CANIFF RARITIES

Some recent auctions of historical interest...

This is a wooden button that was a sendaway premium for the "Terry & the Pirates" radio show, sponsored by the Quaker Oats Company.  Kids would send in two boxtops to become the good luck mascot of a B-25 bomber pilot.  They received the button and an 8x10 color photo of a B-25.  

A button like the one shown above recently sold for $10.  In 2011, a similar button along with the picture, envelope and instructions sold for $86.  According to two sources, recipients would also get their name on a roll of microfilm that would be carried in a real B-25.  The microfilm read "Good luck and drop one on the Japs and Nazis for me."  I'd like to believe it...but wow!  

This is a full newspaper page calendar from December 31, 1944, featuring the stars of "Terry & the Pirates".  I wonder if this was a special presentation for the Akron Beacon Journal, or more likely something made available to all the "Terry" carriers with the spot at the top to put their logo.  This page, still in pretty good shape, sold for $20.

This is a fold-out poster by Willard Mullin.  It was from the 1960 Reuben Award dinner, the annual event in which the National Cartoonists Society honors their best.  Mullin was a New York newspaper sports cartoonist and a Reuben winner himself.  The drawing depicts past NCS presidents and Reuben winners.  Caniff is spotted along the back of the bull.  This piece was sold from the collection of Bill Crouch, a legendary comic strip memorabilia collector who passed in 2011.  It sold for a staggering $152 (and no, honey, not to me).

 This is an envelope illustrated by George Wunder, Caniff's successor on "Terry and the Pirates."  I've not always been very enthused about Wunder's work, but it's growing on me.  This in particular is a stunning rendition of the Dragon Lady.  This item is perpetually on Ebay because the owner thinks it is worth $700.  Wunder original daily strips generally sell in the $30 - 150 range, and original illustrations normally don't crack a C-note.  But this envelope...best of luck to him.