Milton Caniff was the world-renowned comics artist known as the
"Rembrandt of the Comics". His influence can be seen not only in the
works of such comics artists as Jack Kirby and Will Eisner, but also in
the works of Federico Fellini and Orson Welles. Caniff ented the comics world as an
office boy for a local Ohio newspaper. After working at several papers,
he moved to New York in 1932, where he obtained a job with the
Associated Press. His first comic, "The Gay Thirties", was a single
panel comic. In 1933, when he heard that the newspaper syndicate was
looking for a new weekly, he spent the weekend creating "Dickie Dare",
about an imaginative little boy who liked to dream about the adventure
stories he'd read. The strip was moderately successful, and caught the
eye of the editor of the Chicago "Tribune", Captain Joe Patterson.
Patterson had the idea for an adventure strip featuring a young boy and
his adult guardian/sideick. The strip, "Terry and the Pirates", was a
huge hit, spawning a radio show, movie serials, dozens of tie-ins, and
a huge fan base.
During the war, Caniff found that his strip was popular among
servicemen, partially for the stories, but mostly for his ability to
create and draw sexy female characters. Caniff, unable to join the
armed forces due to a childhood injury, created the strip "Male Call"
for the Camp Newspaper Service. "Male Call" was somewhat risque for its
time (though harmless looking today), featuring a scantily clad heroine
named Miss Lace. Caniff supplied the strip free of charge to the armed
services, which ran from 1942 to 1946. In 1946, unhappy over the fact
that he could not obtain ownership of the "Terry" strip, Caniff turned
the work over to artist George Wunder (that same year, Caniff received
the very first Rueben award from the National Cartoonists' Society for
his work on the strip). Caniff went over to Field Enterprises Syndicate
with an idea for a new strip. This strip, instead of having a young boy
as the hero, would have an adult, but would still have the rollicking
adventures (and sexy women) of "Terry". The new strip, "Steve Canyon",
was an even bigger success than "Terry", and ran for the next 41 years.
While it's true that the storylines in "Canyon" may not have moved with
the times (especially during the Vietnam era), the strip was able to
survive as long as it did because of the strength and power of Caniff's
drawings. When Caniff died in 1981, so did "Steve Canyon." The final
June 5th strip contained a farewell from Bill Maudlin's Willie and Joe
characters, as well as signed farewells from dozens of Caniff's fellow
artists.
