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Home , Dean Mullaney, Doug Wildey, Fred Kida, Milton Caniff, Steve Canyon

$49.99 (Different in V Canada)

STEVE CANYON like you’ve never seen it before—

“The collection, sharply reproduced from syndicate proofs, brilliantly shows off the hallmarks— STEVE cinematic storytelling, dramatic illustration, exotic locales, appealing CANYON characters, and snappy dialogue—that made Caniff one of comics’ most highly MILTON regarded and influential CANIFF A DELTA DAWN AT THE TOP OF artists.” THE WORLD… —Gordon Flagg, Booklist The fourth volume of The Complete opens with Steve as a newly-minted Light Colonel bringing the jet age to the town of Indian Cape—and the natives are after an old friend’s scalp! Can Steve and new sidekick Pipper the Piper find a way to still an entire town’s wrath? Canyon encounters old friends throughout 1953 and into 1954: including Princess Snowflower, the irascible Dogie Hogan, and the leader of a NINETEEN band of Hooligans on horseback. Of course, there are girls, Steve Canyon is an MORE THAN 700 COMICS 53 – 54 girls, girls—Herself Muldoon, Summer Olson, plus Miss ongoing picaresque Mizzou, still wearing that trenchcoat! Then Steve looks up the

RETURN TO DAMMA TO RETURN Indexes, and the sparks really start to fly in a frozen wasteland! novel of adventure, Edited and designed by , with historical essays heroism, romance, by Bruce Canwell, Steve Canyon is presented in a matching intrigue, action, hardcover set to the Library of American Comics's Eisner and patriotism Award-winning Terry and the Pirates. that unfolded NINETEEN over forty years. $49.99 53 LibraryofAmericanComics.com • idwpublishing.com 54 STEVE CANYON RIGHT: Caniff drawing the November 2, 1952 Sunday in his New City studio. 1953–1954

MILTON CANIFF

IDW PUBLISHING San Diego THE COMPLETE STEVE CANYON VOLUME 4: 1953–1954 STORIES AND ART BY LETTERING BY Frank Engli INTRODUCTION BY Bruce Canwell

Published by: THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN COMICS IDW Publishing a Division of Idea and Design Works, LLC EDITED AND DESIGNED BY Dean Mullaney 5080 Santa Fe Street ASSOCIATE EDITOR Bruce Canwell San Diego, CA 92109 www.idwpublishing.com ART DIRECTOR Lorraine Turner MARKETING DIRECTOR Beau Smith Distributed by Diamond Book Distributors 1-410-560-7100

SPECIAL THANKS TO: ISBN: 978-1-61377-855-5 Harry Guyton, John Ellis, and Russ Maheras; First Printing, February 2014 and for supplying the material used in this volume, thanks to Jenny Robb, IDW Publishing Susan Liberator, Marilyn Scott, and the Ted Adams, Chief Executive Officer/Publisher staff of the Milton Caniff Collection at Greg Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer/President Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist The State University Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Cartoon Library and Museum. Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer Alan Payne, VP of Sales Additional thanks to Jackson Glassey Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing for scanning, Joseph Ketels and Valarie Jones Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services for production assistance, and to Photograph at left: Delivery vehicle for Marshall Field’s Chicago Ajit Shenoy, Justin Eisinger Sun, the Field Syndicate’s flagship newspaper, announcing the and Alonzo Simon. start of Steve Canyon, 1947.

Steve Canyon ® and © 2014 The Estate of Esther Parsons Caniff, Harry Guyton, Executor. All rights reserved. The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All rights reserved. The Library of American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American Comics, LLC. All rights reserved. “Stage Dressing” © 2014 Bruce Canwell. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the comic strips in this publication may be reprinted without the permission of The Estate of Esther Parsons Caniff. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Library of American Comics. Printed in Korea.

