Pulp Corner
Trippin' On Speed
by Joe Lovece
Once upon a time a pair of ambitious fellows named
Harry Donenfeld (original DC Comics publisher) and Frank Armer published
a bunch of lurid, under-the-counter pulp magazines titled "Spicy", including
Spicy Adventure, Spicy Detective, Spicy Mystery and Spicy Western.
These Culture and Trojan pulps are among the most sought-after pulps today,
and demand some of the highest prices. A high-grade Spicy can run into
several hundred dollars. Annnnnd, they had comics!
The mags had lots of sexy and violent cover by H.J.
Ward, and were often the target of cultural watchdogs and religious groups.
Such magazines were often banned for sale in cities and towns, and sometimes
the publishers and sellers were arrested.
Eventually the heat become so intense that Donelfeld
tried to hid the magazines under new titles, often siimply reprinting his
older stories. Thus in January 1943 Spicy Mystery became Speed
Mystery, Spciy Detective became Speed Detective and Spicy Adventure
became Speed Adventure.
Of course, compared to some of the other pulps, expecially
the Martin Goodman Red Circle line of Mystery Tales, Uncanny Tales,
Marvel Tales and Real Mystery, these are pretty tame. Those
are filled with explicit and awful torture scenes (especially the illustrations).
Remind me to tell you about those some time.
We thought it would be pretty cool to give you a peek
at the first issues of the revamped mystery and detective covers and comics,
seen below. I know they're beat-up. What else is new?
Speed Mystery, January 1943, featured "Dark
Miracle" by Robert Leslie Bellam, king of the exaggerated hard-boiled school
of detective fiction, plus "Ghose-Wife" by Clve Trent, "Return of Terror"
by William "Canyon of Fear:" by Max Neilson, "Dead Enough" by Walter Cook,
"The Road Down" by Rudolph Barr, "The Hidden One" by John Wayne [!] (that's
a terrible name for a cowoy!), "Sealed in Death" by George Freeman Tracy,
"Can Science Explain Werewolves", "Is Witchcraft a Religion", "Pearls the
Malignant" and "Cannibalism-- Civilized and Savage".
There's even a comic strip feature, as was usual in
the Trojan/
Culture pulps, this one being "Decatur, Tincture of Venon" by Watt Dell,
featuring Vera Ray. The art (and lettering) almost look like Robert Crumb.
Surely the forefathers of the underground comics. This installment with
the snake woman is really cool.
(Could "Watt Dell" be Mart Nodel?)
Speed Detective No. 1 has another great cover,
and more Robert Leslie Bellem, this time with "Riddle in the Rain". Other
stories included "Candidate for a Corpse" by William Rainey, "Faked Alibi"
by T.V. Faulkner (I'm sure not related to the William the great), "F.B.I.
Prevents Miscarraige of Justice" (how times chaenge, huh?), "Paper Pay
Off", by John Ryan, "Black Light" E. Hoffman Price, "Next Door to Death"
by Paul Hanna and "Bad Checks".
The comic this issue is an installment of the famous
Sally the Sleuth, with "Dictator of the Zombies". Originally drawn beginning
in 1934 by Adolphe Barreaux (b. 1899), an underrated artist and graduate
of the Yale School of Fine Arts who became a Trojan editor. He also drew other
pulp strips including Dan Turner, G.I. Jane, Hollywood Tales, and Wilma West.
Barreaux did some work for DC's New Comics (Jolly Roger, Magic Crystal
of History and Tad Among the Pirates), and some stuff for Fox (Patty O'Day)
and Harvey (Champion Comics). He also did illustrations for Colliers
and Liberty. He was owner of Majestic Studios. But his pin-up Sallys are
his best known work, expecially the early years when she's always running
around half naked. Also, ironically, he illustrated some children's books
in the 1940s, sinche Sally's first years highlighted her running around half
naked. By the 1940s she graduated from fighting wise guys to dead guys.
Sally was also illustrated later in the 1940s by Keats
Petree. In the 1950s Charles Barr did the honors. Sally reprints can be
found in the book What a Gal: Sally the Sleuth (Odd Books for Odd Moments
Ser.: No. 4).
