The OTHER Sally...

Wally Wood's Sally Forth wasn't a sleuth per se, but she shared a surprising number of similarities with her 1930s predecessor, at least during the early stage of her career. Both were blond, voluptuous young women who tended to lose their clothing faster than Scientology loses converts. Originally created for the military press in the late 60s, Sally Forth featured a smooth combination of humor and cheesecake, as depicted in the strip reproduced below:


As noted by Don Markstein amongst others, military tabloids had a history of mildly risque comic strips (both Torchy and Miss Lace started out in army publications), and Sally initially followed the same model, blending barracks comedy with sassy innuendo. The sex appeal was provided by the main character's innocent stripteases - usually down to bra and panties; the nudity was more often implied than explicit.

Some time later, Sally left the armed services and continued her career on the hard core circuit. The dressing scenes and panty shows were soon displaced by full frontal nudity and penetration shots. Various historians feel that the move to XXX pornography marked the decline of Wood's artistic milieu. From this perspective at least, it's unfortunate that more of Sally's earlier escapades haven't survived to the present day.