Steve Canyon: A month a day!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I've been reading Steve Canyon strips from IDW's Library of American Comics collections, a month every day, for the last few weeks. I started with volume 2, since that's the volume I had. But now I'm flashing back to volume 1, and since there was some interest in a read-along, here goes!

January 1947.

This is a short month, as the strip began on January 13. Short synopsis: Rich vamp Copper "the Copperhead" Calhoun wants to hire Canyon's Horizons Unlimited air-transport business for a mysterious mission. Steve (and his secretary, Feeta-Feeta) are rude to Calhoun's underling, Mr. Dayzee. Calhoun tests Canyon's bravery and prowess b setting thugs on him, and then hires him, impressed. Dayzee plots with Calhoun's bodyguard, blackmailing him, to kill Canyon during the mission.

Elements of note:
I liked how Canyon isn't introduced until a week into the strip. Canniff spends a week with Feeta-Feeta being sassy to Mr. Dayzee as we wonder what the lead character is like. And then, on the first Sunday page, he appears... but not until after several incidental characters react to him while he's only partially on-panel.

Feeta-Feeta's unusual nickname is taken from the soldiers in American Samoa -- Fita is Samoan for soldier, and from what I can find online, the Fita Fita Guard was the Samoan Marine Reserve.

I like Copper Calhoun's hooded wrap -- it suggests cobra more than copperhead, but it definitely gets the idea of a snake across. 

New Characters of Note:
Steve Canyon, Feeta-Feeta, Copper Calhoun, Mr. Dayzee, Kroom

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I recorded it but haven't watched it yet.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Whoops, I didn't realize it was coming up! But it'll be on the TCM app for a month, so I might be able to catch it there. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

We watched The Best Years of our Lives last night, and this morning I read Bill Mauldin's Willie & Joe - Back Home. So, so many of Mauldin's panels are still relevant today. Whenever I read a collection of newspaper comics, I always tell myself I always should be reading some collection, but invariably drift away.

[Richard Willis]

Somehow it had escaped me that TCM movies I haven't recorded and that aren't available on HBOmax are available on the TCM website for a period of time. Thanks to Rob's post, I was able to watch a couple of movies yesterday that I would have missed.

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

Whoops, I didn't realize it was coming up! But it'll be on the TCM app for a month, so I might be able to catch it there. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

SOLICITED FOR SEPTEMBER 7:

"The landmark Steve Canyon, Volume 12 brings Milton Caniff's picaresque novel through the end of the tumultuous 1960s and into a brand-new decade. Everyone's favorite bird colonel travels from Alaska to Latin America and romances women from dominating millionaire Copper Calhoon to... Poteet's old friend, Bitsy Beekman? Things are not always as they seem, but the course of love finally runs true on April 24, 1970."

The twelfth and final volume of this series shipped today (a bit late). the first eleven volumes spell out S-T-E-V-E-C-A-N-Y-O-N on the binding when placed together on the shelf. In case you're wondering, volume twelve has an exclamation point.

"This twelfth volume concludes The Library of American Comics Steve Canyon series. When we began reprinting Milton Caniff's ongoing picaresque novel from its inception on January 13, 1947 our plan was to present the strips as deeply into the run as possible.

"As much as we'd like to continue this series to the end, comics archivists and fans alike are well aware of the challenges of trying to reprint the entirety of a newspaper strip that lasted nearly forty years Market condition and reader feedback have shaped the decision to take out exit as Milton Caniff is still at the top of his game (he won the 1971 Reuben Award for his work on Steve Canyon)..."

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Nice! I'm glad they got that far -- they're such beautiful reprints. I still have a book I've bought that I haven't read -- gotta get back to it!