Pop Focus: Milton Caniff and Steve Canyon


Adventure cartoonist Milton Caniff had his first big hit in 1934 with Terry and the Pirates. The strip introduced the classic character the Dragon Lady proved popular enough to spawn a war-time spin-off strip (Male Call), a radio series, movie serial and a variety of merchandising.

But, despite that success, Caniff left the strip in 1946, lured the prospect of creating a character that he, not his newspaper syndicate, would own. The result was Steve Canyon, which detailed the Korean and Cold War adventures of a high-flying American jet pilot.

The strip launched with great publicity in 1947 and ended shortly after Caniff's death in 1988.

Caniff and Canyon became synonymous and, for a time, the cartoonist was a celebrity, appearing on the cover of Time and in magazine ads endorsing Teacher's Scotch Whisky and Thom McCan shoes. His character, meanwhile, appeared on lunchboxes and other merchandise, and even featured in a short-lived TV series.

A large statue of Steve Canyon, erected in 1950, still stands in Idaho Springs, Colo., a product of the town's post-World War II patriotism.

Caniff's strip was also fiercely patriotic and anti-communist, qualities that aroused a fair amount of controversy during the Vietnam era.

From the vantage point of today, however, it's easy to enjoy Caniff's excellent line work and visual storytelling. While he was assisted by other artists on the strip, Caniff drew the main characters throughout its run.

He was a huge influence on two or more generations of comic book artists and you can see elements of his sharp, bold line in the work of Lee Elias, Frank Robbins, Joe Kubert, Jim Aparo and many more.

It's easy to see Caniff's work today. IDW Publishing has collected his complete run on Terry and the Pirates in a sublime series of hardcovers and is in the midst of doing the same with Steve Canyon.

Below is a look at both Caniff and Canyon and their impact on American pop culture.








































Video: Jenna Coleman discusses leaving "Doctor Who"

And, more Clara:


New Doctor Who teaser highlights Clara


Listen: Episode 1 of Jack Flanders and "The Mystery of Jaguar Reef"

ZBS Media is serializing one of their brilliant, funny and though-provoking Jack Flanders audio adventures starting today. Listen here.

New episodes of "The Mystery of Jaguar Reef" will appear online each Friday and Monday.

Flanders is ZBS' flagship character in a lineup that also includes Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe and more.

A sometimes reluctant adventurer, Jack travels the world and, occasionally, other dimensions, finding himself in all sorts of situations that challenge his, and our, perspectives on the world and reality in general. The stories contain elements of mystery, suspense, mysticism, science fiction, fantasy and lots of humor.

I seriously can't recommend the stories highly enough. If you're a fan of old-time radio and pop culture in general you'll thoroughly enjoy them and keep coming back for more. I've been a fan since 1976 when the college radio station in my hometown starting airing Jack's first adventure "The Fourth Tower of Inverness."

Here's is ZBS' own description of "Jaguar Reef":

As we continue with the Lesser Known Works of Meatball Fulton (who wrote these things), we step into the world of Jack Flanders.  Remember back in the days when someone would suddenly shout, “Far friggin’ out!” Well, that fits this.

The idea for The Mystery of Jaguar Reef came from Fulton meeting a few “far out” people who swore they knew at least one “Walk-In.”

Wikipedia describes this as: A "walk-in" is where the original soul of a human leaves a person's body and another soul "walks in".
Is that even remotely possible? Who knows? But it does make a good story.

The Story
Jack Flanders investigates a puzzling case of personality change and soon finds himself scuba-diving into a dilemma off the shores of Belize, Central America. Where did this mysterious pirate wreck come from? Is Jack really a pawn in a cosmic chess game? And why does everyone around him seem to be “walk-ins”, except (perhaps) Captain Coco?

Pulsing festival rhythms, a dose of potent Viper Rum, and the pirate ship ascends into the tropical night sky. A rope ladder is tossed down, and Captain Jack is suddenly at the helm, suspecting that some kind of alien plot is afloat. And so it is.

The Sounds
We recorded the sounds in Ambergris Caye, Belize, where the story takes place. Fulton even brought along his hydrophones to record underwater. This is one lush, tropical, bubbly adventure.

Pop Culture Roundup: Hembeck; Con con; Corgi Batman and Bond

Friend of this blog, Fred Hembeck is returning to the Marvel Universe for a series of variant covers this December!
Hembeck has produced a series of 10 variant covers for various Marvel titles, featuring characters both old and new. The covers are All-New Hawkeye #2, Astonishing Ant-Man #3, Guardians of the Galaxy #3, Silk #1, Ms. Marvel #2, Daredevil #2, Secret Wars #9, Howard the Duck #2, All-New All-Different Avengers #3, and Ultimates #2.

-----

This essay at The Walrus struck a sad chord with me.

Last year, I spent big money for my kids and me to pose with Stan Lee at a pop culture convention. The photo is lots of fun to have, and it was cool to be in Stan's proximity.

But the pay-to-pose nature of the enterprise, and the fact that there's really no, or very little, interaction with stars when taking these photos, left me feeling a little depressed and ripped off. I can't imagine it's much fun for the stars, either. I recognize that cons need a way to make money and pay for these star appearances, but it still feels unseemly.

-----

Friend of this blog, "Kid" Robson takes a detailed look at a couple favorites from my youth, the Corgi Batmobile and James Bond Goldfinger cars.



New Music Friday: Keith Richards; Erroll Garner; Darlene Love; Love and Mercy; Otis Redding; Dave Edmunds

Click the links to order discounted CDs, vinyl and downloads from Amazon.