Showing posts with label Charlton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlton. Show all posts

19 June 2018

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)

Sue & Sally - Honorary Fly Girls

Today we look at a forgotten nomination for Fly Girl status - Sue And Sally Smith - Flying Nurses:


The Smith sisters, Sue and Sally, were billed as Flying Nurses and, indeed, they did a lot of flying...









A lot of flying, especially given they only had seven issues. (And we're not showing all of their flights here). The girls were both adventurers, no denying that. Let's take a look at the cover featured tale from their first issue - #48. (Yeah...  comics) ...


 You might note that Sue and Sally come with a mighty fine pedigree - stories were usually pencilled by Joe Sinnott, often with Vince Colletta's inks, and covers were by Dick Giordano. This was back in late '62 and early '63 - just shortly before Joe was to begin his legendary run with Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four.

Now, while the sisters were not pilots, they did fly into danger and were willing to leave the plane to do it...


...but it's their adventure in #52 that offers the most convincing argument...


When the pilot's out, they land the plane together.
Yep. I'm calling it in their favour - Sue & Sally may not technically be Fly Girls, but we're giving the Flying Nurses HFG* status. They earned it.

Here's a couple more covers - one for the first story above, and the one that goes with the parachuting splash -




story pages by Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta from Sue And Sally Smith, Flying Nurses #s 48 & 52. (1962, 1963)