The strips reprinted in this volume were produced in a time when racial caricatures played a larger role in society and popular culture. They are reprinted without alteration for historical reference. STAGE DRESSING “Old Wrinkles on Some New Clothes” by BRUCE CANWELL

Milton Caniff never gave two hoots about the 21st Century. smallpox in Cobra Johnny’s village (see page 160) recalls Caniff’s three prior First and foremost Caniff was a newspaperman; his focus was on selling the “heroes facing a cholera epidemic” storylines produced in 1936 (Terry Volume current edition and enticing readers to come back for more the next day. Surely One), 1940 (Terry Volume Three), and 1947 (Canyon Volume One). it never occurred to him that his work would endure, to be collected and read Once this recycling is noted, those living in the 21st Century may accuse into the next millennium, or that almost three after his passing his life the artist of lazily repeating himself, thereby jumping to a false conclusion. would be of such intense interest that the memorabilia he bequeathed to The Reconsider that hasty idea from a 1950s perspective. For Milton, seven years —art and artifacts that helped the Billy Ireland Cartoon divided Hotshot and Peter Pipper, with double that gap between April Kane Library and Museum flourish—would be pored over by comics scholars, and Holly Hall. In a “disposable” medium like the newspaper, the odds were editors, and writers to form the basis of the visual retrospective Caniff, the overwhelmingly in the ’s favor that refrying bits of business or character exhaustive prose biography, Meanwhile…, and shorter treatises like this one. types across such a gulf would pass undetected; Caniff knew some folks Though Milton never gave two hoots about it, the 21st Century has religiously clipped his strips from their daily local paper, but those dedicated fans arrived and his work is still entertaining an audience ranging from original comprised an infinitesimal percentage of his readership. Even the “epidemic” Caniffites to readers one, two, or even three generations removed. His modern plotline could be reused every few years without undue fear of the public fans are more likely than their 1950s counterparts to recognize instances in this recognizing it, since the artist always freshened the idea of a disease outbreak by particular crop of Steve Canyon adventures where Caniff refried certain spotlighting a different villain and weaving clever twists and turns into his newest elements of his prior work. For those discovering the Rembrandt of the Comic narrative. Real-life news reports from across the globe about widespread disease Strips through Library of American Comics collections, less than four years were not uncommon, further blurring memories and aiding Milt's cause. separate the grand parade announcing Hotshot Charlie’s return to Asia (see page An additional factor that made these refries a prudent course of action for 241 of Terry and the Pirates, Volume Six) and the similar procession heralding Caniff: he switched syndicates when he moved from Terry and the Pirates to the introduction of Steve Canyon’s Pipper the Piper on page 21 of this volume. Steve Canyon, and Field Enterprises had a very different marketing strategy These relative newcomers may also quickly realize that teen-queen Holly Hall is than did the - News Syndicate. The latter protected a blonde echo of Terry’s dark-haired Southern belle, April Kane (first introduced the hegemony of their keystone papers by refusing to sell features to suburban in January of 1939; see Terry and the Pirates Volume 3). Later, the outbreak of outlets in smaller cities and towns within the broad geographical span of New

5 FAR LEFT: Introductory page from the first “Steve Canyon” ( #519). Art by William Overgard, except the Canyon head by Caniff. Seven comic books featuring the flyboy were published between 1953 and 1959.

NEAR LEFT: Drawing for a 1949 King Features promotional book.

BELOW: A non-canonical specialty daily prepared for Canadian newspapers, June 12, 1954.

OPPOSITE: Caniff with syndicate owner Marshall Field Jr, the man who convinced Caniff to quit Terry and the Pirates and start his own strip.

6 York or Chicago; Field was eager to service both metropolitan and suburban populations. So for Milton Caniff, in the early 1950s, his Steve Canyon was appearing in many locations where Terry and the Pirates had never been seen at all. Transforming a character like April into Holly, or getting extra mileage from shtick like the “parade on arrival” gag, made perfect sense, because a sizable portion of Caniff’s readership had never seen those first appearances and those around for both the original and the reworked versions likely had long forgotten the earlier incarnations. Audiences in the 21st Century, experiencing the work over a shorter timeframe via a more focused presentation, may be aware of the refries—but Milton Caniff never gave two hoots about the 21st Century, anyway.

