Review: Meanwhile... a Biography of Milton Caniff

Meanwhile... a Biography of Milton Caniff is a 2007 book published by Fantagraphics and written by R. C. Harvey (who is now deceased). In his life, Harvey was a major fan and promoter of the work of Milton Caniff and had a lot of access to Caniff during the latter years of his life. Meanwhile clocks in at almost 1000 pages yet apparently Harvey's 1st draft was almost twice that length and had to be pared down.

In the early chapters you might well wonder what exactly was pared down - I did. The space spent covering Caniff's early life prior to his professional career as a cartoonist are extremely padded. For instance, to explain something about U.S. culture in the 1920s, Harvey spent two paragraphs recapping the plot and substance of Sinclair Lewis' novel Babbitt. An entire chapter was spent discussing the history of newspaper comics. At times Harvey scripted imaginary conversations he assumed Caniff must have held with other cartoonists. But digressions and rabbit trails (Babbitt trails?) such as this became fairly rare once Caniff's career took off.

Indeed, as Caniff was (and is) best-known for his comic strip Terry and the Pirates (1934-1946), Harvey devoted more time and energy to those years of Caniff's life to the point that most of the storyarcs from the strip were recounted in the text by Harvey. That stands in stark contrast to Caniff's long-running Steve Canyon (1947-1988) strip for which Harvey noted certain highlights in the strip's history but comparatively glanced over much of the content.

I own a set of the complete Terry and the Pirates strips by Caniff that was published by IDW some years ago. I love the strip and I have a lot of respect for Caniff's storytelling and art. I'm less enthusiastic about Steve Canyon - I have vestigal memories of that strip from my childhood and my impression then was that the strip was about as boring as Rex Morgan M.D. or Mark Trail. Of course, as I learned in Harvey's tome, Caniff didn't really draw the strip for very long, turning the penciling duties over to Dick Rockwell and only supplying inks for the majority of the strip's run.

Although I'm overwhelmingly for Milt Caniff, I wasn't prepared for the tone of Harvey's book. Harvey approaches Caniff as though he were beyond criticism. One snippet I found revealing was this, where Harvey engaged with some criticism written by Canadian Arn Saba (today Katherine Collins); Collins (Saba) wrote:

"[When Steve reenlisted in the Air Force], the strip became a vehicle for right-wing political views in that completely transparent and guileless way that Americans have of not even realizing that there might be any other point of view..."

Harvey immediately pushed back against this:

"I don’t wholly agree with Saba. Caniff was a mainstream moderate not a right-wing conservative: he scarcely approached Harold Gray’s end of the political spectrum."

As a fellow Canadian, I understand Collins (Saba)'s perspective as an outsider viewing American culture. Harvey seems unable to consider how American views appear to the world at large, how very right-wing his nation's culture is. One needn't be as far-right as Gray to espouse a right-wing viewpoint. Many of what I see Americans calling centrist views, I would call right-wing if they were uttered by a Canadian. Harvey's own right-wing views were evident when he discussed the protests against Vietnam, where he repeatedly cast shade on the protestor's motivations, at one point calling them "self-indulgent" and generally engaging in bad faith representations of why the war protests broke out.

But for me the most troubling part of Harvey's defensiveness (defensive of the USA and defensive of Caniff) is when he discussed racism in Terry and the Pirates. Despite Harvey's verbose writing style and indulgent 1000 page count, he spent less than 2 pages on this topic. Here's a snippet of the praise he lavished on Caniff:

Almost from the start, Caniff’s treatment of the Chinese in his strip had been respectful—even within the permissive conventions of the medium in a relatively racist society. Caniff’s Chinese villains had been villainous, but they hadn't been racial caricatures: they had been realistically rendered. Some of the early heavies had leaned a little too far in the direction of the Oriental villains of melodrama, but before the strip was six months old, Caniff had scuttled stereotypes like these. And all the other Chinese who crossed Caniff’s stage performed their functions as appropriate to their assigned roles (whether large or small) without any particular attention (or slight) to their race. Not all Chinese were pirates; not all pirates were venal. Not all Caucasians were good guys; and even the good guys had faults.

It really is fair game to talk about racism in Terry and the Pirates. I love that strip, but I also won't hesitate to call it racist. There absolutely are mitigating factors such as Harvey notes above, but any contemporary reader who sees a Caniff drawing of the character Connie will not hesitate in calling him a racist caricature. There's definitely a debate to have on that subject, probably an especially good one to hear from a critic of Asian descent (to say nothing of the Dragon Lady, who I myself saw targeted for criticism in a female Asian student's comics presentation at my university). I don't think Harvey's attempts to cast Caniff as going against the tide of his culture will really resonate with today's audiences; I think they'll simply see Caniff as (at best) a product of his times - and because of his great influence on comics, a fair target for criticism.

So Meanwhile is a hard book to recommend. If you are really enthralled by Caniff's work, I think it's indispensable. Otherwise, no one would want to engage with the book - it's too big, too overwritten, too hagiographic for the casual reader.

Review: Terry & the Pirates Volume 2

Milton Caniff is so highly regarded to this day for his detailed backgrounds, gorgeous women, freewheeling plots and exotic characters that I felt compelled to try the first volume of his Terry and the Pirates comic strips published by IDW. However, while the tome was somewhat rewarding, I did find it a bit of a chore to read at times as the characters often seemed to be stuck spinning their wheels for days and weeks. With some trepidation, I finally purchased volume two after about 18 months of deliberation and discovered I was now becoming a Terry and the Pirates fanatic!

