Click for a better look
If you read the “Steve Canyon Returns” entry, and the story behind the classic 1958 television series, you already know that drex files, by arrangement with the Caniff Estate, will be running the classic newpaper strip “Steve Canyon”, starting today! If you haven’t read the entry, check it out, and help the restoration cause by buying a disk – http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-return-of-steve-canyon/
In 1959 Steve Canyon was in more than 600 newspapers worldwide. It was huge. Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry and art director Matt Jefferies were Air Force, and I guarantee you they read, and were influenced by Caniff’s “Steve Canyon”. In fact, this strip was so popular, that it gave birth to the most expensive television show of it’s day. So standby for throttle up, and bear witness to the story telling and illustrative genius of Milton Caniff!
“Canyon” will alternate with “Tracy” on a daily basis.
OMG, LMAO! …must be a schizo-something!
Not, a schizo OR something, but just a plain out “schizo-something!” Awesome!
Fly high, Steve Canyon! Fly high ya schizo-something mo-fo!
Thanks, Doug!
LLP,
deg
And thanks John, for the arrangement of Doug being able to run Milton Caniff’s glorious stuff. Man you gotta dig those sticks, er, I mean, pencils, eh.
LLP,
deg
Doug,
This is cool. My dad was a pilot for 40 years, and he read Steve Canyon too.
Alright! Love the friendly digs between the Navy guys and Canyon! Love the quality of the drawings! And the salutes are proper too!! The thumbs are extended rather than tucked under like you see in a lot of shows. Caniff really knew his stuff!
Thank you Doug and John! This is a real treat!
Is this the very beginning? I like the keep-em-guessing cues and cliffhanger we already have going with the Duchess and the woman who disappeared (the same woman?).
Seamed pantyhose!! She keeps them regulation straight. I’m glad I never had to mess with those things, yuck! Sorry, don’t mean to bore all you fellas.
Pantyhose didn’t exist then. She wore stockings.
I remember going through basic training in them!
Hi Johann… May I ask about you experience? Where were you? What branch? When?
Hi! I joined the Air Force in late August of 1962, and got out of basic in early October. At that point in time, pantyhose did not exist. I’m assuming that this particular strip predates that time.
I was assigned to Charleston Air Force Base Headquarters Squadron around the middle of October as a draftsman, and am probably the first woman to be assigned as a draftsman ever. They told me that it wasn’t possible for me to be a draftsman because they’d have to send me to Ft. Belvoir for training, and they didn’t (at that time) have facilities for women on the base.
I kept insisting that I was ALREADY a draftsman, and they needed them badly enough that they eventually gave me a by-passed-specialist test, which I passed with a perfect score.
I later found out that whenever there was a job that nobody knew how to do, they just gave it to me, and it got done. I never had a problem with anything they gave me.
While I was at Charleston, I joined the Aero Club and learned to fly. The best part about that was that they had T-34s that I could fly, which was especially fun because they were stressed for aerobatics.
Before I joined, I did about half the art/wiring diagrams/shematics, etc. for the manuals for the BMEWS project. They were surprised at my duty station that I already had a security clearance.
I’ve done a lot of tech illustration and graphic art, and most recently did the covers for the Steve Canyon DVDs.
I couldn’t figure out how to add this AFTER your question, though.
THAT Johann! My goodness, and welcome! We spoke just the other day via your comment page. Please leave you blog address here so that the gang may visit you!
I find your experiences FASCINATING, and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say we would like to hear more! Could you be enticed? Do you have photos? I’d love to put the spotlight on you in an entry! Please? – Doug
I just now saw your comment due to getting an email notification of Doug’s response…I don’t seem to be getting them for yours.
To be honest, I don’t know the difference between them except that pantyhose are nylon, a different material. Is that the only difference? Basic training in those?! Oh man, how things have changed!!
I’m with Doug. I’d like to hear more about you, so if you’d like to share, please do!
Deanne, if you click on Johann Mitchell’s name it’ll take you to her blog (which I’m currently reading through).