t t t t t

One thing Milton Caniff did care about was his reputation and professional standing. After decades of hard work on projects ranging from The Gay ’30s to Dickie Dare to Terry and the Pirates and, finally, to Steve Canyon—with careful attention to all facets of the cartooning business being paid throughout—Milton Caniff had found success and security in equal measure. A “Commission Account” statement provided to the artist by Field Enterprises/King Features shows the market for Steve Canyon reached from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, and included international clients such as the Mexico City News and Rome’s Societa Editrice Atlantide. A single month’s Richard Waring Rockwell would work on Steve Canyon for the next thirty- payment to Caniff totaled more than sixteen thousand early-1950s dollars (today, five years, until the strip ended in 1988. Rockwell broke in through the comic accounting for inflation, the monthly pay-out would be more than five times that book market, with stories appearing in Lev Gleason’s notorious Crime Does Not amount). Pay and various other titles. Reportedly he applied for membership in the National Holding the cards for a financially-stable hand, Caniff began to alter the way Society in 1952, submitting samples of his work along with his he worked, relying on assistants more heavily than ever before. He discussed those application. As one of the NCS members reviewing applications, Milton Caniff is changes in a “Sidebar” piece published only seven months before his death, in said to have spotted the quality of the work, called Rockwell and told him his issue number eighteen of ’s Steve Canyon magazine, beginning membership was approved, while also asking if he would be available to help on by saying: Canyon. Their partnership began with that phone call. Caniff may have also learned that was the nephew of superstar Sharp-eyed readers might note that some backgrounds and artist Norman Rockwell, and the lure of that connection could have factored into some secondary figures were not drawn by me in [the “Indian his thinking in a minor way. If so, Norman was not as impressed as Caniff may Cape” story]. Dick Rockwell…started doing bits and pieces for me have been. Dick said, “One day, when I met [my uncle] at the Illustrator's Club, in 1953. He was doing comic books at the time, and he needed he said, ‘Are you still drawing that guy's pictures for him?’” extra work in addition to what he was doing… There was more to Dick Rockwell’s career than either his famous relative or

7 RIGHT: Milton with Adelaide Gilchrest, his office manager and secretary since 1939. his ghost work on Steve Canyon. He continued to dabble in comic books— in the 1950s producing artwork for Quality, Dell, and the pre-Marvel ; creating a fistful of work in the 1980s for DC Comics, primarily on their Willie Tuck or Adelaide Gilchrest or my letterer, Frank Engli, aviation-adventure strip, Blackhawk. He also taught at various times at would feed it to them. It wasn’t sent en masse to avoid it being New York University, the Parsons School of Design, and New York’s Fashion misfiled or lost at the syndicate ... [I] had [], Institute of Technology. Many artists have followed those paths for a time, but Howard Nostrand [Bat Masterson], Alex Kotzky, , and few have intermittently worked, as Rockwell did, as a courtroom sketch artist. [] helping me out for a month to six Dick first tried his hand at such work in the 1950s—sketching Senate weeks at a time. hearings on labor union corruption brought him into an uneasy encounter with What these men did on Steve Canyon was good…. We all got Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa—and returned to this line of work in along well together, even though I’m sure they thought they 1983, remaining with it for the next two decades, into his early eighties. Rockwell weren’t paid enough for what they did. It’s always that way; I felt credited his Canyon work with helping his courtroom assignments. I was grossly underpaid when I was ghosting in 1932. “The training I got for thirty-five years of drawing comic strips enabled me to do things like look at the front of the jury and draw them from the back,” Rockwell Caniff not only paid his ghosts for their efforts, he did something extra for said in a 2003 article in the Bridgeport, Fairfield County Weekly. “It the women in his office during this period: the physical appearance of Holly Hall allows you to see things from a different angle.” He also observed how skills that was modeled on that of secretary Adelaide Gilchrest’s daughter, while Milt and came easily to him seemed difficult for his students to master. “I noticed they don't Bunny’s Jane of all trades, Willie Tuck, served as the basis for Meena, the nanny see as well. I think that's because of television. The TV people have gone to such for Summer Olson’s young son. One installment featured Meena serving up a rapid cuts that there's no arrested movement.” Rockwell said modern students folksy saying that inspired jazz trumpeter and band leader Dizzy Gillespie to seemed to struggle to mentally “hold onto” an image long enough to draw it. call, asking Milton how he came up with that particular bit of dialogue. After While multi-talented Dick Rockwell quickly became the mainstay within attributing Meena’s words to Willie, a delighted Gillespie told the artist, “I haven’t Caniff’s stable of assistants, he was not the only artist brought in to help with heard that since I was a kid.” Steve Canyon. Although he neglected to mention artists who were approached yet never contributed (men like John Romita Sr. and ), Milton t t t t t continued to discuss other assistants in his “Sidebar” piece for Kitchen Sink: Patriotism and a good relationship with the military (and with the Air Force Around the time of [the “Indian Cape”] sequence, my wife in particular) was also held dear by the Rembrandt of the Comic Strips. Milton Bunny and I tried to take a month off each year during the was not an ardent supporter of the Korean conflict; nevertheless, throughout the summer. We would travel to places like Greece, Japan, Casablanca years of fighting on the Peninsula he went back to providing combat insignias during that vacation. I would plan out the whole year to get one “for countless armed-service outfits,” as a King Features press release said, noting month ahead if I could. I’d outline it, then I’d write the sequence that one request for an insignia design per day crossed Caniff’s desk and quoting to be ghosted. I’d then rough out the strips and ink the Canyon him as saying, “I think this at least proves that we have a lot of fighting men figure and any other prominent figures, like Summer Olson. I’d under arms, and they’re engaged in a real war, where little things like insignia call Sylvan Byck at King Features for the name of somebody who mean a lot to them.” The article failed to add that Caniff took no remuneration needed work ... I’d send the whole sequence to whichever artist while fulfilling these requests, though it did note another artist in the King [Byck recommended]. Meanwhile, Dick and I worked on the Features stable, George McManus of fame, produced one regular deadline. The stuff would come back and I’d bank it. of the earliest insignias, with his World War I-vintage “Jiggs carrying a bomb Then, when the syndicate deadline approached, [office staffers] under one arm” design.

