BS: Terry and the Pirates

Subject: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 05:44 PM

Yippee! "Terry and the Pirates" by Milton Caniff is being reissued complete in six volumes. Volume 1 is out!
Reliving my childhood!

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 05:54 PM

Explain yourself sire. I know not of what you speak.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 05:59 PM

Very cool......I was a fan of both Terry and Steve Canyon. Milton Caniff was a good Ohio boy born and bred and a grad of Ohio State. His works were the beginnings of OSU's Cartoon Library collection which is now quite extensive. I saw just the other day that some of his different works are being highlighted at Ohio State right now. If you're a cartoon lover and in Columbus some time, check out the Ohio State collection.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:20 PM

The bizarre facial features, thick lips, and high cheekbones were what really struck me about "Terry and the Pirates". Very memorable.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:25 PM

I never got the point of either strip. But I don't get the point of Donuel's posts either.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:32 PM

The point appeared to be that there is nothing else on Earth as sexy, unstoppable, and totally cool as a young American paramilitary adventurer confronting nasty Asian villains, Commies, and other such swarthy foreign types and besting them in personal combat as only a two-fisted Yank can...

The English had their heroes along that line too. Jungle Jim Bradley comes to mind. He too spent much of his time defeating sinister Asians and Communists in the steaming jungles. He also had a Native Malay sidekick named "Kolu". Kolu was a good Native. He may have been very distantly related to Tonto, but I'm not sure about that.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:42 PM

Tintin had Snowy....

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:45 PM

Hmm. Upon further investigation it seems that Jungle Jim may have also been an American. I assumed he was British because his activities all seemed to take place in British-controlled areas of Southeast Asia. Here's an article about the Jungle Jim comics.

Jungle Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:57 PM

For those who don't know the subject here...........

Terry and the Pirates

Steve Canyon

And of course..............


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:06 PM

Ignore the 3rd link in Spaw's post above. It's about that walking turd, Cheech Wizard.

From the article: "Cheech Wizard had little to say about the concerns of the generation among which the undergrounds flourished. His main concern was his own importance in the world, and his secondary concern was sex. But in that, to some extent at least, he did manage to represent his constituency in his own way."

Yeah. He represented the worst possible jerks of the time. Like I said, a walking turd. In a hat.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:08 PM

Cheech Wizard is gonna treat you like Cheech Wizard treats everyone, LH. I hope you are ready to meet the Hat.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:11 PM

Yeah? I have a surprise for the Hat. I will send his putrid carcass to Hades.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:13 PM

You and who else? The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers?

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:21 PM

I plan to deal with the Hat on his own level, Rap. Total surprise. Complete treachery. No mercy. When facing degenerate scum, one must put aside one's normal scruples briefly.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:39 PM

And as when any rutabaga goes bad LH, you may find your balls popping up in the back of your throat...

GOOOOMPH!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 08:12 PM

The Dragon Lady was my dream-

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: jeffp
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 08:30 PM

Thanks for that link, Spaw. Beautifully executed. And with input from Vaughn Bode's son, too!

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 09:06 PM

I prefer the incident where the female inhabitant boots Cheech about 50 feet when he won't stop hitting on her.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 09:15 PM

Q-

I'll believe it when I see it. Years ago someone published the early years but they never got into the rich literature of the World War 2 period. Maybe I need to compose a ballad about the Dragon Lady, and how she saved Charley Noble from certain death...

Cheeril;y,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 09:16 PM

Ah, yes! The Dragon Lady! And Burma! Not bad at all!

But the lovely, wistful Willow Belinda. . . .

She is not one of the best remembered characters in "Terry and the Pirates," but my, oh, my!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 11:36 PM

"Terry and the Pirates" Volumes 1-3 cover 1934-1940; 2-3 will appear in January 2008. Idea and Design Works (IDW) is the publisher. The remaining volumes are planned on a quarterly schedule. Dean Mullaney of IDW and Ohio State University are providing material.

We shall see, Charley.

"Little Orphan Annie" is in the planning stages, "Dick Tracy" is ongoing.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 11:58 PM

I loved Dick Tracy, followed Mark Trail and Steve Canyon, but I ain't never heard of them other fellahs, esp. that wizard/hat guy! Thanks for the link, Spaw...I think!:-) I wonder how many of them BillD has in that basement of his...

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 12:10 AM

Cheech Wizard is actually from a rather different category of comic strip to those others...he is from the "freak" comics of the early 70's. Spaw just added him to bug me. ;-) He knows I hate Cheech Wizard. Truth be told, I detested most of the "freak" comics (specially anything by Crumb), but I did like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's Cat.

Dick Tracy was an interesting example from the classic era of comics...sort of creepy in some respects, but very memorable and unique.

Frank Cho did a hilarious parody of Mark Trail recently in the Liberty Meadows comics.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 11:57 AM

The Washington Post on line version prints most of the comics appearing in American mewspapers.
www.washingtonpost.com, click on Arts and Living, and that will give you a link to the comics.
MarK Trail is included. Other survivors include Mary Worth, Beetle Bailey, and Barney Google

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 04:13 PM

Coincidentally, I am reading "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana," by Umberto Eco. A man loses his memory as the result of a stroke, but retains images of everything he had read. He searches his childhood literature and popular music seeking a key to his lost memory. A child in Italy during WW2, his reading takes him through comics songs and magazines of the time of Mussolini and the immediate post-war period.
One of the comics of 1939 was "On China's Seas," an Italianized "Terry and the Pirates." From American soldiers, he obtained a few originals in 1945. Connie is shown with Terry and a great image (full page) of the Dragon Lady.
This book awakens my memories as well; examples of the comics and title pages of stories are shown in color, and lyrics quoted of popular songs like "Lili Marlene."
Mandrake, Ming the Merciless, Azura and Flash Gordon, sheet music cover to Hope's "Road to Zanzibar," Bing Crosby in "Going My Way," Holmes and Watson, fancy cigarette packages (Murad, etc.), stamps from Labuan and Fiji, "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Treasure Island," much more.

A great read, a 'keeper.'

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 08:56 PM

One must maintain the same sense of Wonder one had in one's youth.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 10:44 PM

Ah, yes...the peerless glory of Wonder Warthog! Another favorite of mine. I always liked Gilbert Shelton's stuff, but detested most of his well known underground contemporaries like Art Crumb. Shelton had a sense of humour and aesthetics I could relate to. Crumb did not.

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 11:00 PM

Q, that sounds like a really great book. Ya almost lost me back at "mewspapers"...wonderful images came to mind...cats on papers, papers delivered to old mews in London and elsewhere...musepapers, etc., etc. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Bee
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 11:01 PM

I liked Bode's work so much I named two of my cats after his characters. Thanks for the memory trip, Little Hawk. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Terry and the Pirates
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 11:11 PM

I think you should be thanking Spaw, not me... ;-)