Wayback Whensday: Caniff, Kane, Company
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High school Milton Caniff, Joe Palooka back in the boxing ring, NCS and Sigma Chi team to honor Milton Caniff, Ron Goulart and Gil Kane Star Hawks Chapter Two, and Milton Caniff’s Miss Lace in Playboy.
Very Early Milton Caniff
In 1925 Milton Caniff of Dayton, Ohio, was a senior at Stivers High School. He was torn between his creative muses, cartooning and the theater. Young Caniff pursued a dual path until he graduated — he was an actor in the senior class play “Going Up,” about an aviator’s romance; and he drew cartoons for the school newspaper.
His major contribution was an ongoing strip starring two students, Chic Woozle and Noodles Dingle. It was a humor strip featuring gags and, about half the time, school activities: sports, plays, trips, etc. Chic and Noodles was the awful eponymous title.
Richard Marschall at Yesterday’s Papers gives us a look at Chic and Noodles, Milton Caniff‘s first comic strip.
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As readers of the comics are well aware, Joe Palooka, the other heavyweight champion of the world, is finally defending his title after 10 years of antiquing in Norwalk, Conn. with his wife (SI, April 19, 1965). The challenger: King Abbso of Jyrobia, who seems to be a composite of the Shah of Iran and Pete Rademacher.
Rodrigo Baeza posts a 1966 Sports Illustrated report of Joe Palooka returning to the ring after a lengthy hiatus.
Cartoonist Tony DiPreta explains:
Some years ago the McNaught Syndicate, which edits and distributes the strip, forbade Joe to box because the sport was in such disrepute. DiPreta was asked if the Abbso fight was a sign of a new beatitude in boxing. “No,” he said, “we got a new editor. The old one was a woman.”
I take it the woman editor who disliked the boxing violence was Mildred M. Bellah.
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In the February-March 1945 issue of The Magazine of the Sigma Chi, the magazine went all-out, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Caniff’s wonderful Terry and the Pirates comic strip. A whopping 48 cartoonists contributed full-page specialty cartoons and drawings celebrating Caniff’s achievement.
Rob Stolzer at Inkslingers presents all 48 specialty drawings.
Featuring John T. McCutcheon, H. T. Webster, Mel Graff, Frank O. King, John H. Striebel, Walter Berndt, Harold Gray, Ernest Hix, Fontaine Fox, Gus Edson, Dale Messick, Gus Arriola, Wally Carlson, Raeburn Van Buren, George Clark, Harold Foster, Zack Mosley, Lank Leonard, Crockett Johnson, H. H. Knerr, C. D. Russell, W. E. Hill, Franklin O. Alexander, George Baker, Joe Shuster, Clarence Gray, Frank Engli, Carl Ed, Tom Sanders, Al Posen, Lee W. Stanley, Jimmy Murphy, Leonard Sansone, Alfred Andriola, Chic Young, Hilda Terry, Bill Holman, Ferd Johnson, Dow Walling, Edwina Dumm, Paul A. Plaschke, Jacob Burke, Art Huhta, R. C. Dell, George Lichty, George Petty, Ray Bailey, and the Milton Caniff cover.
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In 1977, science-fiction author Ron Goulart teamed up with comic book artist Gil Kane to create the science-fiction/adventure strip STAR HAWKS. It ran in THE MENOMENEE FALLS GAZETTE from 3 October 1977 until 2 May 1981 — three and a half years and 1,252 daily strips.
John Navroth at World of Monsters presents: CHAPTER TWO: THE DUSTGUN 11/15/77 – 01/05/79
Other than Star Hawks and Ed Wheelan’s Minute Movie(s) (and a couple of its simulacrum) has there been any other two tier daily comic strips?
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Miss Lace was racy enough for PLAYBOY to include a 3-page feature about her in the January 1954 issue. The article includes a page of sample strips that were published and a page of examples that were rejected and never published. The first one’s a doozy.
Still with John And World of Monsters comes the “A Visit With Milt Caniff’s Luscious Ink Bottle Pin-up“.
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