8

were people who were taking advantage of this on a real estate level, telling residents who lived near a new base that the noise drove the property values down, and they’d better sell cheap to the agent.” The artist experienced some of these disruptions first hand when he visited a friend, a general commanding a base in Missouri; the sound of jets roaring away on regularly-scheduled overnight patrols threw a monkey wrench into his own sleep patterns. As a result of his creator’s research, ruminations, and experience, Steve Canyon became commander of the 1420th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, stationed at Indian Cape; Caniff then addressed an actual situation within a fictional framework. Knowing his plot tapestry would need additional threads, he wove in another true-to-life difficulty—overcoming public apathy and recruiting volunteers for the national Ground Observer Corps (GOC)—plus a pair of reliable stand-bys: good-looking gals in the persons of Slippery Elm and her fellow school teacher, Georgia (as well as Steve’s constant heartthrob, Summer Olson), plus a dash of romance that inevitably comes when mixing charismatic heroes with beautiful women. The result is one of Steve Canyon’s most memorable storylines. “Indian Cape” became the focus for a piece in the March 1954 issue of the Air Force’s Air Training magazine. Lieutenant Robert A. Hatch, the article’s author, had this to say about the positive effects The made storytelling easier for Caniff. He liked of the story: ABOVE: Two having his hero back in uniform—it solved the problem of explaining illustrations for how Canyon made a living, since Steve was operating on Uncle Sugar’s Within that [Indian Cape] sequence Caniff pounded the Air Force’s payroll—and he was comfortable using and expanding his own “spy home the need for a strong GOC and a workable Air Training network” of contacts throughout the armed services, people instrumental community-relations scheme between military and magazine, 1954. in helping him make the work ring true enough so an unnamed airman civilians. Information on various…community relations first class flying combat in Korea could observe, “We like Steve because programs was cited in the strip to show how people in …he’s up-to-date, right now, and not drawn with a peppermint stick.” uniform and mufti could get along side by side. The “Indian Cape” storyline that encompasses much of the first The response was tremendous—letters, editorials, half of 1953 is a perfect example of the authenticity Caniff layered into and quotations from the Caniff sequence brought his strip. The idea of conflict between a small town and the air force attention to the problems and helped the Air Force and base it hosts seemed an excellent story springboard. “The problems of civil defense people sell their points. small towns around the bases were very real,” Caniff wrote in 1987, when looking back at this continuity. “There were sonic booms…. Hatch’s piece was titled “The Air Force’s Super-Salesman” and it There were flights in the small hours of the morning, with people referenced the gratitude the Air Force felt toward Caniff and his flyboy losing sleep. Cows stopped giving milk because of the noise. There heroes. One spokesman was quoted in the piece as saying, “We couldn’t

