Customer Reviews

Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon: 1950 (Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Series)

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This volume, covering 1950 (the year the Korean War began), is the fourth in the Canyon series, which begins in 1947. I have reviewed each of the three earlier instalments.

Much has been said about the cinematic technique in comics but, as Horn's "World Encyclopedia of Comics" (WEC) points out, the comics were there first. Cutting, framing and panning were practiced as early as in the time of Opper, McCay* and Feininger, and dialogue of course, existed in the comics while the movies were still silent. When one reads of a comic's cinematic technique, it is in fact the result of years of cross fertilization between the two arts. The Sunday page selected by the WEC to illustrate Steve Canyon is a magnificent example. It is from this volume (note that the Sunday pages in these volumes are reproduced in black and white, but the results are fine), date: March 26, 1950. The spoiler that follows does not give away the story but describes a major action sequence up to said Sunday page.

Spoiler

Canyon lags behind a plane taking off that he must catch to evade pursuers, but manages to grab onto cables hanging from the craft. Unable to deposit Canyon anywhere without endangering his life, the pilots see a train with flatcars and drop him there. Canyon is immediately in the middle of another adventure and the action continues unabated.

The "camera" follows the action from various sides of the plane and above it, where we see Canyon dangling and the landscapes below and the cloudscapes above. When it comes to the train, the plane can be seen first a few feet above the train, and later superimposed above it as the train is crossing a trestle above a river. Shots from the river, inside the cars, from the perspective of a flatcar, and from a bird's eye view over the last panel of the Sunday page, would collectively require logistics that would severely tax very expensive productions today and were not feasible in the cinema of 1950.

End of spoiler

The above superlative sequence is an example of what, in my opinion, sets Canyon head and shoulders above much of what I have read in the comic books (1960s-70s Superman, Batman, etc.), putting it in a class approaching some European series such as Tintin.** Our part of the deal between author and reader is to allow moderate suspension of disbelief while the author delivers superb adventures. The author oversteps his allowance with the last story, The Mysterious Monsieur Gros, but the tale is quite imaginative. A problem with collecting daily strips into a full year's volume is the redundancy where some panels repeat what went on before as a courtesy to readers who missed a day or so. That is the case here a good deal more than in the earlier volumes.

While the Korean War results in Canyon's enlistment, there is intrigue in "Indochina" with one mention of Vietnam, and the French presence there is part of the adventure. We can imagine Canyon readers of the time were privy to what would become a huge story a dozen years later. The cast of characters continues to expand, mostly in the villain department. Other characters receive considerable development. The stories are all good; and the sequence given above is particularly strong.

My recommendation is that you get the 1947 volume if you haven't already, and work your way up. As I say in my other reviews, the paper, binding and reproduction are of excellent quality, the size a little small, but the resolution is such that details are not lost, though you'll need good or enhanced eyes.
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*Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" is a masterpiece and I recommend it highly.
**Hergé's "Tintin," also highly recommended (see my reviews). The three-adventure volume containing The Calculus Affair, The Red Sea Sharks and Tintin in Tibet is probably the pinnacle.

I wondered why Caniff (the greatest serial cartoonist of all time) was spending so much time with Reed Kimberly and then--boom!--up pops Major Canyon. While we were looking elsewhere, Canyon re-enlisted in the Air Force. I'm sure this came as a major shock to the readers of the day (which is probably part of the storytelling genius).

Artwork is still phenomenal!