Thanks for the tip, John. I checked it out a bit and noticed that the Steve Canyon review link is not working…it seems to have the incorrect date in the link — FYI Johann.
dea, I could never count you as boring, not by a loooooong shot. The fact that you even hang (and easily hold your own) with us geek-fellas, that alone endears you to me forever, let alone the you you bring to our group, eh.
- hands dea a nice ripe banana -
LLP,
deg
Thanks for the banana, I was gettin’ hungry! I stopped to eat it in front of the TV, and accidentally turned it on to the Retro Television Network. It just happened to be starting a Black Sheep Squadron – I haven’t caught that show in YEARS!! Even though I know it’s not really anything that happened to Gregory Boyington (very loosely based), I just love their Corsairs (some of the blacksheep ain’t too bad, either). I carried a Corsair model around the hobby shop for 10 minutes until I found the Jeep I finally bought on my birthday. I’ve wanted to build one since I saw one hanging dramatically in the air at the Udvar-Hazy Museum. Hmmmmmm, I must have been in a Jeep mood! Next time.
This ep happened to have them flying Japanese aircraft, but it all made me anxious for my DVDs of Steve Canyon!! I was struck by the coincidence that I happened on the Black Sheep show the day I ordered the DVDs! This was a favorite show of mine when it first ran, and now I know I’ll like Steve Canyon…I can just feel it.
Well, that may have tried your not counting me as boring (yawn).
I got a wee bit carried away – I loved that show!
“I carried a Corsair model around the hobby shop for 10 minutes until I found the Jeep I finally bought on my birthday. I’ve wanted to build one since I saw one hanging dramatically in the air at the Udvar-Hazy Museum.”
That would be the Corsair, not the Jeep!
Steve Canyon started as a newspaper comic on January 13, 1947…This is actually the 20th story arc called OPERATION EEL ISLAND from 1951 and is shortly after Steve is recalled to active duty due to the Korean War. At this time the story arcs ran roughly 12 weeks with single tier dailies Monday through Saturday and then Sundays as 4 tiers (depending on the newspaper’s Sunday color layout they also had a wider 3 tier version available).
This is from the beginning of the period that Caniff enthusiasts consider when he hit his stride as an artist and storyteller.
This story was also adapted as a sparsely-illustrated novel by the same name by Grosset and Dunlap in 1959 (al’a the popular Tom Swift adventure stories for kids). Attributed to Caniff, it was neither written nor illustrated by him. If I can figure out how to post a pic here, I’ll send up the book’s dust jacket cover painting here later…or just email it to Dougie
Note also that Steve is a Major at this point and not yet a Lt. Colonel…
Lots of great info, John! Thanks again for sharing!!
Wow, it’s great to see the comic strip again. I haven’t seen it since I was a kid. And I can’t believe I’m old enough to remember a time BEFORE panty hose. For the youngsters reading this, nylon stockings came in a pair and you had to hold them onto your legs by fsstening them to a garter belt, which was an uncomfortable contraption with strange looking straps and clasps that descended from the belt, which was more like a mini-girdle. There was no technology available at the time to make them seamless, so they had a seam that women struggled to keep straight in the back. They weren’t as pretty as they are today in the sexy lingerie dept. But here’s a picture of a garter belt in action: http://www.stockingshowcase.com/detail.asp?product_id=T165
I hope that helps.
Just took a look at this category for the first time. I have the first 23 issues of the 1980s Kitchen Sink Press “Steve Canyon Magazine” reprints of this strip, which grew from saddle-stitched magazine to trade paperback over the six years I followed it. The story above begins in issue 14, back when the magazine contained a good deal of material provided by Caniff himself about how the stories came about.
I love this stuff. The art epitomizes the refined storytelling that comics became capable of… thanks to people like Caniff, Eisner, and Toth. The stories make me think of movies by Howard Hawks and Frank Capra. Amazing work that — as I remember thinking back in 1986 — holds up better than a lot of old tv I could name.
That said, I’ll probably have to check out the Canyon tv series at some point. Thanks for posting this, Mr. D. It’s important that new audiences see this excellent work.