10 buy the space to tell our story, and we couldn’t tell it nearly as well as Milton friend whose personality served as the template for Pipper’s brash, devil-may-care Caniff does.” Caniff’s receipt of the Air Force’s 1953 Arts and Letters Award attitude. was also noted. One of the cartoonist’s boyhood heroes, General Jimmy Doolittle, David McCallister Jr. met Milton Caniff in the 1940s, during World War II, bestowed the honor, which read in part, “…translation [of the Air Force’s position and while not as publicly-celebrated a contact as Frank Higgs or Phil Cochran, in modern life] into story form capable of holding a mass audience requires McCallister’s colorful career and larger-than-life presence made a deep impression genius. Milton Caniff has this genius. Through the medium of the daily comic on both Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. strip he presents the air power requirement to millions of avid readers with great McCallister began his aviation career for his country by instructing gunnery artistic skill, technical accuracy, and dramatic impact.” personnel in Florida before becoming a fighter pilot and shipping overseas into The article concluded with a heartwarming story that hammered home the the European theater, where he flew as part of the fighter escort in America’s first magnetic pull Canyon exerted on its most ardent followers: daytime bombing run on Berlin. Based at Kings Cliffe in the United Kingdom, “Davey Mac” used both his skill with the stick and his glib tongue to draw the A prime example of some of the strange requests [Caniff] gets assignment to test fly Gloster Meteor, the Allies’ sole operational jet fighter at that came from a mother who wrote…that her fifteen-year-old boy, a time. McCallister and Caniff began a correspondence during the Second World Steve Canyon addict, had run away from home. The mother War that led to a memorable face-to-face meeting, one that helped Caniff didn’t know whether the boy would try to join the Air Force, or coalesce in his mind’s eye a character soon to be introduced to the Terry and the what—but she did know he’d be reading Steve wherever he was. Pirates continuity—Hotshot Charlie. Could Caniff help her? After the war McCallister served in the Delaware Air National Guard and, He re-drew one of his daily strips, put in an orderly room like Steve Canyon, was called back to active duty in 1951 as part of the scene, and on the bulletin board pinned a note to the boy to call mobilization for Korean combat. Four years later, with the country back on a home, collect. A few days after the strip appeared another note peacetime footing, he participated in the Earl T. Ricks Memorial jet fighter cross- came from the mother. The boy had gotten in touch with his country race, winning it during his second run, in 1956, aboard the Cindee Lind, folks. The message from Canyon had turned the trick. a jet he personally modified and named after his two daughters. The colorful flyboy appealed to Caniff not only because of his skill in the The strip in question, the January 2, 1953 daily, can be seen on page 20 of cockpit, but also his talent at the typewriter: McCallister wrote numerous non- this volume. The cartoonist placed other “secret” messages on that board. One is fiction articles throughout the 1950s. Working with writer Linda Boyes, he addressed to his nephew: “Harry Guyton, do you know anyone from Boston?” authored the novel Sabres over Brandywine, with Caniff producing artwork for the When asked about it for this book, Harry said, “Milt always put us in his strips. book’s cover. McCallister unfortunately did not live to see the publication of that Neil Corbitt is my brother-in-law and Phyllis was my sister,” referring to another story—he died at age forty-one, bringing down a crippled jet in an unpopulated message on the board. The final name on the board is that of cartoonist Frank area. An advance copy of Sabres over Brandywine was buried with him in 1961. Springer, who may have assisted Caniff on some strips. Both Pipper the Piper and Steve Canyon directly benefited from Caniff’s relationship with Light Colonel McCallister: Peter Pipper inherited Davey Mac’s t t t t t pilot’s instincts and his insouciant approach to life. And Canyon? He took command of the 1420th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron only months after One hopes young Butch Fogarty was on his way home by the time Pipper McCallister became top kick of the 142nd Fighter Squadron. Art imitates Life, the Piper debuts, two days later. Many Caniff students have remarked on Pipper’s even if by necessity it sometimes carries an extra digit… physical resemblance to charismatic war hero (PT109), then-freshly-minted U.S. Senator, and eventual U.S. President John F. Kennedy; less widely discussed is the t t t t t

