minor. Although it isn’t explained except by context, Sally is an actual police officer.
Frame Two: Sally continues the exposition with “Three girls found here in two weeks! I asked for this case, but I don’t like being a decoy for a homicidal lunatic.” Peanuts adds “Don’t worry, Sally, the chief is right over the wall.”
Frame Three: Sally says “Shh—Listen. I hear footsteps. Someone is coming this way.”
Frame Four: A black figure emerges from the grave markers. It is carrying something on its shoulders. Either under some strain or having nothing better to say, it blurts “Ugh—Ugh!”
Frame Five: It becomes obvious that the figure is a man with messy hair. He is carrying a naked woman on his shoulders—one who proceeds to not move on her own for the duration of the strip. Sally comes out from her cover, exclaiming “Goodness!”
Frame Six: Having drawn her gun, Sally announces “Stop! You’re under arrest.” At this point, Peanuts has wisely retreated behind her. Our maniac has turned in Sally’s direction, disclosing to the reader that the body over his shoulders is no doubt about it nude.
Frame Seven: The freak pulls a fast one. He throws the body at her. Not only does Sally lose her gun, it seems as if she gets a face full of dead girl breast.
Barreaux wasn’t a very good action artist, Even up close, it’s a little hard to tell what is going on in this frame.
Frame Eight: Sally is having her clothes torn off as the maniac says “Ho—Ho! – You’re better than the other one, but I will have to kill you first!” We see Peanuts beating a hasty retreat in the distance.
Frame Nine: Sally has broken away and is calling for back-up. “Help! Help! Chief! Peanuts!”
Frame Ten: Sally trips into an open grave. Her close by attacker proclaims “Ah—An open grave. That saves me trouble.”
Frame Eleven: On the other hand, Sally may not have accidentally found the grave. She dives into it as someone off camera guns down her attacker. An unattributed word balloon reports “There he is! Keep you head down, Sally!”
Unless this is the world’s best ambush, it would seem that whomever is doing the shooting doesn’t actually know where Sally is. Having spotted the suspect, the other party has immediately opened fire. Police procedure in comic book land often leaves much to be desired by today’s standards.
Frame Twelve: All’s well that ends well, but I am still not sure how Sally lost her bra but was able to retrieve her trench coat. The Chief taunts her with “Well, have you had enough of graveyards, Sally?” To which Sally responds “I used to be afraid, but after that guy I don’t mind a few ghosts.” Peanuts remains silent while seemingly admiring what he can see of Sally’s exposed bust.
Try to hand DC Comics a script like that today and see how far it gets you.
As crude and weird as Sally seems, she had a fairly long run in the 1930s. She also had a comeback, which we will handle in our next posting.
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