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Shorty Morgan is a comic assistant to Slam. He is an early example in comic books of a comic sidekick. This is a long tradition that includes Johnny Quick's assistant Tubby. His visual depiction by Shuster anticipates the portraiture of Mr. Mxyztplk to come: see the origin of that character in "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk" (Superman #30, September-October 1944).
Despite the fact that Slam Bradley is a private eye, the early, 1930's tales I've managed to read have him facing off against the same sort of criminal masterminds and gangs that the early super-heroes battled. One was perhaps hoping for Black Mask style intrigue and detection, but it is not to be. Many of the early Slam Bradley tales are pretty bad. However, some are excellent, especially the most comic ones. When Siegel turned to comedy, his plot inventiveness also soared.
This is the first story in Slam Bradley in which the heroes temporarily take on a new profession, the first fully comic toned story, and the first tale in which the boys fully come into their own. It is in many ways the first full realization of Slam and Shorty as characters.
This story is not quite a true undercover tale, although it is closely related to them. In Slam's undercover stories, he takes on a new profession, so that he can solve a mystery in some business from the inside. Here Slam and Shorty become Hollywood stunt people not to investigate a crime, but because they sincerely want the Hollywood job. However, a mystery soon follows, and the feel of the story is very close to the later undercover stories.
Undercover in Grade School (1937). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. When Slam revisits his old sixth grade teacher, she asks him to solve a mystery at the school. This is one of the funniest and most exuberant of Siegel's Slam Bradley tales. It is full of raucous invention and comedy.
UNDERCOVER. This story is the first full undercover tale in Slam Bradley. It is very close in tone to the preceding issue's "The Hollywood Murders", and the two stories form a pair.
This story shows the paradigm of many of the best Slam Bradley tales:
ANTI-BULLYING. The splash shows the grown-up Slam going after the bully who attacked him in school. For other comic book stories on this topic, please see my list of stories with political and social commentary, and search for "anti-bullying".
SLAM GETS HIS "LOOK". Up till this point, Slam had rarely worn a neck tie. In the earliest stories, he had just worn a white shirt. Later he wore suits and sport coats with a shirt and no tie. Here, for the first time, he appears in a bow tie, as well as a double-breasted suit. This combination will later become his standard attire throughout his career.
In Atlantic City (1937). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Summoned to an Atlantic City hotel for an investigation, Slam and Shorty work undercover as lifeguards at the ocean beach.
Siegel had a long term interest in the ocean and the ocean floor. "In Atlantic City" is an early example.
The telegraph that summons Slam and Shorty gives their address as Cleveland, Ohio (page 2). That is where Siegel and Shuster were from.
Slam's opening encounter with a drowning man, possibly has gay overtones (page 1).
MYSTERY PLOT. The mystery puzzle in "In Atlantic City" is of the "Weird Menace" variety. Weird Menace works are tales in which a seemingly supernatural or science fictional event, is eventually given a logical explanation. Slam does this at the end of "In Atlantic City". Please see my list of Weird Menace Mystery Tales in Comic Books.
The crimes in "In Atlantic City" are eventually brought home to a villain. However, the tale does NOT emphasize figuring out the identity of this villain, as a mystery. SPOILERS. The villain turns out to be someone we've never seen, with a motive we've never heard of. Oddly, this doesn't harm the tale.
ART. The art throughout is good. There is a nice overhead depiction of an airport (page 2).
Another overhead view, of Slam carrying a woman he's rescued out of the ocean, is also good (page 5).
In the Ring (1938). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Slam and Shorty investigate boxer Nick Cardoni, whose opponents all die in the ring.
UNDERCOVER: NEW PROFESSIONS. Slam and Shorty's undercover adventures have a different paradigm from the undercover cop tales that were so popular in 1940's Semi-Documentary film noir and 1980's TV cop shows such as Wiseguy. In those film and TV shows, the cop would get a new ID, pretend to be a criminal, and join a gang of crooks, infiltrating them from within. By contrast, Slam and Shorty rarely pretend to be crooked. Instead, they temporarily take on new professions. These professions allow them to investigate a mystery in some industry or business. Here, for example, Slam becomes a boxer, so he can find out what is going on with the sinister fights in which boxers die. Slam's experiences are closer to those of the 1990's TV hero The Pretender, who took on a new profession every week to aid somebody in trouble.
