'You Got Some Batsplainin' to Do!': A Thread for Batman Fans
Jun 2, 2022 16:02:43 GMT -5
Prince Hal and chadwilliam like this
Post by Hoosier X on Jun 2, 2022 16:02:43 GMT -5
And so we've reached the last thriteen pages of Detective Comics #25 ... which means Slam Bradley by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster!
I really love Slam Bradley, especially the early Slam Bradley comics I've seen, from the early years of Detective Comics. I've only read a few. So much energy! Slam and Shorty crack me up! It helps a lot that Slam gets 13 pages instead of six but you still have to give Joe Shuster a lot of credit for his storytelling and the way the action is so smooth and so clear and so exciting!
Slam started in the very first issue, more than a year before Action Comics #1, and he lasted until Detective #152 in 1949. (He also appeared in New York World's Fair Comics #1 and #2.) He's second only to Batman when it comes to having a lengthy run in Detective Comics.
I'm tempted to get right into the story in Detective Comics #25 without much further comment because, well, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with Slam Bradley. I've only read four or five of the original Siegel and Shuster stories, and I've only read a handful of the later Golden Age Slam Bradley stories. I just don't really feel qualified to say a whole lot!
But, briefly ... I've heard that Shuster was influenced by Roy Crane's Captain Easy comic strip, and I've never thought too much about it. I've never read any Captain Easy to form much of an opinion. But I recently read some early Popeye comics ... and Popeye was the first thing I thought of when I read the first few panels of the Slam Bradley story.
It starts off with Slam rubbing his palms together as he walks away from another tough guy who he's just stuffed into a trash can. Shorty is saying, Gosh, Slam! I thought he was your pal! Why did you beat him up and shove him in a trash can? It seems the fellow had insulted Slam by saying he wasn't educated.
Which sounds like something you'd see in a Popeye comic! Popeye was always running into his roughhousing buddies from many years at sea and then getting into a fight over something trivial. Shuster's cartoony style resembles the figures from Captain Easy as drawn by Roy Crane, but Shorty is just a weird little squiggle and could easily be a refugee from Thimble Theatre!
It's something I want to look into. My preliminary feeling is that Shuster was influenced by both Captain Easy and Thimble Theatre. It's another long-term project! I'll have to see if the library has any Captain Easy reprints. And I'll have to read more Popeye.
So that's a few words on the subject of Shuster's influences. Let's get back to the plot.
Shorty says, well, Slam, he's right! We're smart ... but we're not educated!
So Slam, as impulsive as ever, decides right then and there that ... WE'RE GOIN TO COLLEGE!
So by the bottom of Page One, they're on the train to Merrivale University! Shorty is grumbling ... he has a bad feeling about this!
Slam is ignoring Shorty and reading comics ... an issue of Detective Comics!
On Page Two, the train stops and some upper classmen get on the train. They find out the Slam and Shorty are prospective freshmen so they start being a-holes. Slam gets hazed! The upper classmen do that thing where one guy crawls behind you on hands and knees and the other guy pushes you over him so you fall down.
Slam doesn't like it and he beats everybody up in a dynamic panel at the bottom of the page!
Shorty tells him to calm down! That's just hazing, Slam! What a way to start our college career!
They get to the college and fill out cards regarding their previous education and it doesn't go over too well with the clerk. Neither of them even finished high school! But Slam pushes his way into the office of the registrar and demands that they be admitted. The registrar finds out that they are detectives and decides to let them enroll.
... says Shorty.
Oh, Shorty! You're just being paranoid!
Slam and Shorty start classes. A rattlesnake almost gets Shorty. It seems like somebody put it on his desk. But Slam saves the day by covering it with a trash can. All the girls are in love with Slam for being so brave and thinking so clearly. Shorty is upset that he's not getting any attention. After all, he's the one who almost died!
Later in chemistry class, Shorty almost blows up the lab! He thinks somebody switched some chemicals during an experiment, but Slam thinks he's just clumsy and is making excuses. (Yeah. Slam is frequently an a-hole when it comes to Shorty.)
Shorty also finds a note in his chemistry book: GET OUT OR DIE!
Slam laughs it off. Maybe it's more hazing. You know, the rattlesnake, the potentially fatal explosion, the threatening note. It's just those crazy college kids!
So one day they're at the cafeteria, and Shorty has gotten so paranoid that he thinks his food might be poisoned. So Slam feeds some of Shorty's food to a cat ... and it dies! They rush off to the health center and the doctor says Slam is fine. It appears that only Shorty's food was poisoned.
"What a relief!" says Slam. "I guess Shorty and not me is the one in danger!"
Yeah. Slam Bradley. What a butthole he is.
