OH, TO HAVE LIVED IN LAKE COUNTY

If you lived in Lake County, Ohio in the 1970s/80s, then you had a real treat when it came to the Sunday funnies. The comic strips were packaged as a 32-page comic book. 38 strips in color, 22 of them full page. And what strips! This thing had strips I never knew about and some I'd only heard about. This week I've reproduced the strips that simultaneously had comic books on the newsstand. From the 25 MAY 1980 edition.

Hulk? Conan? All that's missing is Amazing Spider-Man, conspicuous in its absence.
A bit of a cheat, as Tarzan's Marvel comic ended in 1979. But worth including for the rarely seen Tarzan art of comics legend Gil Kane.
I always heard about this one and it's good to finally see it. Nice work by Tuska & Colletta.
Russ Manning still a titanic talent near the end of his career. Poor Luke and Han are in the same clothes from the movie!
There was a Star Trek comic strip?!? Surprise to me. A bit clunky, but still neat to see. Watch that fighting stance, Chekov!
Archie, of course, had more comics under his name than all the above combined!
OK, a total cheat, as there was no Steve Canyon comic book in 1980 (or more accurately post 1959), but it's my blog, darnit!


To correct or not to correct. Some of the strips I've left yellowed as they exist today. Others I fooled with in Photoshop. Which is more authentic? Which do you prefer? Let me know!

CINCINNATI COMIC EXPO REPORT 2011

The second ever Cincinnati Comic Expo was held this past weekend. I was very excited for this show after the terrific time I had at the first one. At first I was concerned when they announced that the venue would be the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati on the same weekend as Oktoberfest, Cincinnati's largest public event. However, that event was several blocks away and had no effect on travel or parking. The Convention Center was ideal, and a marked improvement over last year's venue.
This year's guest of honor was Jim Steranko. I think of Steranko as the Buddy Holly of comics - minimal output with a strong legacy of influence. Steranko (pictured at right) is a delight; a raconteur who carries himself like a former matinee idol. He kindly signed my copies of his "History of Comics" and an issue of "Mediascene", both pioneering efforts in comics scholarship and reportage. His panel was very entertaining, with Steranko spinning tales of his upbringing and tantalizing, perhaps embellished, stories of his early years in comics.

Returning this year was guest Michael Uslan. Uslan is best known as a producer of the Batman movies, having secured the film rights in the late '70s when no one else thought a Batman movie was a feasible or sensible idea. He's had an interesting career, both in and out of comics, which he's put into an autobiography - The Boy Who Loved Batman. Caniffites may know Uslan as the writer/instigator of the updated "Terry & the Pirates" strip from 1995. Uslan told this reporter that he's very close to a deal on a "Terry" movie, with Gong Li in mind to play the Dragon Lady.
It's always good to see artist Chris Sprouse. At last year's Mid-Ohio, he drew a sketch of Steve Canyon for me. I asked him to try out the Dragon Lady, and below are the amazing results!


My pal Ted asked Chris for Dum Dum Dugan of the Howling Commandos.



Nearly every Thursday night, Up Up and Away hosts a comic book trivia contest at Maury's Tiny Cove, a westside landmark. Store owner Kendall Swafford presented a version of the regular game at the Expo. I'm proud to say my team tied for 2nd place!
Also returning this year was Golden Age artist Allen Bellman. Last year, Bellman told me a nice story about how he snuck into a Caniff radio show appearance. This year, he told me about how he attended a National Cartoonists Society dinner. He was there with his lovely date and his rented tux. Caniff entered and was walking by him. "Mr. Caniff," he began, hoping to engage his artistic hero. "Excuse me, I have some people waiting," said Caniff, walking on. "Caniff snubbed me!" Bellman told me, still stinging at the perceived affront.
I didn't meet Archie Comics legend Stan Goldberg, but my pal Ted did and he also got a sketch. Leave it to Ted to bypass the obvious choices and ask for a drawing of Midge, Moose's girlfriend.

