Terry and the pirates

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Terry and the Pirates (English: Terry and the Pirates ) is the most famous comic strip by the American comic artist Milton Caniff . The stories about a boy and his adult companion appeared in numerous American newspapers from 1934 to 1973. Caniff held the series until the end of 1946 before he gave it up due to the unsatisfactory rights situation for him.

Origin and scope of action

The publisher Joseph Medill Patterson became aware of Caniff's comic book Dickie Dare and offered him to develop a new series for Patterson's company. This new series was to be set in the Far East. Caniff suggested Tommy Tucker as the name of the comic ; but this was changed from Patterson to Terry and the Pirates .

At the beginning, the framework consists of the search of the young title hero Terry Lee, who is supported by the journalist Pat Ryan and the Chinese Connie, who is portrayed with exaggerated big ears, for a lost gold mine in Asia. In this - recently unsuccessful - search they experience numerous adventures and meet various - also female - villains, of which the Dragon Lady is the best known.

In the course of the comic, Terry changes from a rather milk-faced boy to a young man, and the Second World War has a noticeable impact on the plot. Terry Lee joined the Air Force with the Strip on October 10, 1943 , later officially became a lieutenant in the American Air Force and received his own ID card with a properly assigned registration number. Pat Ryan took a back seat and eventually disappeared by joining the Navy . The character Pat Ryan, designed as a womanizer, was initially the actual hero of the series. A secret love developed between the dragon lady and him, which, however, remained unfulfilled because they represented contradicting moral concepts.

In the first two years, different stories were told on the Sunday pages than on the daily trips on working days. Only after this time did it merge into a continuous story. The comic's appearance also changed: if Caniff initially drew with a pen, he later used a brush. In addition, he used stylistic devices familiar from the film industry, such as a change of perspective and hard cuts.

publication

The first strip of Terry and the Pirates appeared on October 22, 1934, the first Sunday page on December 9, 1934. This series was held by Caniff until the end of 1946 and until 1973 by George Wunder , who was, among others, Frank Springer , Russ Heath , Lee Elias and George Evans continued. During the Second World War , Caniff drew the offshoot Burma parallel to Terry and the Pirates exclusively in soldiers' newspapers (the heroine was Pat Ryan's friend), which was discontinued after a relatively short time at the request of the rights holder and was replaced by the series Male Call . On December 28, 1946, the last strip drawn by Caniff appeared, as he changed employers. He justified the separation with the fact that his artistic freedom would have been restricted if it had continued. After the submission of Terry and the Pirates Caniff created the comic Steve Canyon , to which he kept the rights in contrast to Terry and the Pirates . Terry and the Pirates was suddenly discontinued on February 23, 1973 after Wunder had been responsible for the comic for over 26 years. At that point, around 100 of the 300 or so newspapers that had subscribed to the Strip to date had not renewed their contracts.

In the early 1970s, Carlsen Verlag tried to bring excerpts from Terry and the Pirates onto the German-speaking market with the book series Comics - world-famous series of characters , but stopped this experiment again after a few issues. Originally designed as a complete edition, excerpts from Terry and the Pirates were published in four albums by Feest between 1985 and 1987 (translator: Bernd Leibowitz). Carlsen also released two albums again in 1991 (translator: Uwe Anton ), but an announced third volume was never released. In the United States, both the Daily Trips and Sunday Pages appeared as aggregates in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.

Terry and the Pirates was filmed in 1940 as a serial with William Tracy in the lead role and in 1953 as a multi-part television series with John Baer in the lead role.

reception

Andreas C. Knigge considers Terry and the Pirates to be " one of the best and most important adventure trips in the history of comics " and certifies Caniff that he attaches great importance to " characterizing the characters as multifaceted as possible ". Franco Fossati describes in The large illustrated Ehapa comic lexicon the comic as an " extremely successful adventure series ". The pathetic speech that Terry's trainer gave at the end of his training on October 17, 1943, was read a day later in the House of Representatives by Republican MP Carl Hinshaw and was thus recorded. So does Terry and the Pirates managed as so far the only comic book a place in the archives of the American Parliament.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Milton Caniff at lambiek.net (English) , accessed on March 9, 2009
  2. ↑ a b Andreas C. Knigge: 50 classic comics. From Lyonel Feininger to Art Spiegelman . Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-8067-2556-X , p. 73 .
  3. ↑ Andreas C. Knigge: 50 Classic Comics. From Lyonel Feininger to Art Spiegelman . Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-8067-2556-X , p. 75 .
  4. ^ A b c Franco Fossati: The large illustrated Ehapa comic lexicon . Ehapa Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-7704-0865-9 , p. 255 .
  5. ^ Andreas C. Knigge: Comic-Lexikon . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-16519-8 , pp. 77 .
  6. ↑ George Wunder at lambiek.net (English) , accessed on March 9, 2009
  7. ↑ Frank Springer at lambiek.net (English) , accessed on March 9, 2009
  8. ↑ Russ Heath at lambiek.net (English) , accessed on March 9, 2009
  9. ↑ Lee Elias at lambiek.net (English) , accessed on March 9, 2009
  10. ↑ George Evans at lambiek.net (English) , accessed on March 9, 2009
  11. ↑ Andreas C. Knigge: Sex in comics . Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-548-36518-3 , pp. 143 .
  12. ↑ Andreas C. Knigge: To be continued . Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-548-36523-X , pp. 292 .
  13. ↑ Terry and the Pirates in Feest Verlag on comicguide.de , accessed on March 9, 2009
  14. ↑ a b Terry and the Pirates in Carlsen Verlag on comicguide.de , accessed on March 9, 2009
  15. ↑ Milton Caniff at imdb.com (English) , accessed March 9, 2009
  16. ^ Andreas C. Knigge: Comics . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-16519-8 , pp. 75 .
  17. ^ Andreas C. Knigge: Comics . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag , Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-16519-8 , pp. 77 .
  18. ^ Franco Fossati: The large illustrated Ehapa comic lexicon . Ehapa Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-7704-0865-9 , p. 48 .
  19. ↑ a b Andreas Platthaus : The 101 Most Important Questions - Comics and Manga . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57361-3 , p. 45-47 .