The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1: 1934-1936 [Hardcover]

Milton Caniff (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 2007

Celebrating the centennial of cartoonist Milton Caniff's birth, IDW Publishing will publish a six-book series, collecting the entirety of Caniff's groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages will be reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips. Volume One contains more than 800 consecutive strips, from the series' beginning in October 1934 through the end of 1936.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

In this ground-breaking adventure serial, a pair of eager Americans, a boy named Terry Lee and a young fortune hunter named Pat Ryan, land in China to search for an abandoned mine and quickly find themselves facing a succession of gangsters, warlords, pirates, and femmes fatales up and down the coast. Period colonialism and chinoiserie occasionally combine for some awkwardly overheated depictions, but Caniff visualized his setup—Robert Louis Stevenson by way of the pulps—with a cinematic flair that remains thrilling because it is played straight. Ryan, a two-fisted, often shirtless he-man, exhibits an arrestingly sexual chemistry with various bad girls.
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Review

In this ground-breaking adventure serial, a pair of eager Americans, a boy named Terry Lee and a young fortune hunter named Pat Ryan, land in China to search for an abandoned mine and quickly find themselves facing a succession of gangsters, warlords, pirates, and femmes fatales up and down the coast. Period colonialism and chinoiserie occasionally combine for some awkwardly overheated depictions, but Caniff visualized his setup—Robert Louis Stevenson by way of the pulps—with a cinematic flair that remains thrilling because it is played straight. Ryan, a two-fisted, often shirtless he-man, exhibits an arrestingly sexual chemistry with various bad girls.
Copyright © 2007 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker -- NY Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: IDW Publishing; Reprint edition (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600101003
• ISBN-13: 978-1600101007
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IDW Continues to Raise the Bar, September 12, 2007

By 

Edward "ed_b" (Wallingford, CT USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1: 1934-1936 (Hardcover)

I'm a longtime comic strip aficionado, and a collector of reprint volumes. The popularity of Fantagraphics' The Complete Peanuts has brought a resurgence to this genre that, for me, has been no less than thrilling. First of these new reprints came Walt and Skeezix, a gorgeous reprinting of the delightful Gasoline Alley. Close on its heels came IDW's Dick Tracy reprints, featuring not only a great strip, but production values that were better than I'd seen in any other reprint book -- up till that point.
This book tops them all. How the strip itself compares to Gasoline Alley or Dick Tracy is a matter for debate (many would consider Terry superior to both, many would argue for the others -- I love them all), but the quality of this book isn't. It is a huge, solid, gorgeous book, just a joy to behold, a pleasure to hold and read. The strips might as well be brand new, they're so sharp; the coloring of the Sundays is sharp and faithful to the originals; and the filler material is first rate. It is clear that the folks at IDW who are putting out these volumes are serious comic strip fans, who want nothing but the best for the strips that they love.
Thank you, IDW. I can't wait to see what other treats the "Library of American Comics" will be bringing us.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible Volume to Enjoy and Savor, October 19, 2007

By 

Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1: 1934-1936 (Hardcover)

"The Complete Terry and the Pirates--Volume 1" is a big, thick, heavy, massive, well-made, "coffee-table-size" book that contains every one of Milton Caniff's daily and Sunday strips from the series' debut on October 22, 1934, through the end of 1936. It is the first of six volumes that are planned to be released quarterly. Each one will cover a two-year period of one of the most well-drawn, technically excellent, narratively interesting and widely popular comic strips ever created.

I have a special interest in "Terry and the Pirates," since I bear the same name as, and was actually named after, the title character Terry Lee. But I had never read any of Caniff's original strips. By the time I was born, he had moved on to other projects (the most notable being "Steve Canyon," which he created in 1948), and the task of continuing to write and draw "Terry and the Pirates" had fallen to George Wunder. So it was a real treat to go back to the very beginning of the series, with the original artist/writer, and vicariously experience the Orient adventures of young Terry Lee, his older pal Pat Ryan and their nemesis, the infamous Dragon Lady.

Going back in time more than 70 years is interesting. Many of the Chinese characters in "Terry and the Pirates" are caricatures of racial stereotypes that are a little jarring in today's milieu of political correctness run amok. Buck teeth, protruding ears and typecast speech patterns ("solly" for "sorry, "Melican" for "American," etc.) reflect the culture, beliefs and prejudices of the mid-1930s. These strips are accurate depictions of the social mores of the times--even though Caniff reportedly never visited the Orient. Hyper-sensitive individuals may want to avoid exposing themselves to such "blatant racism," but anyone of normal sensitivities should be able to put the seeming slurs into their proper historical context.

The quality and production values of the book are outstanding. The dailies are crisp and sharp, and the colorful Sunday strips practically leap off of the page. Be aware that the drawings are complex and detailed--especially after Caniff hit his stride a year or so into the strip--and the text is dense, plentiful and small. Reading each page requires considerable concentration and a good, bright light. But the payoff you'll get for taking the effort to experience "Terry and the Pirates"--best handled in small doses, like a fine Port, to avoid sensory overload--is well worth it. I enthusiastically recommend this volume most highly and without reservation.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Big Disappointment, September 16, 2007

By 

Dog-the-Kid (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1: 1934-1936 (Hardcover)

I'm a big Caniff's fan. I bought this book and I won't send it back. But I will surely not buy the following volumes.
There's no question that Milton Caniff was a true complete genius. His strip Terry and the Pirates is undoubtly one of the most outstanding artistic achievements in the literary and graphic arts of the XXth century.
But this edition just doesn't cut it.
Scanning and printing haven't been done with enough definition: The line art is unsharp and unworthy of such a smooth and inspired inker as Caniff.
The strips are reprinted too small. Especially the format of the Sunday Pages is ridiculously tiny. And graphically weird: 3 thin strips to a page, historically conceivable, but esthetically inappropriate. For a book which wants to be the definitive edition, it is pretty shocking.
The worst, yet: The art has been scanned very darkly, to the contrary of the NBM-Flying Buttress edition. The gray screens come out much too strong: You get Caniff's blacks, but his lights are gone! This printing is maybe 10% more accurate than the NBM-Flying Buttress scans, but the black & white balance ist at least 30% off... And offputing!
The extra-bonus materials are sparse and reproduced much too small. The introduction articles are totally superficial and uninteresting. The object in itself is much too big and to heavy to have an enjoyable and relaxed reading session.
Oh, please! Bring us back Denis Kitchen, Peter Poplaski, Shel Dorf and their Kitchen Sink re-editions!
In the meanwhile, try to find the (although not perfect either, but much more enjoyable) NBM-Flying Buttress edition.