The Secret Life Of Sue And Sally

As mentioned this morning, Flying Nurses and honorary Fly Girls - the twins Sue And Sally Smith - had just seven issues of their own comic, starting with #48. We also mentioned that the strip was usually drawn by Joe Sinnott.
But what came before?

The final issue of My Secret Life, #47, featured the debut of a new series created by Joe Sinnott. Joe wasn't just the artist on the strip, they were his girls. The writer on Sue and Sally's adventures is uncertain, but Joe Gill is the frequent guess as tho whose work it might be.

They debuted in September of 1962, and it was a good concept. Our heroes are positive heroes - healers by nature. They're pretty girls, always a bonus on the artwork for drawing in the readers. And their arrangement keeps them constantly moving from one potential danger zone to another, with the opportunity for widely varied and interesting background visuals. There's definitely great potential if the series had been more noticed by readers of the time.

To wrap up today's look at the Flying Nurses, here are Sue and Sally's first and final adventures. Their first appearance was on the cover of My Secret Life, with art by Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia -

Fire Storm features pencils from Joe Sinnott with inks by Vince Colletta -

As seen in the story above, with Joe Sinnott's original concept we get a twin telepathic connection between the sisters. Whoever wrote the ongoing series ignored that potential and it was never mentioned again.

We saw the splash page for their final tale this morning. The credits on Symptom Of Evil are more nebulous. Dick Giordano is the 'best guess' penciller, and the inks are from the Vince Colletta Studio rather than the man himself.

page art from My Secret Life #47 and Sue And Sally Smith - Flying Nurses #54 (1962, 1963)