The registrar calls them to his office and admits that he let them enroll because he suspects there's a homicidal maniac on campus and it's only a matter of time before someone is killed. He was hoping that Slam and Shorty would be able to figure out who the maniac is. (He doesn't seem to understand that Slam is not the kind of private detective who figures things out. He's the kind of private detective who stumbles on to the solution on the last page.)
Next, Slam and Shorty are at the freshman prom. It seems to be as good a place as any to look for the maniac. All the pretty girls want to dance with Slam and they are all pretty dismissive of Shorty. But there's a girl with glasses who agrees to dance with Shorty. He thinks about it for a minute and runs away and hides under his bed in the dorm room. When Slam finds him, Shorty tells him that the maniac might be a girl! So he has to be scared of girls too!
A rock comes flying through the window. There's a note attached: "YOU WILL BE DEAD BEFORE ANOTHER DAY PASSES!"
Slam chases the rock thrower and gets hit on the head with a stick for his troubles. He stumbles back to the dorm room and finds Shorty packing to leave.
Slam goes with Shorty to the train station and says goodbye. Then he takes a taxi back to campus. But it's quite an exciting journey! A car comes up behind them and runs the taxi off a cliff! (That's the bottom of Page Ten.)
The top of Page Eleven shows the broken guard rail ... and thankfully Slam and the cab driver are standing on the road, looking a bit dazed. They jumped to safety just in time! Somehow.
Slam goes back to his room and encounters an intruder! It's the registrar! He's very scared! He's also received a threatening note!
While sitting and talking to the registrar and examining the note, Slam realizes that the registrar must have written the note!
It turns out that the registrar has been embezzling funds and he made up the story about the maniac ... or something. Honestly, the only way I can make sense of it is that the registrar was an embezzler ... and a maniac! That's why his story makes no sense.
You see, he suspected that Slam and Shorty had come to the college to investigate the embezzlement. So why did he let them enroll? To keep an eye on them, maybe? And then he started throwing rattlesnakes and rocks at them and poisoning their food ... to scare them off? Maybe! I don't know. Just move on.
He shoots Slam in the shoulder, which just makes Slam mad! Then, Shorty crashes through the window and distracts the registrar just long enough for Slam to punch him into oblivion!
Shorty didn't really leave, you see. He suspected the registrar was behind it, so he pretended to leave and then came back to help Slam.
In the final panel. Slam and Shorty are on their way back to the city. Slam's arm is in a sling and Shorty is waving around a check. The college board refused to let them stay on at the college but they did agree to pay them for uncovering the embezzlement ... and perhaps for stopping the registrar before he killed anybody!
Slam and Shorty will be ready for next month's adventure in Detective Comics #26!
I really love Slam Bradley, especially the early Slam Bradley comics I've seen, from the early years of Detective Comics. I've only read a few. So much energy! Slam and Shorty crack me up! It helps a lot that Slam gets 13 pages instead of six but you still have to give Joe Shuster a lot of credit for his storytelling and the way the action is so smooth and so clear and so exciting!
Slam started in the very first issue, more than a year before Action Comics #1, and he lasted until Detective #152 in 1949. (He also appeared in New York World's Fair Comics #1 and #2.) He's second only to Batman when it comes to having a lengthy run in Detective Comics.
I'm tempted to get right into the story in Detective Comics #25 without much further comment because, well, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with Slam Bradley. I've only read four or five of the original Siegel and Shuster stories, and I've only read a handful of the later Golden Age Slam Bradley stories. I just don't really feel qualified to say a whole lot!
But, briefly ... I've heard that Shuster was influenced by Roy Crane's Captain Easy comic strip, and I've never thought too much about it. I've never read any Captain Easy to form much of an opinion. But I recently read some early Popeye comics ... and Popeye was the first thing I thought of when I read the first few panels of the Slam Bradley story.
It starts off with Slam rubbing his palms together as he walks away from another tough guy who he's just stuffed into a trash can. Shorty is saying, Gosh, Slam! I thought he was your pal! Why did you beat him up and shove him in a trash can? It seems the fellow had insulted Slam by saying he wasn't educated.
Which sounds like something you'd see in a Popeye comic! Popeye was always running into his roughhousing buddies from many years at sea and then getting into a fight over something trivial. Shuster's cartoony style resembles the figures from Captain Easy as drawn by Roy Crane, but Shorty is just a weird little squiggle and could easily be a refugee from Thimble Theatre!
It's something I want to look into. My preliminary feeling is that Shuster was influenced by both Captain Easy and Thimble Theatre. It's another long-term project! I'll have to see if the library has any Captain Easy reprints. And I'll have to read more Popeye.
So that's a few words on the subject of Shuster's influences. Let's get back to the plot.
Shorty says, well, Slam, he's right! We're smart ... but we're not educated!
So Slam, as impulsive as ever, decides right then and there that ... WE'RE GOIN TO COLLEGE!
So by the bottom of Page One, they're on the train to Merrivale University! Shorty is grumbling ... he has a bad feeling about this!