There were lots of great costumes this year. Here I am with Wildcat and Power Girl (thank you, Wally Wood)!

All in all, a terrific show from top to bottom. There were some great buys in the dealers room and the whole event was bright with an atmosphere of optimism and camaraderie. Good luck topping this one, fellas!

* Steranko photo by Steven Thompson.

Steve Canyon color proof

A 'Steve Canyon' color proof from February 24, 1952. I love that border on the bottom...

MILTON CANIFF NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2011

STEVE CANYON ON DVD VOL. 3 RELEASE DATE. This week, John Ellis of the Milton Caniff Estate announced the release date for Volume 3 of the "Steve Canyon" TV series on DVD. The much-anticipated conclusion to Ellis' loving restoration happens November 14th. Volume 2 was released in May 2009, with Volume 3 originally slated for Spring 2010. Ellis has had to overcome numerous obstacles, both financial and technical, to bring these shows to we, the public. If you have not pre-ordered, order yours today by going here!

CANIFF AUGUST - In the most exciting year since the Caniff centennial, three important Milton Caniff publications came out last month. CANIFF: A Visual Biography - an oversize page turner breathless packed with artwork, most of it rare and much of it unseen. Steve Canyon, The Complete Series, Volume One - collecting the Dell Steve Canyon comic books of the 1950s. Male Call - a complete reprinting of Caniff's WWII strip done exclusively for Camp Newpaper Services. I reviewed the Canyon book here. I'll have more on the other two books in the coming weeks.

The big announcement at San Diego this year (for Caniffites, that is) was that Dean Mullaney and the Library of American Comics will be reprinting 'Steve Canyon' in deluxe hardcovers beginning in 2012. These will be in the same format 'The Complete Terry & the Pirates' and will fit alongside them nicely both on your bookshelf and in your brain. Uncropped dailies...Sunday strips in Color...read more about the visual spectacle from Dean himself.

The Shel Dorf Awards will be given out in a ceremony at this year's Detroit Fanfare. This is the second year for the awards, named for Detroit native Shel Dorf, honoring the best in comics and comic creators. Dorf is best known as a founder of the San Diego Comic-Con, but Caniffites know him as letterer for 'Steve Canyon' from 1975 to 1988. Find out more about Dorf from one of my old posts.

The Hooded Utilitarian, a blog of cultural criticism, took an informal comics poll in May and June to try and discern the answer to this question: "What are the ten comics works you consider your favorites, the best, or the most significant?". They received 211 lists back and got some very interesting results. While comic strip works did rank highly, "Terry & the Pirates" ranked at 28th, a bit low to my mind, tied with American Splendor. "Peanuts", "Krazy Kat" and "Calvin and Hobbes" were the top three, with "Little Nemo" and "Pogo" also making the top ten. I guess 28th's not bad in a poll that covers comic strips and books. After all, it did beat Spider-Man. Bruce Canwell, wordsmith for the Library of American Comics, posted his own list and rationale for each. You should read that here.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

DC Comics is relaunching their line in September, starting over with 52 new #1 issues. It's a bid to attract new readers and invigorate older ones. To publicize this event, many retailers across the country were open at midnight for the release of Justice League #1.

My local comic store - Up Up and Away in Cheviot - kicked things off at 11:08PM last night with a 52 minute sale. It was better attended than I thought it would be, but then, maybe most of these folks didn't have their alarms set for 6AM. Oh well, what's a little lost sleep where funnybooks are involved?

Matt with Up Up and Away owner Kendall Swafford.

A pretty good crowd for midnight at a comic book store.

You can't sleep here...go home, Matt!

FOUR COLOR FANTASY

Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon: The Complete Series, Volume: One (Hermes Press)

Steve Canyon appeared annually from 1953 to 1959 as one-shots that were part of Dell Comics anthology series known as Four Color. Wouldn't it be great, I once wondered, if somebody collected these in one book? My thought was not alone in the ether. Hermes Press has just released a beautiful reprinting of these comics in hardcover.