Siegel's tales sometimes have an aspirational quality: his characters work to acquire some positive new position in life. Slam and Shorty's attempts to take on new professions might be related to this.
MALE BONDING. This story opens with Slam meeting boxer Danny Blake. Both men become friends. They have a lot in common: both men love fighting above all else, both are macho hunks.
This scene recalls the earlier male bonding between Slam and Pete Graves, in "Skyscraper Death". In both stories:
Later, Superman will bond with a boxer, and engage in exciting boxing matches, in the Superman daily comic strip "The Comeback of Larry Trent" (February 20 - March 18, 1939). This is one of the best Superman comic strip episodes.
SLAM'S ASSISTANTS. Snoop Dolan returns here, for his second and apparently final appearance. (Snoop first appeared in the previous issue's tale "The Human Fly".) Here he is functioning much more amicably as Shorty's partner and fellow assistant in helping Slam. Siegel works this nicely into his plot, which eventually has the two wise guys Snoop and Shorty operating in parallel on common goals. Siegel apparently decided that two assistants were too many however, because future tales go back to just Sam and Shorty:
The really tough waterfront bar here, Joe's Joint, will recur in the Superman daily comic strip story, "Jewel Smugglers" (March 20 - April 1, 1939). One suspects its name might also be an in-joke reference to Joe Shuster.
The opening of this story is especially fun. It shows a unique mixture of swagger and inventiveness, as Slam reaches new approaches to satisfy his love of brawling. Shuster makes Slam look splendid in these scenes. Slam clearly enjoys what he is doing here, and releasing all sorts of pent-up feelings. It is as if longings, long repressed, were being expressed.
The Lady-Killer (#15, May 1938). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. A mix-up has Slam and Shorty accused of being serial killers. This dark comedy tale doesn't really make it.
Its best part: the lurid newspaper headlines accusing Slam and Shorty of being killers. These show Siegel's gift for comic exaggeration, and are both funny and extremely embarrassing for our duo. They comically evoke the lurid journalism of the era. There are two different sets of these headlines in the story, both funny.
The trap at the end is rather standard in crime fiction - and entertaining.
The story has Shorty going undercover as a woman. Unfortunately, little creative is done with this. For other comic book stories on this topic, please see my list of stories with political and social commentary, and search for "cross dressing".
Both of the newspapers are Cleveland papers. This is more evidence that Slam and Shorty are based in Cleveland, in their early tales.
The Broadway Bandit (1938). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Slam and Shorty vacation in New York City, where they solve a mystery about a thief who is holding up Broadway theater box offices. This is another one of Siegel's comic show biz spoofs. The plot does not concentrate quite as exclusively on the theater as "The Hollywood Murders" did on the film industry.
Siegel introduces a whole slew of other detective figures into the tale, whose plot paths keep criss crossing Slam and Shorty, often to comic effect.
One suspects the hoofers we see, are old-fashioned by the standards of 1937. They tell cornball jokes that were groan-inducing cliches, even by this era. Siegel liked to invoke deliberately cornball, out-of-date showbiz schtick. See his "The Super-Clown of Metropolis" (Superman #136, April 1960).
SPOILERS. Slam's gung-ho studying to learn a new skill, anticipates his studying magic in "The Magician". In both tales Slam proves himself adept at learning.
The Merrivale Mystery (1939). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Slam and Shorty decide they want to enroll in college, so they go to Merrivale University, where they get involved in a mystery. This story marks a return to Slam Bradley traditions, with Slam and Shorty once more comically taking on new roles at some institution. Similarly, the Spy story "The President's Assignment" (Detective Comics #25, March 1939) in the same issue involves a return to basics in that series as well. Perhaps Siegel and Shuster felt a need for such a return after the wild flights of fancy of "In Two Billion A.D." (1939).
Slam and Shorty take on new roles here, becoming college students. They are not quite undercover: they are doing this because they want to be students, not because they need undercover roles to investigate a crime. Still, this is very close to the undercover paradigm. Unlike some of the earlier tales in the series, in which Slam shows outstanding talent in his new profession, the boys here are not so hot as students, and clearly are fish out of water. The tale is especially close to their earlier classic, "Undercover in Grade School" (1937), in which the boys also penetrate an educational institution, with hilarious results.
