For the most part this book, published by the University Press of Mississippi, is a collection of interviews with comic strip writer and artist Milton Caniff, creator of TERRY AND THE PIRATES and STEVE CANYON. Making the interviews of added interest is the fact that a couple of them were conducted by Will Eisner and Jules Feiffer, acclaimed cartoonists in their own right. Listening in on the conversations as Eisner and Feiffer sit down and talk shop with Caniff is fascinating for comic strip fans, to say the least. Several articles about Caniff from various magazines are also reprinted, as are reminiscences by a couple of his assistants on STEVE CANYON. (Caniff had no assistants during his run on TERRY AND THE PIRATES, other than a part-time letterer.)
Since most of the interviews cover some of the same ground, there’s a certain amount of repetition of facts, but that’s inevitable. They’re still entertaining and provide a lot of insight into the creation of the two comic strips and Caniff’s working methods. It’s always interesting to me how any series develops over the years, whether in books, comic strips, or some other medium.
For me, though, the highlight of this volume has to be the strips that are reprinted in it, ranging from some of Caniff’s early, pre-Terry work through STEVE CANYON. Included are the famous speech by Colonel Flip Corkin when Terry gets his wings as a military pilot in 1943, maybe the best Sunday page of any comic strip ever; the poignant final Sunday page done by Caniff for TERRY AND THE PIRATES in 1946; the first Sunday page of STEVE CANYON; numerous character sketches from both strips; and several appearances of MALE CALL, the racy gag strip featuring Miss Lace that Caniff did for the armed forces newspapers during World War II. I know I’ve been on a Caniff binge lately (and I warn you, there’s more to come), but he’s that good, and this is an excellent volume for fans of his work.
Since most of the interviews cover some of the same ground, there’s a certain amount of repetition of facts, but that’s inevitable. They’re still entertaining and provide a lot of insight into the creation of the two comic strips and Caniff’s working methods. It’s always interesting to me how any series develops over the years, whether in books, comic strips, or some other medium.
For me, though, the highlight of this volume has to be the strips that are reprinted in it, ranging from some of Caniff’s early, pre-Terry work through STEVE CANYON. Included are the famous speech by Colonel Flip Corkin when Terry gets his wings as a military pilot in 1943, maybe the best Sunday page of any comic strip ever; the poignant final Sunday page done by Caniff for TERRY AND THE PIRATES in 1946; the first Sunday page of STEVE CANYON; numerous character sketches from both strips; and several appearances of MALE CALL, the racy gag strip featuring Miss Lace that Caniff did for the armed forces newspapers during World War II. I know I’ve been on a Caniff binge lately (and I warn you, there’s more to come), but he’s that good, and this is an excellent volume for fans of his work.
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You might enjoy this Mr. Media podcast interview with cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who talks about the new collection of his comic strips from the Village Voice, getting his start with Will Eisner on The Spirit, his plays (Little Murders), his movies (Carnal Knowledge, Popeye), the Disney musical adaptation of The Man in the Ceiling, and his forthcoming memoirs.
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