Created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel

SLAM BRADLEY, the two-fisted, fightin'-mad (and occasionally pipe-sucking) shamus, slugged his way through the mean streets of Cleveland, Ohio in the pages of Detective Comics. Slam loved a good brouhaha (eyes left) and he usually found one. During his long career as a "tough private detective", Slam often went undercover, as a teacher, a magician, a prizefighter and even a singer on the radio, with only his aggravating, buffoonish "partner pal" "Shorty" Morgan for back-up. Slam may not have been too original--he was only a slightly exaggerated version of Race Williams and other hard-boiled pulp eyes of the time--but his importance lies in other areas. He was the first private eye to appear regularly in comic books, and if tall, muscular, raven-haired and square-jawed Slam bears more than a passing resemblance to Superman, well, given his roots, that shouldn't come as a shock.

It's hard to remember, in these days of born-again Batmania, that Batman wasn't always the star of Detective Comics. But originally, the whole idea behind that comic was quite radical--imagine an entire comic book of new stories devoted to one theme, not a hodge-podge of reprints shoved between two cover for a fast buck. In the case of Detective Comics, the theme was mystery and detection. And one of the detectives in that very first issue was Slam Bradley. Over the years, Detective Comics would play host to a slew of various detectives, be they cops, district attorneys, criminal lawyers or, especially private eyes, shooting it out or dukin' it out with the bad guys. Unfortunately, after Batman's debut in issue #27, all those great old characters would have to make do with back-up feaures. But Slam was there first, and he hung on a good long time, making him one of the longest-running, in number of appearances, comic book private eyes.

Slam was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created some doofus in a cape called Superman at about the same time. In fact, they were still trying to sell this Superman guy to DC when Slam made his first appearance in issue #1 of Detective Comics. And Slam was important in another way.

According to Shuster, "We turned it out with no restrictions, complete freedom to do what we wanted. The only problem was we had a deadline. We had to work very fast, so Jerry suggested we save time by putting less than six panels on a page. The kids loved it because it was spectacular. I could do so much more. Later on, the editors stopped us from doing that. They said the kids were not getting their money's worth."

Slam was still making appearances in Detective Comics well into the forties. In 1943, newspaper cartoonist/illustrator Jack Farr was hired by DC to do several episodes. but by the fifties, Slam was gone, sleeping the big sleep. Or so we thought.

In the eighties, Slam returned in a couple of special stories in issues of Detective Comics celebrating various anniversaries, although without his annoying sidekick. In issue 500, he appears in "The 'Too Many Cooks...' Caper," billed as a Slam Bradley story, which reunites many of DC's non-costumed detectives, including Roy Raymond, Christopher Chance and Jason Bard. And in issue #572, he appears alongside Batman, The Elongated Man and Sherlock Holmes in "The Doomsday Book," to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Detective Comics. Pretty appropriate, I'd say....

Then, in the nineties, Slam showed up in some of the Superman titles. Or at least a character called Slam Bradley, Jr. did, as detective in the Metropolis police deppartment. And there was a rather skewered version in a comic called Guns of the Dragon, under the name of "Biff Bradley." Contributor Scott Hileman once asked the editor at a convention about it, and was told that they had indeed wanted to use Slam Bradley, but that he'd been already "optioned" by another editor. Hence "Biff."

But best of all, in 2001, the real deal, Slam himself, finally returned to the back pages of Detective Comics, in an original, decidely-stylish multi-part story by Ed Brubaker, of Scene of the Crime fame, entitled "Trail of the Catwoman." In any revival of a long-ago comic book hero, there's a certain amount of creative revisionism, and this case is no exception. Fortunately, though, the tinkering's been kept to a minimum (no suddenly revealed superpowers, no convulated backstory to explain same). The only real change seems to be location -- if Slam's original stomping ground was supposedly Cleveland, there's no doubt that it's now Gotham City. And Slam's allegedly comic sidekick, Shorty Morgan, is mercifully nowhere to be seen. Slam, looking older, but no less brutal, and apparently no less fond of fisticuffs than he ever was, is hired by the mayor of Gotham to track down one of the city's more notorious costumed criminals. As Slam himself remarks, after pounding out a few thugs, "Not too shabby for an old guy." Indeed.... Catwoman must have been impressed with how Slam handled the case. He's currently appearing in the Catwoman comic, as a recurring character. He's even listed in the Catwoman Secret Files & Origins special issue, where we learn the shocking fact that Slam's middle name is Emerson!

Even more shocking are the revelations of issue #16 (April 2003), wherein Slam finally confesses his love for Catwoman.

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Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to George Moss for putting me straight. And Scott Hileman for the extra leads. This one's for Jerry and Joe.

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