The point of view in the undercover tales perhaps relates to that of adolescence. Teenagers often try out new roles and new professions. It is part of growing up, and looking for a place for yourself in the world. Other aspects of their personas recall adolescence. Shorty can represent the awkwardness that many teenagers feel, while Slam represents the new growth into a giant adult body, and the raging testosterone that can come with it. All of this is only one aspect of Slam and Shorty's characters, however.
The Wrong Guy (1939). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Slam and Shorty go undercover as bellhops, to check out a hotel that is reputed to be haunted. (This untitled story was given a title by the Grand Comic Database.) The last Slam Bradley tale to be illustrated by Shuster. Later stories would still have Siegel as author, but other artists would draw them. Appropriately, Siegel and Shuster go out in fine style, with a story squarely in the best Slam and Shorty tradition. It is another comic tale, in which our heroes are undercover in new professions in some institution, solving a mystery.
The tale is delightful, with both comedy and thrills. It is in the tradition of movies like The Cat and the Canary, in which alleged ghosts and mad scientists run amok in a spooky building, with our heroes and others having comic encounters with them. As in such movies, everything is given a rational explanation at the end - this is not a fantasy tale. The problems our heroes get into show Siegel's flair for comic exaggeration.
Slam and Shorty share a bed together in the hotel, just as they did in "The Hillbillies" (#8, October 1937). In that tale, Shuster had them in comically identical red and white striped pajamas. This shared-bed imagery possibly has a gay dimension.
COSTUMES. Slam looks good in his bellboy uniform, with its red jacket, blue trousers with a stripe down the side, and pillbox cap. This was a standard outfit for 1930's hotels; it recalls 19th Century Hussar's uniforms, and other fancy military gear of the period.
He is number 6, and wears a circular badge with that number. Such circular number badges rarely show up on military uniforms; they function best with small groups of men, such as bellboys. The idea that a person has a number only, with his name being suppressed, has a macho quality.
This story is also notable for the idealized male bonding between Slam and his friend, steel worker Pete Graves. Both men are depicted as macho musclemen and tough guys, both love to fight with each other, for fun and with "no ill feeling". Shuster's art depicts the men as all smiles as they fight, something highly pleasurable to them.
The Human Fly (#9, November 1937). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. A crook steals from skyscraper offices by climbing up and down the sides of buildings; meanwhile, Snoop Dolan tries to replace Shorty as Slam's assistant. Once again, the main merit here is Shuster's flair for adventure in high places.
This story has a self-referential joke: an ad on the wall is for the Federal Men Club and Adventure Comics. Such reflexive ideas will be a standard in the science fiction comic book Strange Adventures in the 1950's. This must be a very early occurrence of such reflective material in comic books. Siegel will also include a funny reference to Detective Comics itself in the finale of the next Slam Bradley story, "In the Ring", and another in "The Merrivale Mystery" (1939). Siegel is a natural person to have pioneered such material. He is always turning his satirical scalpel on media institutions; it is natural for him to focus on his own medium once in a while. His Bizarro tale, XXX, is one of the few to look at the business side of the comic book industry, briefly and surrealistically. Also, the "anthology construction" Siegel sometimes used in the 1960's involved stories that referred back to previous tales written by Siegel; these will be even more elaborate and complex uses of self-reflection.
The story has a notable splash panel, with Slam dressed as a boxer in his home gym.
This story has features in common with the next tale in the series, "In the Ring", although that tale is not a sequel:
At least in theory, what Slam has learned here is stage magic: he opens the story dressed in a magician's white tie and tails. But in practice, Slam's tricks go far beyond the skills of any stage magician of our times. They rather seem the repertoire of a supernatural being. Or perhaps "paranormal powers" is a better categorization.
The story is a rough draft of Siegel's later stories about the magical imp from another dimension Mr. Mxyzptlk, whom Siegel first created in "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk" (Superman #30, September-October 1944). Slam's tricks are just as playful, and create a world of mischief for the crooked politician. However, Slam is much more idealistic that that practical joking imp, and his tricks always serve the purpose of Justice.
