DETECTIVE COMICS #23 * Slam Satisfies

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Author:
Title: DETECTIVE COMICS No. 23
Place Published:
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Detective Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: January, 1939
Description: CGC certified: VG- (3.5): Restored (C-3). Grader's notes: "2" split w/ tape bottom of spine; stain bottom of spine; tanning cover; tanning interior cover; wear/tear/chip out bottom staple; color touch on full right front cover; pieces added full right front cover C-3; very light subscription crease front cover". Cream to off-white pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A Restored 3.0 (C1) sold for $1780 in 11/22. For comparison purposes, a Universal 3.0 sold for $2015 in 5/20.

CGC Census: 15 graded copies (10 Universal, 5 Restored). Gerber Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: 6 ("Uncommon: 50-200 copies").

Credits: Cover: Fred Guardineer. Scripts: Gardner Fox (credited as Paul Dean), Bill Ely (credited as Will Ely), Homer Fleming (credited as H. Fleming), Jim Chambers?, Tom Hickey?, Jerry Siegel (credited as Jerome Siegel), Leo O'Mealia, Sax Rohmer, Bob Kane. Art: Fred Guardineer, Bill Ely (credited as Will Ely), Homer Fleming (credited as H. Fleming), Jim Chambers, Tom Hickey, Joe Shuster, Leo O'Mealia, Bob Kane, Sven Elven."Slam" Satisfies: "Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, then in their pre-Superman days, [weighed] in with a slam-bang, hell for leather cross between Victor McLaglen and Captain Easy (with a Flash Gordon jaw), appropriately named Slam Bradley, because slamming was what he did most of the time. Always, of course, against bad guys — and always having a wonderful time. It was this action-filled rawness, this world of lusty hoodlumism, of Saturday movie serials seven days a week that made the new comic books, from their first day of publication, the principle reading matter of my life." Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes. Dial Press: 1965, pp. 15-16.

Siegel & Shuster Sci-Fi Sortie: "Jerry and Joe even do a future tale for Slam called 'In Two Billion A.D.' for Detective Comics #23-24. In it, Slam and Shorty join a Professor Kenton in his time machine on a perilous journey to the far future, where they encounter bird- and plant-men who sentence Shorty to death. Our heroes escape, or course, but it was a successful foray (their second) into comics with science-fiction themes." — Brad Ricca, Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Creators of Superman. St. Martin's Press, 2014, p. 116.****************************************
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