Episode 6: Before the Bat - Slam Bradley and detective adventure

Simon Carver and George Wilson turn their attention to Slam Bradley, one of DC’s earliest two-fisted detectives, tracing his rough-and-tumble run through Detective Comics and the New York World’s Fair Comics special.This expanded episode keeps the April 27, 1940 radio framing while spending extra time on Detective Comics #26 and #28, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s publishing legacy, Shorty’s comic relief, and the ways Slam Bradley anticipates — and differs from — both Batman and Doctor Occult.Along the way, the show explores early Siegel and Shuster storytelling, page-design evolution, the character’s place in Golden Age crime comics, and how these scrappy detective yarns helped lay groundwork for the superhero age that followed.