The Scarlett Sloth

The Scarlett Sloth, Sentinel of the Skyways and his side kick, Alberto, Wonder Boy Aviator, are a pair of fictional aviators created by Capitan Esteban Garcia Regaliz for Dashing Aero Tales, a San Tortan pulp magazine. The Sloth is a traditional moustache twirling, dashing and masked latin hero, however he is also a great aviator and aero engineer.

The Scarlett Sloth, Sentinel of the Skyways; a brief history of San Torta’s greatest fictional hero
An article, written by Dr. Olaf Ranulfsenn-Diego, head of cultural studies, University of San Torta, to mark the 70th anniversary of the sloth. This is often considered the best source of information on the subject, although there are some minor historical innacuracies (the author confuses two of the stories at one point). It is reprinted here in full and with the permission of the author:

Origin
The Scarlet Sloth, Sentinel of the Skyways (not to mention Alberto, Wonder Boy Aviator) where first introduced to the public in Dashing Aero Tales No.1, which arrived on magazine racks through out San Torta on the fourth of October, 1934. The magazine was the brain child of Juan Antonio Svensenn of Svensenn and San Churro Publishers. Seeing the world-wide mania for cheap, thrilling tales of the air, and sick of the heavy shipping charges involved in importing pulp magazines, he hired Capitan Esteban Garcia Regaliz, late of the San Tortan Air Force, and a veteran of the first world war to help him create his own magazine, Dashing Aero Tales.

Svensenn knew that although he would publish numerous tales in his new magazine, he would have a regular hero, who would appear in each issue. He hoped that this hero would develop a popular following and draw more people into reading the magazine. Regaliz was asked to create this hero as well as to act as the technical advisor and editor of the magazine, which would also contain numerous technical features on the latest aircraft and aviation technologies.

Regaliz was a fan of American cinema, and after work that night attended a screening of the latest swashbuckling, sword swinging, moustache twirling Latin hero epic (he freely admitted in an interview in 1967 that all of these films have merged together in his mind, so he can’t be sure which one it was.) As he watched the handsome, dapper moustachioed hero on the silver screen as he performed dazzling feats of swordsmanship, defeated the villain and won the heart of the fair maiden, Regaliz realised that this was exactly the man he should use for his hero. A mysterious, masked man, the identity of whom would never become clear, but who would use his phenomenal skills with a plane and a sword to fight for truth, freedom and democracy. Regaliz hurried back to his apartment in La Calle de los Pasteles de Crema and spent the night pecking away at his ancient type writer. In the morning, he took his manuscript to Svensenn.

First Story
Svensenn was overjoyed by the story - The Tale of the Scarlett Sloth, about a world-war one veteran who had been horribly injured while shooting down a Zeppelin sent to bomb San Pudin (not as far fetched as some suggest, in 1917, Rodrigo Empanada killed the Kaiser’s favourite Dachshund in a strafing attack, and the Kaiser demanded plans be drawn up for the bombing into oblivion of the upstart pilot’s home land), so that he will never remove his mask or gloves, who builds his own fighter plane in total secrecy and uses it to rescue a teenaged mechanical genius, kidnapped and forced to design a fleet of heavily armed flying boats for a notorious pirate known as El Hombre Gordo Sudoroso. The text was edited slightly to fix Regaliz’s somewhat erratic spelling, and became the cover story of the first issue of Dashing Aero Tales. It contained all of the catch phrases and stock scenes which were to permeate the entire series.

The magazine proved very popular, particularly it’s main hero, The Scarlett Sloth, and soon Regaliz and a team of other writers where churning out story after story about the red clad mystery man.

The Black Scarab
Initially, he only ever flew one plane, known as the Scarlett Arrow, which he had built himself, and which he maintained and improved upon with the aid of Alberto, Wonder Boy Aviator. Possibly the most important story of the early years was ‘The Flight of the Black Scarab’ published in June 1935, which not only introduced the sinister criminal master mind The Black Scarab and his gang, along with their aero-fortress (confusingly also called the Black Scarab), but also saw the destruction in a desperate ramming attack of the Scarlett Arrow. With it’s destruction, the way was open for a whole host of new machines, such as the Scarlett Manta, a flying submarine which appeared in the next issue, and the Scarlett Dragonfly, a helicopter introduced in 1940s. Other oddities included an amphibious sports car, a folding ultra light which could be carried in a suit case, and a mobile island.