11 Life also has a way of affecting Art in surprising ways. Milton Caniff the disgruntled American, Doagie Hogan; and old friend and instant comedy learned this lesson in 1941-42, while his Terry and the Pirates cast was embroiled relief Happy Easter. The lead-in to this 1953 saga also allowed Caniff to insert in an escapade set in Hong Kong when, in real life, the Japanese invader had another quick contest within the body of his story. overrun and seized control of the real Hong Kong on Christmas of ’41. With Beginning inside the May 17th Sunday page, a message in code is revealed his story written and drawn weeks in advance, Caniff could do nothing but that is directed at Steve Canyon. Those serving in the armed forces were invited to let the tale play out as planned, asking forbearance (which his devoted fans take a shot at cracking the code, with a one hundred dollar Savings Bond awarded overwhelmingly granted) because the fiction was at odds with the “new normal” to both the first correct domestic and foreign-based response (Canyon ran on a in that Far Eastern locale. delayed basis overseas, leaving those stationed abroad at a disadvantage, hence From the beginning of the “Indian Cape” story, Milt’s original intent for their separate prize). the strip’s next adventure was to transfer Steve and his squadron to Korea; the This stunt received far fewer responses than 1949’s “Pick the Movie…” Air Force reportedly went so far as to draw up traveling orders for the 1420th. contest, but Caniff was perfectly all right with that. “I wasn’t trying for a general Newspapers of the day, however, were filled with headlines about peace talks readership in this instance,” he later reminisced, “because most of the clues were and a possible cessation of hostilities. Those talks had dragged on for two years from manuals that would be almost impossible for a civilian to get. The puzzle of protracted diplomatic wrangling, first being held in Kaesong before moving wasn’t for the fifth grade reader; it was for the military reader.” A brisk amount of to Panmunjom. Early in ’53 reports of significant movement began to appear, mail nevertheless flowed in from those in service as well as from retired cryptologists causing Caniff to scuttle his plans to ship out the 1420th. Doing this avoided a who kept up with the science for pleasure. John F. Connors, also known as repeat of the Terry/Hong Kong glitch—the formal armistice ending the Korean “KOHOP,” president of the Albany, New York Code and Cipher Club and a situation was signed on July 27, 1953, and there seems little doubt had the artist member of the American Cryptogram Association, was an example of the latter. stayed with his initial vision Steve Canyon, Peter Pipper, Murky Murphy, and Connors, a Navy cryptologist honorably discharged at the end of 1944, their cohorts would have been depicted still fighting the Korean War long after admitted having never read the series before spotting the May 20th entry, but their flesh-and-blood brethren had obeyed orders and stood down. enthused, “If you will continue to give us this kind of delightful fare in your Steve Caniff instead embarked on a course correction that allowed Canyon to serve Canyon strip, I shall be a regular reader of it.” Lacking any knowledge of Steve’s as a one-man military troubleshooter. His crossing paths with the Halls and Cobra history, KOHOP’s guess is wide of the mark—“The nose indicates possibly [that Johnny in the final four months of 1953 introduced new faces into the mix, but four presumed landing fields] are Russian fields (long nose) or in the north (cold otherwise Steve renewed a string of old acquaintances. He spent 1954 trying to nose). The hut, on a guess, means Chinese village, or possibly means the airfields pin a dope smuggling charge on the villainous Herself Muldoon (Caniff’s treatment are camouflaged”—but he cannot resist tweaking the cartoonist in his last of the drug trade and heroin addiction was provocative for its time, yet as the paragraph: “Incidentally, it seems to me your characters say contradictory things. artist later remarked, “…my audience went along with it in great style. I never got In one panel they call [the mysterious message] a simple substitution, in another it into any sort of trouble” for depicting drug addiction) before getting into a hearts- is referred to as code. How can it be both? Code and cipher are mutually exclusive and-flowers triangle with Summer Olson and the mysterious Clarke Netherland, terms, if it is one, it can’t be the other. Can it?” then once more spending time in the North Woods with the irrepressible Miss While he undoubtedly won points for anal retentiveness, Mr. Connors did Mizzou, ending the year reuniting with the 1420th, Colonel Sam Index, and his not come away with the prize. Neither did Camp Lejeune Staff Sergeant Arthur conniving wife, Delta. Buckley, who interpreted the code’s “RLS” to mean “Red Landing Strip,” the Before that string of escapades, Steve’s immediate jumping-off point following flower to stand for “camouflage,” and the nose to mean “odar [sic] or smell.” his departure from Indian Cape was the pocket nation of Damma and renewed

contact with anti-Communist rebel leader Princess Snowflower; her chief advisor, PAGES 13-15: Six pages from a May 1953 feature in Coronet magazine.

