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Steve Canyon

Milton Caniff

Milton Caniff had a rather extensive and successful history of comics. He did cartoons for local newspapers during the time he spent studying at Strivers High School in Dayton, Ohio. When he attended the Ohio State University, Caniff joined Sigma Chi and illustrated for the fraternity’s pledge ship/reference manual The Magazine of Sigma Chi and The Norman Shield.

In 1930 he graduated and began working with cartoonist Billy Ireland at the Columbus Dispatch. In 1932, he moved to New York City to accept a position drawing the strips Dickie Dare and The Gay Thirties for the Associated Press. He inherited Mister Gilfeather from Al Capp in 1932 and continued the strip until the spring of 1933 when it was retired in favor of The Gay Thirties which Caniff continued until 1934 when he left AP.

Caniff was hired by the New York Daily News in 1934 to produce a new strip for the Chicago Tribune. Joseph Patterson, the Daily News publisher wanted an adventure strip set within the mysterious Orient. Since Caniff knew almost nothing about China, he researched the nation’s history and learned about families where piracy was passed down over generations as a way of life. Thus, Terry and the Pirates was born.

In 1946, Caniff left the Chicago Tribune in order to produce a strip for Field Enterprises, leaving Terry behind. At the time, Caniff was one of the few syndicated cartoonists who owned their creations, and due to this circumstance, attracted a lot of publicity as a result.

On January 13, 1947 Milton Caniff’s new comic strip Steve Canyon debuted in 168 newspapers. Due to the fame Terry and the Pirates brought him, Caniff’s new strip was an instant hit. Steve Canyon, however, was not an attempt to replicate Terry’s earlier success. Instead, Caniff created a whole new adventure series of a modern, post-war scenario with an adventurous, easy-going hero.

Steve Canyon

Steve Canyon, the hero of the strip was a civilian pilot with his own one-airplane cargo airline called Horizons Unlimited. During the Korean War, however, Canyon enlisted in the Air Force and remain there for the remainder of the strip. Canyon went anywhere in the world in search of adventure, occasionally accompanied by a sidekick such as Happy Easter and Quiz Brennan.

Caniff was famous for his color villains and his interesting female characters. His most famous creation was the Dragon Lady from Terry and the Pirates. Although the vast differences between Terry and Canyon, Caniff still created intriguing female characters. Copper Calhoun, a reoccurring character throughout the Steve Canyon strip was often called “The Dragon Lady of Wall Street”

Although never having the same level of popularity as Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon was still incredibly successful and it had greater circulation than Terry ever had and it enjoyed a greater longevity. In 1958 a television series of 34 episodes was produced for the strip and there was a brief series of novels published in the 1950s by Grossett & Dunlap, written and illustrated by Caniff himself. Steve Canyon was also termed the “unofficial spokesman” for the Air Force.

Steve Canyon

Canyon dropped in circulation due to the negative reaction among readers during the Vietnam War and because of Steve Canyon’s dedication to the military during the time. Despite the negativity and drop in popularity, Steve Canyon earned Caniff his second Reuben in 1972, a trophy given to the Cartoonist of the Year.

In 1952, comic book artist Dick Rockwell, was hired by Caniff to be his assistant. While Caniff drew and scripted the main characters, Rockwell penciled and inked the background and secondary characters. He continued to work alongside Caniff on Canyon until Caniff’s death in 1988 when the strip ultimately came to a close.

As one of the founders of the National Cartoonists Society, Caniff served two terms as its president, 1948 and 1949. He received the Society’s first Cartoonist of the Year Award in 1947 for both Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates. He won his second Cartoonist of the Year Award in 1972 again for Steve Canyon. He received the National Cartoonists Society Elzie Segar Award in 1971, the Award for Story Comic Strip in 1979 for Steve Canyon, and the Gold Key Award in 1981.

In 1988 he was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the NCS has since named the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in Caniff’s honor. The Milton Caniff Collection of papers and original art was the foundation for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, covering 696 cubic feet.