It helps that Caniff's style was evolving as he produced the strip, so by the second volume the characters' features have become stabilized, yet more expressive and the backgrounds have become more frequent (as opposed to omitted) and lush. Further, having introduced so many characters at the start of the strip, the episodes reprinted here (from 1937-1938) have the advantage of playing with the people, personalities and relationships already introduced, with only a few notable additions to the series.

Terry and the Pirates, for those who don't know, began in the 1930s under Milton Caniff's auspices and most people talk of the series "ending" in 1946 when Caniff departed (even though it continued under other hands). The series concerns youngster Terry Lee and his adventures around then-contemporary China, matches wits with pirates such as the Dragon Lady; however, Terry is usually playing second fiddle to his grown-up pal Pat Ryan. Comedy relief is supplied by Connie, Pat & Terry's undeniably-racist servant.

If I could pick just one word to sum up volume two it would be "Burma." Introduced in the first volume, Burma is a scheming thief who'd earlier been a foil for Pat & Terry (and a romantic interest for Pat because all available women in the strip are a romantic interest for Pat). Burma returns in this volume when her former ally Captain Judas tries to get revenge on her, Pat, Terry & Connie. Eventually, this leads to a lengthy sequence where Pat is left behind in Hong Kong while Terry, Burma & Connie become the stars of the strip (Pat is gone for 7 months!). Terry and Burma clash with the raider Klang, form an alliance with the Dragon Lady, rescue a child from a bombed-out train and square off against Hunter Yurk, an American who's collaborating with the invading Japanese; it's only then that Pat rejoins the strip. Amidst all of this, Terry develops a crush on Burma. Although Burma laughs him off, Terry matures into a capable hero during the 7 months without Pat and for the first time seems to be the protagonist of the strip which bears his name, rather than Pat. Terry's devotion to Burma eventually leads to him assisting her in evading the law, ignoring Burma's observation that he's needlessly imperiling himself by helping her.

It's interesting to see the nobility of Burma in this volume. For much of the strip Burma's alliance with Terry could have simply been formed of convenience, needing his help first to escape Captain Judas, then to survive while stranded in rural China. However, when the Dragon Lady re-enters the strip, forming an alliance with Terry against Klang, Burma's interaction with the Dragon Lady exposes Burma's character; the Dragon Lady eventually betrays Terry to Klang to save her own skin, but Burma remains a faithful ally to the finish. Later, Burma is the one whose actions set Terry & Pat free and when she learns Nastalthia (the child she and Terry saved)'s father is being targeted by his fortune-hunting sister-in-law Drusilla. Burma attempts to romance him just to protect he and his daughter from Drusilla.

This is also the volume which introduces Big Stoop, who becomes the series' fourth Musketeer (personally, I'd rather have Burma in the cast on a permanent basis). Big Stoop joins Connie as the series' heroic Chinese characters, but Big Stoop isn't the same caricature as Connie. It's certainly odd that while Caniff's style grew increasingly realistic, Connie became increasingly unrealistic over time as the size of his ears and length of his teeth expanded, making him a cartoon character living in a world of normal people. Big Stoop, on the other hand, was mute (meaning no offensive dialogue) and a towering colossus, easily over 7'. Stoop's prodigious strength is a great addition to the cast - I'm fairly amused at the above panel where he throws a man so hard his body ricochets - so that instead of Pat being the only one capable in a fight, there are two decent brawlers in the group (for that matter, Terry is more effective in a fight now).

Stories in Terry and the Pirates usually involve the characters running into a villain who holds them hostage for a few months. Therefore, I was all too pleased to find a bit of shake-up during one of the storylines in this book. Normandie Drake, Pat's beloved from the previous volume, returns in a series of strips where Pat learns she's married (and later still, pregnant) to an absolute louse, Tony Sandhurst. Sandhurst provides a different sort of menace to the series as his villainy is derived from his cowardice and spite. He refuses supplies to his men because he's heard them complaining about him; the later lack of supplies causes a major crisis when hill folk arrive seeking food; when the whites refuse to share what little they have, the hill folk launch an all-out raid. Even after this, Sandhurst continues to bedevil the heroes by trying to have Pat found guilty of inciting the assault. Because of Pat's devotion to Normandie, he can't quite bring himself to treat Sandhurst how he ought to, so he manages to escape the sort of punishment Caniff's villains normally receive.

It's also interesting to see Caniff acknowledge the invasion of China by Japan, something his editors weren't too keen about (which is why the Japanese are simply "invaders"). In particular, it gives the Dragon Lady a great opportunity to wrap herself in the flag (so to speak), declaring herself a patriot so she can absorb more people into her camp, declaring they'll drive the invaders out of China together; the Dragon Lady genuinely dislikes the Japanese, but as usual she's motivated by her own self-preservation, not concern for anyone else.

I think the weakest point in this volume comes during the Captain Judas story, just after he's kidnapped Pat, Terry & Connie. Big Stoop remains at large, carrying Pat's fraternity pin through Hong Kong. By chance, one of Pat's friends sees the pin, recognizes it as his own fraternity and brings Big Stoop to the police, just as a message Pat smuggled out of Judas' prison reaches the police station. After this, Pat's friend is unimportant. What was the point of this sequence? It's an awfully big coincidence that Big Stoop should just happen to meet one of Pat's friends in the streets of Hong Kong(!), but it becomes an unforgivable contrivance when the chance encounter isn't responsible for Pat's rescue (Pat gets word to the police on his own) and Pat's friend hasn't been introduced in order to set up a new plotline. Big Stoop might just as well have wandered into the police station on his own steam.

Terry and the Pirates has been collected into six volumes by IDW - and I don't think I'll wait 18 months before I buy volume 3!