John Ellis of the Milton Caniff Estate writes the introductory essay that gives a nice overview of Steve Canyon's history in the comic book field. The first Canyon comics were reformatted strips published by Harvey in the late 1940s. This lasted only six issues, not faring as well as 'Terry & the Pirates', which ran 11 years in the anthology title Popular Comics, as well as 28 issues of its own title.
The Four Color comics were not strip reprints, but original stories which introduced new characters. For six issues, Steve is aided by Tuck, a young sidekick similar to the strip's Reed Kimberly. In two of the three issues that center on the Civil Air Patrol, a young Civil Air Patrol officer named Janice becomes Tuck's love interest. The main gist of the stories typically involves Steve's role as an Air Force troubleshooter trying to protect U.S. interests from the Commies.
Each issue, save the last, has a painted cover. It's interesting to me that Four Color issues featuring humor strip characters (e.g., Beetle Bailey, Little King) have cartoon line art, but the ones with adventure strip heroes (Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim) have stunning painted covers. Each cover artist is different, but they continue to remain anonymous. They each reflect a scene from the story, except for issue #939, which happens to be the best of the bunch and was used as the stunning cover for this collection. The seventh issue has a photo cover, which was a tie-in to the "Steve Canyon" TV series. Ellis is 2/3 of the way through releasing crisp, remastered episodes of the complete series on DVD.
Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics are, for the most part, not by Caniff. The art chores were handled by William Overgard and Ray Bailey, two veteran strip artists of the "Caniff school" who could do a pretty good impersonation of the master. Overgard did the first issue and Bailey the other six. According to Ellis, Caniff did the inking of the Steve Canyon faces to provide continuity between the books and the strip (and likely to keep his own stamp/brand on the character). The stories are by the prolific Paul S. Newman, though Ellis suspects Caniff had a hand in the first. All are Caniffesque adventures stories, though admittedly they lack the snap of Caniff's dialogue.

All in all, a dream project made true by the folks at Hermes, who deliver a first rate, faithful reproduction of the comics. A great example of both restoration and preservation of comics no longer scattered and forgotten.

CANIFF AUCTIONS - RARITIES EDITION

DRAWING TABLET - You're not likely to find many 50 year old drawing tablets lying around unused. This "Newspaper Comic Strip Stars" Drawing Tablet was released in 1959 by HyTone, a trademark of the Western Tablet & Stationery Corporation. Western Tablet was headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, where Caniff grew up and did his first professional art. Sharing the cover with Steve Canyon is Li'l Abner, drawn by Caniff's longtime pal Al Capp. The other "stars" are Harry Haenigsen's somewhat forgotten "Penny" and Harry Hanan's "Louie", a pantomime strip so obscure that I'm surprised Dean Mullaney hasn't done a collection yet.

The inner cover had "how to" instructions for drawing the comic stars. How to go from an oval and square to a perfect 'Steve Canyon' face in two steps? I think we're missing something! This went unused and unbid at $19.95.

APRIL KANE PRINT
Unable to satisfy the demand for original drawings, Caniff had prints made of his best-known characters. He would then personalize them and often hand-colored them. They pop up on eBay quite frequently, but mostly of Steve Canyon, Burma, Terry, Dragon Lady and Flip Corkin. I've never seen the April Kane print before. The seller didn't know who know who she was, titling her "grouchy young lady." This made it onto somebody's wall for $203.50.






STEVE CANYON FLIGHT SUIT
I wrote last month about a rare child's Steve Canyon flight suit up for auction and going unsold. I no sooner mentioned that I'd never seen one before when this one comes up - the same product, only brand new and still in the box! It may be one of a kind, but it didn't move on the minimum price of $565.

WOMEN IN THE AIR FORCE RESERVE
Even before Terry Lee got in a cockpit, Milton Caniff was a booster for the US military. Here's one of the many (no doubt gratis) jobs he did for Uncle Sam. It's a recruitment sign for the Women's Air Force Reserve. It's not dated, but the art looks like '60s, maybe early '70s Caniff. A rarity, to be sure, but at $40 it found no recruits!