I’m not a comic-book/graphic-novel lover nor a hater. The form just doesn’t grab me the way it does many other people.
I recognize it as a medium where a good deal of very interesting work is being done, however, so this recent USA Today article on Milton Caniff caught my eye. Caniff created several popular comic strips syndicated for newspapers, notably Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon, which started in 1934 and 1947, respectively.
As the titles suggest, the strips brought a pulp-fiction sensibility to what had been the funny pages.
Pulp fiction was strong on action and sensational situations but—unlike the Quentin Tarantino movie of the same name—was very wholesome in its values overall. Caniff brought this approach to the newspapers, and his work also reflected the rise of action movie serials. As the USA Today article notes:
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.
Here are couple of examples from Steve Canyon:
The USA Today article says Caniff has been dubbed "the Rembrandt of the comic strip." Although that might mean the same thing as being called "the J. S. Bach of Zydeco music," I believe that it is meant as a very serious compliment.
The press release for The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1 compilation book, published this past July, quotes Jerry Robinson as writing in The Comics:
In Terry and the Pirates all the storytelling techniques of the adventure strip fused and a classic style emerged. Caniff developed and integrated the narrative and its visual expression into a uniform aesthetic balance.
Long-form narratives had already been done in the comics for some time when Caniff started Terry and the Pirates, and strips such as Dick Tracy were in fact extremely popular. But Caniff does seem to have brought a combination of realism and expressiveness that appears to have been quite innovative.
Comparisons to Rembrandt seem to me more than a bit feverish in this instance, but
Caniff seems an artist well worth further investigation.
Comics are one reason why people are still reading newspapers.
The three-panel daily strip is an art form unto itself, and tells stories in an entirely different way from video. Examine a good one and you’ll see what I mean. Each installment of a continuity strip (whether comedy or drama) must be somewhat self-explanatory yet advance the story. Every strip must portray a situation with economy yet in a graphically interesting way, include a setup and a punchline. They make it look easy, but it has to take talent and work.
The comics evolved many shorthand conventions that we all recognize: stars for pain, X-ed eyes for unconsciousness, hair standing on end for alarm, tongue in corner of mouth and flying droplets for concentration and effort, strings of symbols for expletives.
I follow many daily strips, but Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” from years ago is still in a class by itself. Kids found it fun; adults appreciated the subtle satire, everyone enjoyed the wordplay.
For a classic strip that’s held up while evolving over the years, I like “Brenda Starr”. Mary Schmich writes it with zingy, topical wit. But they long ago dropped the paper-doll fashions that were part of the Sunday color comic in the 1940s, and inspired many a girl to picture herself as a career woman.
Very interesting observations, Dean. I think the economics for the strips are good: everybody who reads a newspaper in which the strip is syndicated pays about a hundredth of a cent per day (or less, I should imagine) for the comic strip whether they read it or not, and as long as the strip appeals to a significant number of people, it can keep going. That’s a pretty good system, and I can see why it has lasted. If people actually had to subscribe directly to “Doonesbury,” for example, it would have been long gone or would have had to become a separate publication, I imagine.
S.T.,
Last summer I was in a position to read our regional newspaper every day. It had been years since I had paid that much attention to a daily.
I read the comics regularly. I was amazed to find that some of the old-school, long form narratives strips were still running.
I got hooked on the soap-opera antics of “Apartment 3-G” and “Rex Morgan.” Events unfold quickly in those strips. I missed one day of “Apartment 3-G” to find the protagonist who, when I left off, was issuing a heartfelt apology suddenly fighting for his life after having been a victim of a car bombing. Now, that’s drama.
I guess what surprised me most was these strips’ continued presence in the paper. In the days of downloadable iPod video, who still reads these stories that come in tiny three-panel installments, I wondered.
Someone apparently does. After enjoying them all summer, I can see why, but I don’t know how much longer they will last.
A magician never gives away his secrets, Bubba….
“the J. S. Bach of Zydeco music”. Hmmm, how long did it take you to come up with this phrase?
Scanning the Sunday “Comic” strips or a perusal of the fare shown on the Cartoon Network displays the very sad state of what goes for entertainment. Whatever happened to Johnny Quest or G.I. Joe? Anymore, I just take a nap on Sunday afternoon instead of reading the paper. It is a much better use of time.
S.T., one of my responsibilities in my part-time reference librarian job is to go through the microfilms of old newspapers to look for obituaries or other stories at the bequest of patrons. While doing this, I always look at the comics, which I always find interesting & entertaining. It’s great to look at strips such as Steve Canyon & Lil’ Abner, among others & they are just as entertaining, if not more, than the ones you see today.
I was never a big fan of the strip, largely because I thought his characters kind of blocky in their execution. But I admired very much his courageous defense of traditional values and patriotism, in the face of great opposition and ridicule.