Slam is ignoring Shorty and reading comics ... an issue of Detective Comics!
On Page Two, the train stops and some upper classmen get on the train. They find out the Slam and Shorty are prospective freshmen so they start being a-holes. Slam gets hazed! The upper classmen do that thing where one guy crawls behind you on hands and knees and the other guy pushes you over him so you fall down.
Slam doesn't like it and he beats everybody up in a dynamic panel at the bottom of the page!
POW!
Shorty tells him to calm down! That's just hazing, Slam! What a way to start our college career!
They get to the college and fill out cards regarding their previous education and it doesn't go over too well with the clerk. Neither of them even finished high school! But Slam pushes his way into the office of the registrar and demands that they be admitted. The registrar finds out that they are detectives and decides to let them enroll.
"FUNNY HOW HE TOOK
US IN WHEN HE LEARNED
WE WERE DICKS!"
US IN WHEN HE LEARNED
WE WERE DICKS!"
Oh, Shorty! You're just being paranoid!
Slam and Shorty start classes. A rattlesnake almost gets Shorty. It seems like somebody put it on his desk. But Slam saves the day by covering it with a trash can. All the girls are in love with Slam for being so brave and thinking so clearly. Shorty is upset that he's not getting any attention. After all, he's the one who almost died!
Later in chemistry class, Shorty almost blows up the lab! He thinks somebody switched some chemicals during an experiment, but Slam thinks he's just clumsy and is making excuses. (Yeah. Slam is frequently an a-hole when it comes to Shorty.)
Shorty also finds a note in his chemistry book: GET OUT OR DIE!
Slam laughs it off. Maybe it's more hazing. You know, the rattlesnake, the potentially fatal explosion, the threatening note. It's just those crazy college kids!
So one day they're at the cafeteria, and Shorty has gotten so paranoid that he thinks his food might be poisoned. So Slam feeds some of Shorty's food to a cat ... and it dies! They rush off to the health center and the doctor says Slam is fine. It appears that only Shorty's food was poisoned.
"What a relief!" says Slam. "I guess Shorty and not me is the one in danger!"
Yeah. Slam Bradley. What a butthole he is.
The registrar calls them to his office and admits that he let them enroll because he suspects there's a homicidal maniac on campus and it's only a matter of time before someone is killed. He was hoping that Slam and Shorty would be able to figure out who the maniac is. (He doesn't seem to understand that Slam is not the kind of private detective who figures things out. He's the kind of private detective who stumbles on to the solution on the last page.)
Next, Slam and Shorty are at the freshman prom. It seems to be as good a place as any to look for the maniac. All the pretty girls want to dance with Slam and they are all pretty dismissive of Shorty. But there's a girl with glasses who agrees to dance with Shorty. He thinks about it for a minute and runs away and hides under his bed in the dorm room. When Slam finds him, Shorty tells him that the maniac might be a girl! So he has to be scared of girls too!
A rock comes flying through the window. There's a note attached: "YOU WILL BE DEAD BEFORE ANOTHER DAY PASSES!"
Slam chases the rock thrower and gets hit on the head with a stick for his troubles. He stumbles back to the dorm room and finds Shorty packing to leave.
Slam goes with Shorty to the train station and says goodbye. Then he takes a taxi back to campus. But it's quite an exciting journey! A car comes up behind them and runs the taxi off a cliff! (That's the bottom of Page Ten.)
The top of Page Eleven shows the broken guard rail ... and thankfully Slam and the cab driver are standing on the road, looking a bit dazed. They jumped to safety just in time! Somehow.
Slam goes back to his room and encounters an intruder! It's the registrar! He's very scared! He's also received a threatening note!
While sitting and talking to the registrar and examining the note, Slam realizes that the registrar must have written the note!
It turns out that the registrar has been embezzling funds and he made up the story about the maniac ... or something. Honestly, the only way I can make sense of it is that the registrar was an embezzler ... and a maniac! That's why his story makes no sense.
You see, he suspected that Slam and Shorty had come to the college to investigate the embezzlement. So why did he let them enroll? To keep an eye on them, maybe? And then he started throwing rattlesnakes and rocks at them and poisoning their food ... to scare them off? Maybe! I don't know. Just move on.
He shoots Slam in the shoulder, which just makes Slam mad! Then, Shorty crashes through the window and distracts the registrar just long enough for Slam to punch him into oblivion!
Shorty didn't really leave, you see. He suspected the registrar was behind it, so he pretended to leave and then came back to help Slam.
In the final panel. Slam and Shorty are on their way back to the city. Slam's arm is in a sling and Shorty is waving around a check. The college board refused to let them stay on at the college but they did agree to pay them for uncovering the embezzlement ... and perhaps for stopping the registrar before he killed anybody!
Slam and Shorty will be ready for next month's adventure in Detective Comics #26!
