DETECTIVE COMICS #1 * Slam Bradley Starts * The Major's Major Achievement

Heading: Slam Bradley Starts
Author:
Title: DETECTIVE COMICS No. 1
Place Published:
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Detective Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: March, 1937
Description: CGC certified: Poor (0.5): Restored (C-5). Grader's notes: "Missing interior part/page/wrap centerfold affects story; missing interior part/page/wrap page(s) 23 affects story; color touch on full left front cover; moderate tape cover; moderate tape multi wrap; pieces added bottom page 1 A-5; pieces added right bottom front cover A-5; tear seals right center front cover C-1". Slightly brittle pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: A Restored 0.5 (C-1, wrong back cover, incomplete) sold for $5375 in 2015. For comparison purposes, an unrestored 0.5 (coverless, 1st & 2nd wrap and centerfold missing, incomplete) sold for $5000 in 3/21; another unrestored 0.5 (coverless, incomplete) sold for $1939 in 11/17; and a final unrestored 0.5 (pages 17, 18, 21 & 22 missing, incomplete) sold for $15,600 in 4/21.

Overstreet: "Scarce. Slam Bradley & Spy by Siegel & Shuster, Speed Saunders by Stoner & Flessel, Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise, Buck Marshall, Bruce Nelson begin; Chin Lung in 'Claws of the Red Dragon' serial begins; Vincent Sullivan cover." CGC Census: 37 graded copies (17 Universal, 1 Qualified, 19 Restored. Gerber Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: 7 ("Scarce: 21-50 copies").

Credits: Cover: Vin Sullivan. Scripts: Creig Flessel, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Bill Patrick, Jerry Siegel, Russel Cole, Fred Schwab, Homer Fleming. Art: Creig Flessel, Sven Elven, Tom Hickey, Bill Patrick, Joe Shuster, Russel Cole, Fred Schwab, Homer Fleming.Tapped by Taschen: The DC Universe Collection copy of Detective Comics #1 is prominently illustrated in Taschen's 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking with a full-page reproduction on page 8, with the following commentary: "Detective Comics, the first successful comic book with a single theme, was perhaps inspired by publisher Harry Donenfeld's Spicy Detective Stories pulp. At a time when popular culture was rife with characters like Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, the first issue of Detective Comics relied on a typical comic strip trope to capture the attention of its largely white audience."

DC's Defining Moment: "The launch of Detective Comics defined Wheeler-Nicholson's young comics company and set it and set it on an ascendant path within the industry. Unfortunately, cash flow problems meant that man that Wheeler-Nicholson wasn't able to enjoy it for long. However, his smart decision to partner with businessmen Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz on Detective Comics guaranteed that his company's third title would at least be solvent, and the editorial decision to have all the stories revolve around a single theme helped distinguish it from its newsstand competition.

"Issue #1 featured a striking cover by Vin Sullivan and several action-mystery stories that used Chinese stock villains including Wheeler-Nicholson's own feature, 'The Claws of the Red Dragon.' Minor DC character Speed Saunders made his first appearance in the issue as a special operative of the harbor police. But Detective Comics #1 is most notable for the debut of two new features from the writer/artist team of Siegel and Schuster: 'Bart Regan, Spy' and, particularly, 'Slam Bradley.' Slam was a muscle-bound scrapper and freelance police investigator capable of hoisting his enemies and using them as baseball bats to knock down even more thugs. His huge strength and gruff attitude were lightened somewhat by the addition of his comic sidekick, Shorty. The powerful, dark-haired Slam bore some resemblance to the character that would later become the Man of Steel, and Siegel admitted at the Slam Bradley feature included 'some of the impact we planned to use later in Superman.' By this point the pair had seen such little interest in their pet project that Siegel may have been willing to strip the concept for usable parts. With its mix of energetic offerings Detective Comics was a hit, and has remained in continuous publication ever since." — Alan Cowsill, Alex Irvine, and others. DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing, 2010, p. 17.

About the Major: "It was a former military officer and adventure-story writer, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who founded National Allied Publications to produce all-original stories in traditional comic book format, beginning with New Fun, dated February 1935.

"While most writers of this period were drawn to their favorite genres through the works of others they sanctioned and imitated, Wheeler-Nicholson (like Dashiell Hammett, Walt Coburn, Arthur Guy Empey, Max Brand and Gordon Young) wrote from raw experience — to which his persuasive style and implicit scenarios adequately testified. As one of the army's youngest officers, he adventured around the globe, from hunting the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa with famed General John Pershing to fighting with Cossack warriors across Russia during WWI.

"If the notion of an authentic American hero immersing himself in the world of funny books seems incongruous, think of the situation as another kind of war, one fought with dwindling finances and mounting competition, where friends become predators at the turn of a page and bank accounts are wiped out by a single creatively manipulated invoice. As one of the youngest cavalry members serving his country, Wheeler-Nicholson faced enemies from the Philippines to Siberia. But, ironically, his most dangerous foes were those who worked alongside him, whom he trusted, who betrayed him with masked guile and hollow promises, who railroaded him into bankruptcy. Wheeler-Nicholson was a warrior engaged in a war of equity and amortization, a war for which he was unprepared, a war he would ultimately lose." — Jim Steranko, "Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: A New Revelation in American Comic Book History." DC Comics Before Superman: Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's Pulp Comics. Hermes Press: 2018, p. 9.****************************************
The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION comprises over 40,000 comic books, encompassing every single DC comic published for retail sale from 1934 to 2014. The collection was amassed by British music producer Ian Levine over the course of several decades, and it's been hailed as the single greatest collecting accomplishment in comic book history. This collection served as the basis for former DC Comics president Paul Levitz's monumental book 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking, published by Taschen in 2017. PBA is proud to present this epic collection in a series of themed sales, including The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION Part 3: The GOLDEN AGE, coming this summer. To join the DC Universe Collection notifications list, contact pba@pbagalleries.com.

Enjoying PBA's DC Universe Collection: Pre-Hero, Ashcans and Oddities sale? A very small number of softcover and limited edition hardcover auction catalogues are available for purchase. The catalogues are fully illustrated, thoroughly researched, and make excellent reference works for DC diehards. To order a copy, or to inquire about consignment opportunities, contact Ivan Briggs, PBA's Director of Comics: ivan@pbagalleries.com.