Slam tries to organize magicians as a group, to use their powers to "assist humanity" (page 2). This is an interesting example of social organization and recruiting. It also shows the idealism that runs through Siegel's work. It is humanity as a whole that Slam wants to benefit - not one particular group.
Slam's repertoire of tricks includes looking seemingly dead, then coming back to life. Mr. Mxyzptlk does this too, in his debut. Please see my list of Siegel's Resurrection tales, for more examples of this in Siegel's work.
The factory workers in in "The Magician" are organized hierarchically, with bosses giving orders to subordinates. So are the chief crook and his henchman. This anticipates "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk", where the ambulance attendants have a boss and subordinates.
SPOILERS. Gender identity breaks down in "The Magician":
After a different action of Slam's, one of the workers says that the product of the factory belongs to the workers, because they made it. This is just a brief statement in passing, one which helps the plot. But one wonders if an economic principle might also be getting enunciated.
ART. Slam looks terrific in his magician's white tie and tails (page 1). Please see my list of Heroes in White Tie and Tails.
Slam spends much of the story in a good double-breasted suit. Men's clothes in 1938 were at the start of the brilliant film noir era styles of the 1940's.
In Two Billion A.D. (1939). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Slam and Shorty join scientist Professor Kenton in his time machine on a perilous journey to the far future. This is one of the few two-part Siegel and Shuster Slam Bradley stories. It seems to be the longest story created by Siegel and Shuster in the 1930's, although the six-part Federal Men serial "On the Wrong Side of the Law"(1938-1939) is also long. It is rich in invention, and Siegel plainly felt he needed two chapters to cover it. The story seems like one continuous whole, rather than two tales. Part 1 opens with a street brawl in 1939 America; this is the traditional opening of a Slam tale, and as usual, it leads to plot developments that set up the bulk of the story. No such brawl occurs at the start of part 2, perhaps indicating that structurally, it is a straight continuation of part 1, and not a separate story at all.
Siegel's future mixes genuine progress, especially wonderful scientific inventions of all kinds, with barbarous rulers who resemble the dictatorial emperors of Ancient Rome. This makes this future far darker than the idealistic future Siegel and Shuster sometimes depicted in Federal Men tales, such as "Federal Men of Tomorrow" (Adventure Comics #12, January 1937) or "Junior Federal Men of the Future" (Adventure Comics #25, March 1938). In the Federal Men tales, the planets are governed by a Federation; clearly, it is a democratic form of government. Here, the emperors are sleazy dictators, a form of government Siegel and Shuster loathed.
He also has many fabulous beings evolved in this future Earth. These beings seem like evolved Earth creatures. There is little in Siegel's future about space travel or aliens.
Structurally, this tale resembles the undercover stories in the Slam series. In those tales, Slam and Shorty had humorous, exciting adventures in the world of some profession. Here, the world they enter is a future world. Both kinds of stories mix thrills and comedy. In both, Slam especially gets a new profession; here he becomes a gladiator in a Roman style arena at one point. Both the undercover tales and this sf story have our heroes meet a wide variety of denizens of the world, often resulting in some rowdy exchanges. Like the undercover tales, this is a lot of fun to read, a wild ride through a skeptically observed world.
At one point here, Shorty actually dies. This anticipates Siegel's "The Death of Superman" (Superman #149, November 1961), in which his greatest creation, Superman, dies. Right from the start of his career, Siegel was determined to imagine this. Even earlier, his Dr. Occult character had died and been brought back to life by a mad scientist: see Siegel and Shuster's four part tale "The Lord of Life", which appeared in More Fun Comics #20 (May 1937) through #23 (August 1937). This version with Slam and Shorty is the most comical and upbeat, with the other two tales being grim indeed. Siegel's tales often involve Resurrection, characters who die and are brought back to life. Please see my list of Siegel's Resurrection tales.
TIME TRAVEL. Time traveling regularly appeared in the sf comic strip Brick Bradford, which originated in Cleveland, just like Siegel and Shuster's comics (maybe it was something in the water). Brick regularly traveled to the future, starting in October 1937, just like Siegel's heroes would.