12 13 14 15 By the start of July the winners had been chosen, the prizes had been though this one also featured the striking of a few sparks between the series star awarded, and a personal letter from Milton Caniff complimented the winners. and that quintessential Caniff dame, Miss Mizzou. The mysterious case Steve Lt. John C. Harralson of the Marine Corps’s 790th Quartermaster Reclamation was sent north to crack was the backbone of the story, but what kept women and Maintenance Company received this message, postmarked from New York: reading—and doubtlessly writing letters of condemnation or approval, depending on their individual preference—were the scenes involving clinches and lines like It gives me great pleasure to inform you that your correct the one where Steve tells Mizzou, “She [Summer] dearjohned me the last time I solution to the cryptogram recently published in my Steve saw her.” From the outset Caniff had said Steve Canyon was the sort of guy who Canyon contained the earliest postmark of all the mail received could have girls at every port of call; the artist certainly capitalized on that during from overseas personnel and you are the winner of the $100 U.S. 1953-54, building feminine interest every time he placed a new potential Savings Bond mentioned in the Sunday page of May 24th. romantic partner in Steve’s path. I am grateful, indeed, for your interest in my work and I am Paying attention to the distaff segment may have also been a case of “fair happy to enclose herewith your award. is fair,” since Caniff had ample opportunity to cater to his male fans, including All good wishes… a feature aimed squarely at men everywhere that began with an extended correspondence between the cartoonist and a newcomer to the publishing game. The full solution originally ran in both the May 31, 1953 Sunday and again, On June 8, 1953, writing from “6052 S. Harper; Chicago 37, Illinois,” in compressed fashion, in the June 1st daily, and appears here on page 84. Mr. Hugh M. Hefner wrote to Caniff saying:

t t t t t We would like to do a feature on your fabulous Miss Lace and would appreciate permission to reproduce five or six of the Milt truly did have nothing but good wishes for the men and women in original Male Call strips in an early issue of Stag Party—a new uniform who formed such a loyal segment of his fan-base, but he knew he could men’s magazine beginning publication this fall. not appeal strictly to the military readership. Caniff’s office staff carefully tracked We think alot [sic] of ex-G.I.s have a warm spot in their the incoming mail and he was aware of how people responded to Steve’s romantic hearts for Miss L. (we admit to one ourselves) and would enjoy entanglements, especially with Summer Olson. Three decades later, the artist seeing her again. observed that during the 1950s he averaged roughly twenty-five pieces of mail each day, but when Steve and Summer were in the midst of a soap opera crisis, The letter goes on to inquire about the availability of pin-up drawings, any the flow jumped to a thousand letters daily. Little wonder, then, that the summer anecdotal material, and the “few strips the army never got around to okaying of 1954 was also the summer of Summer, with Steve’s blonde heartthrob torn that have never appeared in print.” between her longtime beau and a wealthy playboy newcomer, with the action Three days later, Caniff penned a letter to one of his contacts at King set against the backdrop of a fancy resort hotel. It was a total departure from any Features asking that the syndicate check out Hefner and “the type of publication Canyon story previously told, but it not only resonated with Dizzy Gillespie, it they are planning to put out.” Also of passing interest is Caniff’s mention of sharpened the focus of female readers, who could not be neglected if one was to an “exhibit in Chicago in 1947” that featured many examples of the slightly- keep one’s strip among the upper echelon of popular newspaper features. The salacious Male Call strip the cartoonist had produced free of charge for military Steve-Summer-Clarke triangle gave way to a more traditional Canyon adventure, newspapers during World War II.

16 RIGHT: A page from the 1954 calendar distributed to potential advertisers in sections by the Metropolitan Sunday Comics Group, a consortium of newspapers that banded together to offer a nationwide audience to advertisers. In 1953 Metropolitan boasted forty-two Sunday newspapers that had a total reach of eighteen million homes.

