Honoring cartoonist Milton Caniff

Ohio comic book fans are celebrating one of their state's greatest exports, Milton Caniff, creator of the influential mid-twentieth century adventure strips "Terry and the Pirates" and "Steve Canyon." Caniff was only 12-years-old when his first strip ran in the Dayton Daily News. He'd go on to produce a daily feature for more than five decades, helping define the genre of sequential storytelling through his intensely patriotic strips. Today, the Associated Press profiles Caniff, whose work will be fêtted during this week's Festival of Cartoon Art in Columbus, Ohio. For more about Caniff's life and impact, check out the new biography "Meanwhile… A Biography of Milton Caniff," by Robert C. Harvey and published by Fantagraphics. From the Associated Press article:

In 1934, the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate commissioned Caniff to create a cartoon based on news reports of a band of Chinese pirates led by a woman. "Terry and the Pirates" debuted 73 years ago on October 22, 1934…

Caniff brought a cinematic technique to his strips, with close-ups, panoramas and angled views of characters out of the corner of panels. He used the "chiaroscuro" artistic style to create black-and-white contrasting images.

He insisted on accuracy in his drawings, subscribing to dozens of magazines to aid his research and amassing a collection of guns, knives and swords to get the details right on weapons. He relied on "spies" in the armed services to keep him up to date on military lingo and procedures and welcomed readers who caught mistakes in his strips…

Themes of war and violence ran through the cartoon. Men were strong, women were sultry and sexual relations were implied. He created a lesbian character, Sanjak, decades before cartoons like "Doonesbury" and "For Better or for Worse" addressed homosexuality.

In 1947, Caniff created a new strip, Steve Canyon, an event so anticipated it landed Caniff on the cover of Time magazine.