In Siegel's two futuristic Federal Men tales, there is no time travel; we simply see new characters in the future. Here, Slam and Shorty actually use a time machine to travel from the present into the future.
Thornton Wilder's experimental play The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) had just made a sensation. So people were conscious of avant-garde theater. Still, this is something unusual to see in a comic book.
The Case of the Deceased Ham (1943). Writer:? Art: Howard Sherman. A murder mystery on a Hollywood set.
SPOILERS. The premise is pleasantly recursive: a mystery on the set of a different mystery being filmed.
An extensive action sequence is set on a Western ranch (pages 4-7). For once, such a long action-suspense scene is entertaining.
Wild and Wooly (1943). Writer:? Art: Jack Farr. A tailor shop mysteriously offers free suit-pressings to anyone who comes in. Mystery story with clues and a series of decent plot ideas. Four of them, actually:
The main setting of "Wild and Wooly" is architecturally elaborate. This is a long tradition in prose mystery fiction.
This is one of a series of Slam Bradley mysteries, in which he and Shorty solve puzzle plot mysteries. The authors of these tales are unknown; one suspects that they might all be the work of the same writer. Many pulp magazine private eyes also solved puzzle plot mysteries, so this is not too unusual an activity for private eye Slam.
Shorty Falls in Love (#84, February 1944). Writer:? Art: Martin Naydel. Shorty falls in love, during the course of a robbery investigation. This is mainly a dull story, but it has a single good idea embedded in it: the mystery puzzle subplot about the emeralds and the theft is original. Once again, we have a plot construction, in which many little ideas are strung together, to make up a baffling case. As in "Wild and Wooly" (1943), each one is a little independent mystery puzzle plot idea. They are somewhat disconnected, but they all do add up to a nice little plateful of mystery.
The Perfumed Diamonds (1944). Writer:? Art: Martin Naydel. Slam and Shorty try to prevent a jewel theft at a society soiree.
MYSTERY PLOT. The puzzle plot ideas are pretty obvious and easily figured out, but the author does deserve some credit for being right in there, trying to come up with real mystery ideas. And why would someone try to perfume diamonds, anyway? This is not a bad subject for a mystery puzzle; it has some originality. You'll have to read the story to find out why!
Slam and Shorty solve the crime in a series of stages. Each stage gives them a deeper understanding of the mystery.
The "search for a missing object" (like the diamonds in this tale) is a kind of mystery puzzle with a long history in prose mystery fiction. It is especially associated with Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen and Stuart Palmer. Often times the objects are concealed in a "clever hiding place" - as in "The Perfumed Diamonds".
UPPER CLASS SOCIETY. The wealthy heroine employs a "social secretary". Such secretaries are common in the prose mysteries of Mary Roberts Rinehart. The social secretaries in Rinehart tend to be genteel young women. By contrast, the one in "The Perfumed Diamonds" is male and a bit older. This man's involvement with Society is shown by his thin mustache: a popular style feature of that era for upper crust types.
Slam makes jokes about debutantes. Debutantes were huge celebrities in that era.
WHITE TIE AND TAILS. The best part of this tale is Martin Naydel's illustrations of Slam Bradley in white tie and tails. This was a favorite costume of Golden Age super-heroes, while socializing in their secret identities. Please see my list of Heroes in White Tie and Tails. Here Slam, definitely not a society type, gets to wear it while on duty at the soiree. His double-breasted white waistcoat is especially elegant (top left panel on page 6). Action scenes show the tails of men's coats flying out, which conveys both motion and elegant shapes.
All the men at the party are in tails. This gives the tails a "uniform" quality. Each man's white tie and tails are absolutely identical to all the other mens', down to the smallest details. This wouldn't happen in real life - each man's outfit would be subtly different. But it makes for a good story. It enhances the "uniform" quality of the tails. A similar effect is found in "The Game That Has No Winners" (Mr. District Attorney #11, September-October 1949). a tale where most men are in identical tuxedos at a Society function. The tuxedos are also very dressy, also like the white tie and tails in "The Perfumed Diamonds".
A rental agency for formal wear is shown at the start (page 1). One line of its sign says "Tuxedo Rentals". The next line says "Full Dress". "Full Dress" is another name for "white tie and tails". The sign is correct to draw a distinction between "white tie and tails" and tuxedos. Although both are formal wear, they are completely different kinds of clothes.