By the time of the next letter, on July 20th, Hefner had had “Stag Party: copyright infringement if The New Magazine for Men” stationery printed, and he used a sheet of it to Hefner hit the stands with repeat his Male Call inquiry to Caniff, adding that he had a convivial telephone the name Stag Party. conversation with the syndicate representative, and ending, “Thanks in advance Brainstorming with family for your every consideration from a fan of long standing.” and friends generated Before the end of the month Caniff sent Hefner a package of Miss Lace several alternate titles such pin-up art, adding that “the clip sheet showing the final strip is my only copy as Gentleman, Satyr, Top and I will be grateful if you will arrange to return it to me when it has served Hat, Pan, and Bachelor your purpose.” before Playboy was Encouraged by this show of support from one of his cartooning idols, ultimately settled upon. Hefner was emboldened in his August 8th letter. In addition to promising to It was under this heading return the tear sheet of the final Male Call installment and provide copies of (though new letterhead had the completed feature (“It has been tentatively scheduled for our February yet to arrive, apparently) that issue”), Hefner went on to ask: Hefner returned the Male Call material to Caniff in a brief Have you ever given any thought to doing magazine pin-up message dated December 3rd, work? Your strip and other activities may keep you much too busy along with advance copies of and perhaps it’s nothing that would interest you. I’m thinking of “the new men’s entertainment the girlie-gag-type thing that Esquire used to run a lot of [Editor’s magazine Playboy with the Note: Hefner started in publishing as a copywriter at Esquire]— feature on your fabulous Lace.” though in your case, something [rendered] in line, with just spots Hefner goes on to say, “I’ve been a Caniff fan since the days when Terry was just of color. We could supply the gag material, so it would be just an a little shaver traveling under the guidance of Pat Ryan and Pat was a mighty art problem. unhappy boy because his one true love was hitched up with that old SOB I just toss the thought out as something that might interest Sandhurst.” you. We couldn’t pay very much for anything during the first few In the early 21st Century, with Playboy and Milton Caniff continuing to issues (short shoestring operation here—financially speaking), but attract attention, it is intriguing to look back at the middle of the 20th Century, if you’re interested, we could delay it a few months until we can. when Caniff was far more of a household name than was . It would hardly surprise Caniff that the emphasis on female sex appeal was a crucial Caniff needed exactly zero time to consider Hefner’s offer. His August 10th element in allowing both Hefner and him to continue to be relevant deep into response says, in part, “the pressure of my daily schedule precludes the possibility The Communication Age. of my taking on such a pleasant task.” After all, Milton Caniff never gave two hoots about the 21st Century, but Four months passed before the next communication between the two men. he knew that a pretty girl could always attract an audience. For Hefner it was a busy four months—the already-extant men’s adventure magazine Stag had heard about his proposed launch and threatened to sue for

17

Steve & Summer Peter Pipper “Slippery” Elm Dr. Louis Shu

Are they on…or are they off? Pipper the Piper is a real The patriotism of this well- A gutsy medic who makes These star-crossed lovers don’t hotshot pilot who literally meaning small town school- both Snowflower’s and Doagie know themselves, and if the rushes into a burning building marm and her mechanic beau Hogan’s hearts beat faster…for Copperhead has any say… for his C.O. far exceeds their common sense. two very different reasons.

Gil Hall Hollister Hall Herself Muldoon Clarke Netherland

Though without her vision, ’s teenaged belle of a Is she running an independent His carefree ways and sunny Gil is both perceptive and daughter springs Steve out of airline or a heroin-smuggling disposition brighten Summer’s far-seeing—handy qualities jail, then tries to sentence operation? Steve suspects the days and darken Steve’s nights. for a diplomat’s wife. him to matrimonial prison. leopard doesn’t change its spots… Does he hide a troubling secret?

Meena Miss Mizzou Delta Copper Calhoon

The nanny of Summer’s young This blonde-bombshell chanteuse Steve hits the nail squarely: The Copperhead keeps toying son, she encourages her is still in the North Woods, still Colonel Sam Index’s wife is with Summer and Steve—but employer to stand by her hanging with Steve—and still “still playing the angles,” to the this time she may have finally man—both of them! wearing that trenchcoat! misfortune of many. gone too far… January 1-3, 1953 20 January 4, 1953 21 January 5-7, 1953 22 January 8-10, 1953 23 24 January 11, 1953