Vintage Steve Canyon comic strips online
I’ve become addicted to comic strip reprints.
Well, not reprints. Reruns. Posted online. Of Milton Caniff’s classic Steve Canyon comic strip, which first appeared in newspapers in 1947.
Cartoonist Milt Caniff was already famous for creating the strip Terry and the Pirates in the 1930s. He quit that strip when he realized the Chicago Tribune, not he, would forever own the characters he created.
Steve Canyon was more than just a “do-over,” though. It was also an “in-your-face”: Caniff sold the new strip to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Ooooh. Snap!
An example of a vintage Sunday
strip. Click for an enlargement.
The title character is a recently retired WWII vet who has spent his life savings on a surplus C-47 and started up an air cargo business with his old wartime crew. He runs into all sorts of misadventures. When the Korean War started, Canyon reenlisted in the U.S. Air Force.
The strip continued through the 1980s. I remember reading it in the late 1960s when it seemed like more story lines involved college football and didn’t go anywhere near Col. Canyon.
A web site called Humorous Maximus started rerunning the strips a few weeks ago, starting from the beginning and posting them one agonizing day at a time. I guess I’ve become too accustomed to graphic novels and book collections of comic strips — I tried to hold off for a few days, so I can enjoy several strips at a time. But I keep peeking.
The only drawback: The Sunday strips aren’t in color.
Here’s where to find Steve Canyon:
http://www.humorousmaximus.com/steve/canyon.php
Read background info on the strip here:
http://www.toonopedia.com/canyon.htm
June 8th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Steve Canyon, huh? Caniff also did some shilling in Steve Canyon for an organization I’m involved with, a not-so-distant relative of the Air Force… its uniformed civilian auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol. Surprised to see you mention the strip, but it’s cool, too.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Very cool, Charles
A reminder of a time when newspapers were treating their readers with an innovative visual storytelling form (almost lost nowadays)-the daily adventure strip-
Still, an irony reading this strips online…
I’m an old guy, but for me the pleasure of reading a Canniff’s, Raymond’s or Foster’s page is the quintesential “print” experience.
June 25th, 2007 at 8:49 am
A new one for me.. I’d never heard of it before.
It’s Pretty good - a lot wordier than people would care to read these days.
July 14th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I have an original comic strip by Milton Caniff. It’s about 11 or 12 inches long. A Steve Canyon strip. Signed and dated by Caniff in, If I can recall, in the 40’s or 50’s. I don’t have it in front of me.
Would anyone know where I could get this appraised or who would want to purchase?
July 26th, 2007 at 5:14 am
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