Vol. 1: 1934-1936
By Milton Caniff
Arc 6: Blaze and the Dragon
Sep 1, 1935 - Jan 26, 1936
This is the third of the Sundays only arcs.
07/30/19
Sep 1, 1935 - Terry, Pat, and Connie board the US Navy ship after being rescued by the Marines. Connie sneaks a baby crocodile on board that he found in the Dragon Lady’s dungeon.
08/04/19
Sep 8, 1935 - two sailors decide to have some “fun” by scaring Connie. They are the ones who get the scare when they find the alligator in Connie’s hammock.
The sailors don’t refer to Connie by name. They have a more insulting word that they use when referring to him. Today those words would be racial slurs but back then I guess it was okay to print them in comic strips.
The destroyer that Terry, Pat, and Connie are currently aboard is number 407. The destroyer that got that numerical designation wasn’t built until a year after this strip was published.
08/10/19
Sep 15, 1935 - Terry gets washed overboard during some rough weather. He is saved by Connie’s crocodile.
08/12/19
Sep 22, 1935 - Terry, Pat, and Connie prepare to depart the ship. There is yet another attempt at humor with a racial tinge. This arc feels like it is going nowhere fast at this point.
08/13/19
Sep 29, 1935 - Bitter Medicine at a Medicine Show - Terry, Pat and Connie go to a show put on by “Chinese Gypsies”. They drink tea laced with narcotics and pass out after their military escort insists that its safe. He is quickly revealed to be in league with the Dragon Lady, who returns in the final panel.
The new arc finally feels like it has begun. This Sunday strip is the first of many to have a title.
08/15/19
Oct 6, 1935 - Quiet Evening with the Dragon Lady - the pirates load the treasure on to the Dragon Lady’s ships. The Chinese Army Colonel who betrayed them professes his love for the Dragon Lady but she has nothing but contempt for him. Her men are ready to throw Terry, Pat, and Connie to the sharks but she decides to keep them. She has other plans for them.
08/16/19
Oct 13, 1935 - Three Gents on a Junk - Terry, Pat, and Connie wake up aboard the Dragon Lady’s ship. She shows her prisoners what sort of punishment she has planned for them, to pay them back for the destruction of her coastal stronghold.
08/17/19
Oct 20, 1935 - Rocky Road to Ruin - Terry, Pat, and Connie are put to work towing the Dragon Lady’s junk up the river. Connie gets tired, stumbles, and falls. It looks like he is about to get a whipped by the Dragon Lady’s righthand man when another gang of thugs, led by a bearded man with red hair attacks.
08/20/19
Oct 27, 1935 - Yellow Peril on the Yellow River - the thugs kill the Dragon Lady’s men and take her prisoner. If the leader of the bandits has a name it hasn’t been revealed yet.
The Dragon Lady’s words are unaccented in this arc.
08/21/19
Nov 3, 1935 - Dragon Lady’s Draggin’ - Cap’n Blaze, their captor, tells them about his past. He used to be a pirate but later moved inland and became a bandit and the leader of a tribe of mongol bandits. He has plans for the Dragon Lady. He expects her to cook for him and clean his mountain stronghold.
08/25/19
Nov 10, 1935 - Cap’n Blaze puts the Dragon Lady to work cleaning and cooking. He makes her taste the food before he eats it. She promises to get her revenge on him and to make it painful for him.
10/31/19
Nov 17, 1935 - Cap’n Blaze pushes the Dragon Lady a little too far. She tries to kill him but he’s ready for her.
11/01/19
Nov 24,1935 - Terry, Pat, and Connie finally rebel against Cap’n Blaze when he prepares to throw the Dragon Lady our in the cold for the night. Blaze seems amused and satisfied by their response to his threat.
11/02/19
Dec 1, 1935 - Cap’n Blaze backs off from his stated plan to throw the Dragon Lady out in the cold. Connie gets a scare when he sees Cap’n Blaze in his long underwear.
11/03/19
Dec 8, 1935 - Cap’n Blaze plans to kill Connie because he interrupted his midnight snacking. He changes his mind after Connie inadvertently makes him laugh.
11/04/19
Dec 15, 1935 - Connie asks the Dragon Lady about how she got her name while he is running an errand for Cap’n Blaze.
11/05/19
Dec 22, 1935 - Cap’n Blaze gives Terry, Connie, Pat, and the Dragon Lady a bit of a scare before he shows up dressed as Santa Claus.
11/07/19
Dec 29, 1935 - Terry and Connie fool a couple of Cap’n Blaze’s men with a snowman that looks very much like him.
11/08/19
Jan 5, 1936 - the Dragon Lady has escaped. This feels like it might be the beginning of a new story but according to the list I’m going off of there are still a few more strips to go in this arc.
11/09/19
Jan 12, 1936 - Cap’n Blaze is furious that the Dragon Lady escaped. He’s got it in his head that Terry, Pat, and Connie helped her get away. He’s ready to kill them when Pat suggests a contest, a game of checkers. If Pat wins they go free but if he loses then Cap’n Blaze will feed them to the wolves.
11/10/19
Jan 19, 1936 - Pat and Cap’n Blaze play checkers while Terry and Connie watch. Pat outplays Blaze and has him on the ropes but the game isn’t over just yet.
11/11/19
Jan 26, 1936 - Pat loses the game of checkers but Cap’n Blaze has changed his mind about feeding Terry, Pat, and Connie to the wolves. Pat explains to Terry and Connie that he threw the game on purpose. He references She Stoops to Conquer, an 18th century play, in his explanation to his two companions.
That’s it for this arc. It felt fairly light and more of an interlude than an arc. It introduced Cap’n Blaze, defines his relationship with the Dragon Lady, and set things up for another encounter with her. Hopefully the next Sundays only arc will have a little more in the way to plot and character development.
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