tried to appeal to mass readerships, but, as time went by, many tended to aim at a specific taste or demographic, such as readers who wanted mysteries, westerns, fantasy, science fiction, or romance. As the demand for ever more magazines increased, even smaller or more focused subjects were added to newsstand displays, appealing to those who wanted stories devoted to railroads, jungles, airplanes, automobiles, and so on.
One magazine with a wide appeal but a narrow and very specific target audience was Spicy Detective Stories, one of the sleaziest of the pulps. Adolphe Barreaux (1899–1985), who had studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts and the Grand Central School of Art, created Sally the Sleuth for Spicy in November 1934 with a little two-page strip titled “A Narrow Escape.” The material published in this pulp was generally produced by the worst writers of the era, mainly when they failed to sell their work to the better-paying, higher-end magazines. All the stories included illustrations of scantily clad women, frequently in bondage—so racy that the magazines were kept under the counter at most newsstands and sold only to adults. These illustrations were provided by Majestic Studios, a tiny art shop owned by Barreaux from 1936 to 1953; he was also the owner of Trojan Publishing from 1949 to 1955.
Although he worked for a few other pulps from the 1930s to the 1950s, most of Barreaux’s work went to Spicy, for which he drew the “Sally the Sleuth” strip until 1942, when other artists took it over. Barreaux went on to work for many of the major comic book publishers, including DC, Dell, Ace, and Fox.
Sally works in law enforcement but does not do much actual sleuthing beyond following a suspect, getting caught by him (always the only suspect, by the way), having her clothes torn off, enduring some bondage and torture, and either overpowering the villain herself or being rescued by her boss, the Chief. She is fearless and feisty but not especially intellectual. Sally’s exploits were the most popular feature in the magazine and were pioneering as she was the first female central figure in a series of comic strips.
“Murder With Music” was originally published in the September 1937 issue of Spicy Detective Stories; “Coke for Co-eds” was originally published in the January 1938 issue of Spicy Detective Stories; they were first collected in The Best of Sally the Sleuth (Eureka, California, Pulpville Press, 2013).