Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon 1950


By Milton Caniff (Checker Book Publishing Group)
ISBN: 1-933160-51-9

Most cartoonists – most artists in fact – work their entire lives without reaching the giddy heights wherein they are universally associated with a signature piece of unsurpassable work. How incredible then when somebody achieves that perfect act of creation, not once but twice – seven days a week for decades?

Volume four of Milton Caniff’s second comic-strip masterpiece finds World War II veteran pilot Steve Canyon plunged back into the grip of armed conflict as the Korean War breaks out in the exotic, intrigue-dipped dailies and Sunday page, covering the period from February 19th 1950 until January 27th 1951, subdivided into five frantic episodes for your convenience.

‘Missionary’ (February 19th – March 24th) follows directly on from the previous volume and finds Steve and female air-ace/fighter pilot Doe Redwood recovering from injuries in the sorely-pressed Christian Mission of the redoubtable Miss Plum. Not only is this bold battle-axe hiding the downed pilots but also sheltering a jolly horde of oriental orphans from the encroaching Communists who want the kids for the re-indoctrination schools.

It takes a cunning plan, Yankee ingenuity and sheer guts to save everybody when the ruthless invaders lose patience and try to take the kids by force…

‘Mechanical Brain’ (March 25th – June 3rd) drops the escapees into a bigger frying pan when Steve is forced to impersonate a Soviet advisor to the People’s Army to save his life. Unfortunately “Comrade Smrnsk” is Russia’s greatest mathematician and computer expert – and remember this was back when the things went “Blurp! Bloop!” and were the size of bungalows (that’s thinking machines, not mathematicians I’m talking about). Moreover the Professor is married to Canyon’s old enemy Madame Lynx!

For her own reasons Lynx continues the deception, allowing Steve to deal with another unexpected surprise: the American traitor selling the tech to the Communists, who is accompanied by Steve’s old secretary Feeta-Feeta…

As the Chinese increasingly became seen as a bugbear if not out-of-control aggressor state in the build-up to the Korean Conflict, the ever-contemporary Caniff was weaving snippets of research and speculative news items into the grand story unfolding on his drawing board. Ever the patriot, his opinions and pro-“Free World” stance gives some of these strips a somewhat parochial if not outright jingoistic flavour, but as with all fiction viewed through the lens of time passed, context is everything. Unlike his unpopular stance on Vietnam two decades later, this was not an issue that divided America or even the world at large.

However the public and officials of the USA treated Communists and suspected “Pinkos” within their own borders, the Red Menace of Russia and China was real, immediate, and actively working against Western Interests. The real talking point here is not the extent of a creator’s (mis)perceived paranoia, but rather the restraint which Caniff showed within his strip compared to what was going on in the world outside it. Just check out any Timely/Atlas/Marvel war title of the period if you want to see totally unrestrained “patriotic fervour”…

When the situation becomes untenable Canyon is forced to take extreme action to save the stolen American technology, rescue the unsuspecting Feeta-Feeta and escape the arrayed forces of Socialist Expansion…

Meanwhile back in the mountainous kingdom of Princess Snowflower, American warlord Hogan is coming under pressure not just from the Chinese invaders but also the ruler’s sexist, xenophobic generals and ‘Rallying Point’ (June 4th – August 12th) finds her and the resistance army in extreme danger – which only increases when young Reed Kimberly also resurfaces to join the struggle…

With a deft flourish Caniff had left the titular hero of the strip completely absent from this tale, confident that events and the strong supporting cast could carry the series – and with spectacular success – but with ‘Serge Blu’ (August 13th – October 8th) the disparate plot threads began to merge.

Reunited with another long-lost character Kimberly falls into the hands of opportunistic bandits until together they make their escape. Soon they are reunited with Steve, now a Major on active service with the US Air Force. This terrific master-class in comics creation and drama concludes as an entire airbase is disrupted by Reed’s sultry companion whilst the heroic Canyon is busy attempting to stem the flow of contraband weapons to the Communists – materiel stolen from the Americans and sold by an enigmatic local crime-lord ‘The Mysterious Monsieur Gros’ (October 9th 1950 – January 27th 1951)…

Caniff’s irresistible narrative blend of action, adventure, soap-opera, comedy and sex-appeal has seldom been better employed than in this startling thriller and the oppressive mood of something big and nasty coming lends this entire volume an epic scale which makes these stories as powerful now as they ever were. Moreover the Master’s art went from strength to strength at this time and it’s easy to see why a generation of comics illustrators swiped his style.

Exotic, frenetic, full of traditional values and as always, captivating in both word and picture, this is another old-fashioned, unreconstructed delight. Every panel tells a story and no fan of the medium or art-form will want to miss a single one.

© 2005 Checker Book Publishing Group, an authorized collection of works © Ester Parsons Caniff Estate 1950, 1951. All characters and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of the Ester Parsons Caniff Estate. All rights reserved.