A rare image of Sally that's actually SFW.
Sally Forth is the name of both a comic written by Wallace Wood and one of the comic's main characters. Sally Forth was published from 1968 until 1974 intended for US soldiers stationed overseas, and as such, had to prominently feature some female protagonist, resulting in Sally, officially a member of the military, spending most of her time out of her clothes, a predicament not necessarily dictated by the scenario. The strip first appeared in the June 1968 Military News tabloid from Armed Forces Diamond Sales; the strip later moved to Overseas Weekly, a tabloid for US servicemen serving outside North America, until April 1974.
While Sally is the title character, the main 'character' is in fact a unit of five soldiers: Q.P. Dahl (the brain), Wild Bill Yonder (the eyes), Kicky McCann and Hairy James (both muscle), and Sally Forth (archetypal blonde). They were also joined by the martian Snorky for a while.
Note that, aside from the omnipresent nudity of most female characters, Sally Forth was not a pornographic comic—the stories themselves tended towards comedic action-adventure, and there was nothing more sexual than flirting.note Sally was silly fluff, good-natured fun.
Not to be confused with Greg Howard's Sally Forth comic.
Sally Forth contains examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance: At least for some time until Snorky points out the helicopter he is in with Dahl should not be able to fly, causing it to fall at once.
- Amazon Brigade: The Tarzan parody features a tribe of naked, pterodactyl-riding warrior women.
- Amusing Alien: Snorky, the squad's resident martian.
- Artistic Age: Lt. Dahl looks like a bald prepubescent child.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: The only thing harder than finding a picture of Sally clothed is finding a picture of Sally looking disheveled.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Mentioned for laughs one time; as Sally prepares to put on a shirt, Snorky wonders how she can see if she covers her eyes.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Played painfully straight in the Flash Gordon parody. Sally uses a rocket pack to fly around while she's completely naked, but doesn't suffer any injuries from doing so.
- Cute Little Fangs: Hairy James has a small pointy fang protruding from his lower lip.
- Damsel in Distress: Sally, fairly frequently.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mostly Wild Bill Yonder.
- Dirty Communists: A regular source for bad guys.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Sally's most frequent role was to distract enemy soldiers, guards, and other folks with her innate charms; the first time she saw action was when she lured a troop of Commies to their death by bathing in a river.
- Dumb Muscle: Hairy James, who is drawn in a decidedly simian manner, complete with extruding jawline and sloped forehead.
- Ecchi: A rare American example (that predates the term), since there's lots of nudity but no actual sexual content.
- Epunymous Title: To "sally forth" means to set out on an adventure.
- Evil Is Petty: Frequently invoked to make it very clear to the reader who the bad guys are. For one example, the Presidente of Rio El Gringo has sexy naked women hanging around his imperial palace to ogle and ride on as desired.
- Excuse Plot: Most of the storylines count as such.
- Eye on a Stalk: Snorky's eyes are suspended from his head on two short stalks.
- Fanservice: The whole point of the comic.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Happens to Sally and the Killer Gorilla during the King Kong parody.
- Had the Silly Thing in Reverse: One time, when the country of Rottenbad was testing a new robot, a scientist fires a bazooka at it. Unfortunately, the bazooka was aimed backwards and hits the President instead.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Snorky does this from time to time."There's more than one way to gobl a knog! That's an old martian proverb."
- Identical Stranger: After being captured by savage tribesmen, the squad escapes when Hairy disguises himself as one of them... just by taking his shirt off.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl/Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Sally, who's almost always naked and doesn't find anything unusual about it.
- Lampshaded in one exchange:Lt. Dahl: Get these civilian clothes on...
Sally: Aren't they a little out of style?
Lt. Dahl: If your luck runs true to form, they won't stay on long enough for anyone to notice!
- Lampshaded in one exchange:
- Killer Gorilla: Appears in a King Kong parody, complete with "King Kong" Climb.
- Latin Land: Several stories take place in fictional Central American countries, such as Rio de Gringo and the Republic of San Forizo.
- Literal-Minded: Sally, whenever it's funny.Dahl: Battle stations! Strip for action!
(Sally quickly undresses) - Living Crashpad: In the Flash Gordon parody, Sally defeats Mung the Merciless when she loses control of her jetpack and crashes into him.
- Loophole Abuse: In one story, Snorky gets out of filling out a pile of government forms by exploiting the fact that he's a martian and technically doesn't exist in the government bureaucracy. The bureaucrats instantly forget he was there.
- Lysistrata Gambit: In one story, a duplicate of Sally leads a Women's Lib rally on the Pentagon, proposing to end the Vietnam War this way.
- Ms Fan Service: Sally, in essence. But just about any girl in the comic as well.
- The Napoleon: Lt. Q.P. Dahl is half the height of everyone else.
- Often depicted with the leaders of foreign countries.
- National Stereotypes: Invoked frequently and shamelessly.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Snorky will "rediscover" innate abilities on an as-needed basis, such as invisibility.
- Parody: In addition to general-purpose military and espionage adventures, Sally Forth frequently parodied popular works such as Tarzan and Flash Gordon.
- Only One Female Mold: Pretty much every woman in the comic is just Sally with different hair.
- Protagonist Title
- Punny Name: Most of the characters' names.
- Robot Me: The President of Rottenbad plans to substitute world leaders with robot duplicates.
- Rule 34: In 1980, Wood published two pornographic Sally Forth stories for the adult comic book series Gang Bang.
- Scenery Censor: Plenty, as the comic was not X-rated and never went beyond nudity, with critical parts hidden behind just about every conceivable prop (including other characters, possibly also nude).
- Shrink Ray: Becomes an important plot element in the Flash Gordon parody adventure.
- Spider-Sense: Snorky sometimes invoked his "martian sixth sense" that informed him of plot-relevant information.
- The Squadette: Technically, Sally is this, as she began as a recruit in Dahl's commando unit.