BANNISTER. Also fun: Slam and Shorty sliding down a bannister (page 4).
The Chicken and the Yegg (1944). Art: Howard Sherman. A crook at a wedding where Slam and Shorty are guards manages to steal a priceless emerald.
"The Chicken and the Yegg" shows the way civilian Americans raised food in their yards during World War II. It offers interesting detail on people's lives in that era.
"The Chicken and the Yegg" is unusual in that much of it takes place at or near Slam and Shorty's home.
SPOILERS. This is one of several Slam tales whose solution recalls Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tale "The Blue Carbuncle" (1892). Others include "The Perfumed Diamonds", "Marvelous Marbles".
The story resembles in genre the later "Fools About Jewels" (#100, June 1945). Both stories:
Case of the Smoking Sign (1944). Art: Howard Sherman. A billboard that produces real puffs of smoke starts signaling in Morse code.
Like several of the duo's tales in this period, it starts out with a mysterious, puzzling, but not necessarily criminous phenomenon, which the heroes investigate. These phenomena often have a strong surrealist edge. They tend to be strange and out of the ordinary. They also tend to be urban in tone, such as the billboard here.
Billboards mix pictures and text. As a medium, they thus have an affinity to comics.
The solution to why messages are being sent by the billboard, is both logical and clever. And it draws on a fact that the reader has previously learned: a good development.
But it is not FULLY fairly clued, so that the reader can figure it out. Instead, Slam announces the solution, which he logically bases on a second fact not previously shared with the reader (last panel of page 5). This is a flaw, but one we can all live with, in what is otherwise a good story.
SETTING. This tale makes explicit that Slam and Shorty are operating in Manhattan. See the narration on the splash panel.
The briefly seen couple with the barge are likable. They help give the tale human warmth.
Bargains in Burglary (1945). Art: Howard Sherman. Shorty finds a mysterious shopping list. A similar gambit was used by mystery novelist Philip MacDonald, at the start of his Warrant for X (1938).
The plot progression in this story keeps coming back to the list, both for clues, and for ways for Slam and Shorty to evade capture by the bad guys. This use of the tale's central plot device to provide the logical links in the tale is a Slam Bradley specialty in this era.
Each time Slam deduces something from the list, he combines this with a new piece of information known only to himself, not the reader. This is sound detective work. But it is not a full "fairly clued" puzzle mystery, because the reader does not have all the information sleuth Slam does. One applauds the good detective work - and just accepts the fact the the story is just not a fairly-clued mystery puzzle.
The tale has a subplot mystery: where are the munitions common from? This mystery subplot is first stated in a newspaper (top right on page 3). And solved in the end (last panel on page 7). The solution is sound and a bit clever.
CROOKS: STANDARD COSTUMES. The crooks are all in sharp gray double-breasted suits. This is a common convention throughout this era's Slam and Shorty tales. It makes the gangsters instantly identifiable, and contrasts them with Slam's blue suit and bow tie. The crooks all wear regular, four-in-hand ties. It also allows the depiction of a lot of really sharp suits.
Cruncher O'Malley and his gang in "The Clue of the Cat's Pajamas" wear such suits. It makes them look like a group of top business executives, rather than a gang. "Case of the Smoking Sign" also has such suits.
I don't recall such "crooks all dressed in a standard outfit" approach in other comic book series. It seems to be unique to the Slam Bradley tales.
Fools About Jewels (1945). Art: Howard Sherman. Slam and Shorty are hired to guard a jewelry store against robberies.
MYSTERY PLOT. Pleasant if minor tale, whose mystery plot should not fool anybody. On the positive side, the mystery plot includes several clues. At least five of them.
There is also a decent mystery subplot about the location of the jewels. This too has a clue.
UNIFORMS. Both a group of private security guards, and a team of cops, have good uniforms. They are in contrasting style:
"Two Tickets to Trouble" anticipates "Truth + Penalty = Crime-Catchers". SPOILERS. Both have Slam and Shorty:
The encounter with the cop in both tales has gay undertones.