Cast of Characters
The early days saw the introduction and evolution of the classic cast of characters - the Sloth himself, Alberto, his side kick, Captain Olaf Olafsenn (a somewhat ill fated tramp steamer captain who finds his ship destroyed by the Black Scarab on numerous occasions, and is eventually taken into the Sloth’s confidence, acting as his courier), STAF Colonel Pastele, and a rogues gallery including the sinister Black Scarab, the Cult of the Obsidian Walrus, The Black Mamba, and organised crime boss Big Mickey the Finn. The sloth fought against criminal gangs, smugglers, strange cults and assorted madmen to protect the San Tortan way of life. He teamed up with native islanders and defeated various smuggling rings and attempts to steal priceless ancient artefacts such as the Great Wazonga and the Eye of Boggora, and on one memorable occasion prevented an assassination attempt made on Presidente Philipe Olaf Garcia. Not only this, but he also engaged in various attempts to break speed, distance and duration records, entered numerous air races (usually with disastrous results due to sabotage by shady and sinister rivals) and was once sent on a quest to the Sahara desert to rescue a San Tortan explorer, who turned out to be a curvaceous heiress.

The war
In 1939, war broke out in Europe, and San Torta joined in (she had a Mutual Protection and Sloth Provision treaty with France, although the reasons have never been clear). This was a pivotal moment for the Sloth. Both Svensenn and Regaliz realised the incredible propaganda value of the Sloth, and signed him up instantly. Although the Sloth never officially rejoined the STAF, he and his arsenal moved to Europe and later to the pacific with the STAF. The sloth became vital to San Torta’s fictionalised war effort, a sort of Latin version of Captain America. He destroyed numerous enemy fighters, uncovered treacherous plots, provided much needed air support, and always had his own secret weapon ready to counter anything the Germans of Japanese could deploy. His popularity increased dramatically, especially when he took to flying the same aircraft as the STAF pilots he served with.

It was during this period that the characters of Captain Bill ‘Bluey’ Todd and Sergeant Jack ‘Jacko’ Jackson, a pair of Australian aviators where introduced. This pair of RAAF fliers, seconded to the STAF to help train up her pilots where to accompany the Sloth on several missions. They first appeared in ‘The secret of Mount Miko,’ as a pair of flight instructors, frustrated that they are unable to fly combat missions and are instead stuck in a training camp. The story involved the Sloth discovering a terrible Japanese super weapon, a sort of intercontinental disintegrator ray, being build in the crater of Mount Miko, a volcano on a small south pacific island. The only way to destroy the ray appears to be causing the volcano to erupt using precisely timed and pin-point accurate bomb blasts to four points around it’s base. The Sloth and Alberto enlist the assistance of the Australians, and, flying four P-47SPA2 fighter bombers (a San Tortan float plane conversion of the P-47 with a retractable planning hull) they manage to destroy the terror weapon just in time.

The Australian characters where popular, and appeared in a few independent tales of their own, mostly revolving around their comic obsession with beer.

Post war
When the war ended, the Sloth was at his most popular, however he found himself rapidly locked into a downward spiral. In the first few post war years, no one wanted to read tales about the war anymore, and few where interested in the Sloth’s brand of dashing heroism anymore. By 1950, Dashing Aero Tales had turned into Aero, a magazine concerned only with actual aviation, and including none of the pulp fiction which had helped to launch it.

There were a few attempts during the 1950s to re-invent the sloth for the jet age, but his old fashioned moustache twirling and preference for sword fighting climaxes did not sit well with super sonic flight. The final nail in his coffin came in 1957, with the launch of Sputnik and the beginning of the space craze. A ham fisted attempt to update the Sloth by turning him into a Science Fiction hero left him utterly destroyed, In the story - The Scarlett Sloth, Sentinel of the SpaceWays, the sloth is frozen in suspended animation by a super-cooled fuel leak in his experimental super-sonic flying boat and awakes in the distant future. Here he finds the people of earth living in fear of a harsh alien race which is trying to destroy them. After learning how to control the futuristic war spheres, the sloth destroys the alien command ship. It was a poorly written, poorly conceived rip-off of the classic Buck Rogers story of the 1930s, and the public would have none of it. Regaliz disowned it, saying it had been written by Svensenn’s Nephew.

Demise and Reprise
The sloth sunk into obscurity once more, his name kept alive by reprints, but no new stories emerging until 1987, when an attempt to launch a Scarlett Sloth comic was made. The character was heavily modernised, which put off a lot of his fans. Not only was he given an incredibly tacky mullet, Alberto became a girl (Alberta) in the angsty teen sidekick mould so familiar to readers of super hero comics. Most disappointing of all was the new Scarlett Arrow. It was simply a harrier jump jet painted red, with none of the original stories interesting gadgets and abilities. The comic lasted one issue.

More recently, rumours of a big budget motion picture adaptation have been making the rounds, however these seem to be totally baseless.

The sloth is today remembered as San Torta’s most popular hero, a dashing anachronism, totally unsuited to the modern world, yet ideally suited to his own. He has numerous fans, but all agree that any attempt on modernisation is doomed to failure.