The Clue of the Cat's Pajamas (1944). Art: Howard Sherman. A rich woman hires Slam and Shorty to find Tabitha, a kidnapped cat, who is the beneficiary of her will. Nice comic tale, focusing on this popular plot about an animal due to inherit.
The story is filled with logical links, clues that provide Slam and Shorty with each new step in their investigation. Such links are the structural backbone of most of the Slam tales in this era. Here, the clues are carefully tied to Tabitha the cat. This allows the writer to exploit the unique features of the present plot, a story with a cat.
In both "The Clue of the Cat's Pajamas" and the earlier "The Perfumed Diamonds" a Society woman hires our heroes to find a valuable stolen item. BIG SPOILERS. Both tale's villains turn out to have a similar relationship to this woman.
PHONES. Telephone technology plays a role in this story. In 1944, telephones were high tech. They were also a machine in many homes and offices, and one that was readily available for constructing plots.
The telephone aspects in "The Clue of the Cat's Pajamas" do not relate to the actual mystery plot. Instead they are developed by Slam to escape from a bad guy, and to summon the authorities.
Marvelous Marbles (1945). Art: Howard Sherman. Crooks start playing games with the local kids, especially marbles. This story recalls some of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tales, such as "The Blue Carbuncle" (1892).
Slam and Shorty get it from both sides, both the crooks and the tough kids in this funny tale. The duo usually meets a whole series of real characters in their tales.
The splash is excellent, showing the crooks playing children's games. It is surreal and fun.
Truth + Penalty = Crime-Catchers (1948). Art: Howard Sherman. When Slam and Shorty appear on the "Truth or Penalty" radio show, their penalty is to dress up as Mother Hubbard and Little Red Riding Hood. Raucous comic tale.
The fictitious "Truth or Penalty" resembles a real life radio, and later TV show of the era, "Truth or Consequences". It was always asking people trick questions they couldn't answer, then putting them through outrageous stunts as "consequences" for their wrong answers. I remember seeing the show a few times as a kid, and could never figure out why anyone would want to appear on it, seeing as the whole show was people getting zapped. The writers here evidently agreed, because Slam and Shorty's appearance on the show is accidental and involuntary.
ART. Sherman does a good job with some barrels (page 6), their repeating circular forms being a Sherman trademark.
THE LAUGHING COP. He also includes a handsome, laughing young cop (page 7), complete with formal uniform and nightstick. The uniform has the works: a high-peaked cap with badge and shiny black visor, patch pockets precisely placed, narrow waist, epaulettes, peaked lapels, a white shirt and tie. It's a textbook dress uniform, and all the more effective for it. The slick cop is always holding his nightstick at an erect, jaunty angle.
Earlier cops in tough action (chasing bank robbers) (pages 3, 4) wore the same uniform. These cops look older and more serious than the young cop at the end.
The young cop goes into shock on his first appearance when seeing Slam and Shorty. In all of his next four panels he's constantly laughing. His laughter echoes that earlier in the tale, where men in suits laughed at Slam and Shorty in their costumes (pages 2, 3). This uniformed cop escalates the derision the pair are subjected to.
The young cop combines the features of the tale's previous male groups: the laughing civilians, the uniformed police. He is like a fusing together. The cop's nightstick echoes another man in the tale: the obnoxious radio announcer, and the microphone he holds. Both man have a firm grip on these power tools.
Shorty Grows Up (1949). Art: Howard Sherman. Shorty Morgan has a dream in which he grows tall and Slam Bradley grows short.
The most interesting part of this tale is Sherman's depiction of a fun house. It is full of vibrant colors, red, yellow and white, and is a riot of circular discs and wavy lines. It is almost as elaborate as his depiction of futuristic worlds, such as his Chris KL-99 tale "The Menace of the Green Nebula" (Strange Adventures #1, August-September 1950) and to a lesser extent, "Hitchhiker of Space" (Mystery in Space #24, February-March 1955). It is quite different, however, from his art in the Western stories of the Wyoming Kid.
Sherman also does a good job with his portraits of Slam Bradley, both in his double-breasted blue suit and bow tie, or in the policeman's uniform he wears in the dream. Bow ties worn with suits were clearly considered a snappy outfit for young men in this period, at least in the comics - one sees them much less frequently in the movies. They also show up on Johnny Quick.