Vol. 4: 1941-1942
By Milton Caniff
Lessons in Democracy
Apr 28 - Jul 5, 1941
This is the seventh story (of nine) in what Carl Horak, author of the Terry and the Pirates Companion, considers to be the third era of Caniff’s run on the strip. This era begins in late Apr 1939 and ran through late Jan 1942 and is called Between Spear Points in the companion book.
The Wikipedia article on Terry and the Pirates breaks the entire series down into 60 arcs. This is the 33rd arc and is called The Taste of Freedom. It ran from Apr 28 to Jun 22, 1941.
04/10/22
Apr 28-30, 1941 - Terry follows the instructions given to him by Agent R-61. His allies take Terry in but they are suspicious of his motives. The German secret police go looking for Madame Lustre.
The German secret police seem to think that Burma will be easy to deal with. I think they are in for a surprise.
04/11/22
May 1-3, 1941 - the head of the German secret police confronts Burma. He tells her that Kiel and everyone else aboard the ship are dead. He went there with the intention of killing her but he changes his mind and decides he might have a use for her.
I like the way Caniff uses shadows to silhouette both characters in these three strips.
Burma thinks that Terry is dead.
04/12/22
May 4, 1941 - the Hong Kong secret police decide that Terry is trustworthy. They help him get a coded message to Burma who is still being interrogated by the Captain of the German secret police. Burma understands that Terry is still alive when she sees the message.
One of the panels is an extreme closeup of Burma’s face. Her right eye, her hairline, and part of her nose are the only things in the panel. I have no idea why Caniff chose to do that.
04/13/22
May 5-7, 1941 - Terry keeps an eye on the building where Burma is staying, from the roof of the building across the street. The secret police of Kiel’s country ask Burma to help them find the spy in their midst.
The way the secret police are talking about the spy in their midst it is almost as if they have a suspect and yet they also talk like they don’t know who it is. Weird.
04/14/22
May 8-10, 1941 - the secret police chief points out the man he wants her to get close to and then let’s her get to work. Terry learns from the Chinese secret agent he is working with that they have a spy in the German secret police organization.
I wish they would call them Germans, which they haven’t. I wish they would give supporting characters, like the Chinese and a German secret policemen, names.
04/15/23
May 11, 1941 - Burma talks to the guy who the German secret police suspect of being a spy for the British. He claims to be British but Burma tricks him into blowing his cover. They were testing Burma. She passes with flying colors.
A portion of the German Nazi flag is visible in the next to last panel of this strip. It is only part of the flag but it’s clear enough to satisfy me.
Burma tricked the German into revealing that he wasn’t British when she said something about how “Cornwallis took Yorktown”. I knew that wasn’t accurate but it wasn’t until I realized that he wasn’t British that it all made sense.
04/16/22
May 12-14, 1941 - Terry gets the British secret police to send Burma a typewriter under the pretense that it is hers and it was being repaired. Burma intuits that it must be from Terry and she accepts it and immediately tests it out.
The first of these strips is a recap of the Sunday strip as told to Terry by the British secret police. They even mention the Cornwallis taking Yorktown line.
Burma notices that something is up with the typewriter when she tests it out. Caniff doesn’t reveal in that third strip what is so special about the typewriter.
04/17/22
May 15-17, 1941 - Burma discovers that the typewriter types in Morse code. The chief of the German secret police comes to her with another assignment. He wants her to test the loyalty of another German citizen. She agrees to do it.
04/18/22
May 18, 1941 - Burma gets ready for her trip. She is to get close to an engineer named Wolff who is working on a dam for the Invaders. The German secret police think he isn’t loyal enough to the Third Reich. She is to pretend to be the wife of a German named Kamp. She will be accompanied by a couple other German secret police officers. She spots a young boy waving to her while she is wiring for the train. It is Terry in disguise.
Terry looks like he is wearing a wig but for the moment that seems to be the extent of his disguise. No yellow face, at least not yet.
04/19/22
May 19-21, 1941 - Burma places an X on the window of her train car so Terry will know where to find her. The train arrives and Burma gets her first look at Wolff.
I’m not sure how to read Burma’s first reaction to Wolff. I want to say that she is taken by his looks.
04/20/22
May 22-24, 1941 - Burma talks to Wolff and uses her cover story to explain what she is doing there. She also signals to Terry later that night so he knows in which room she is staying.
Wolff looks a bit like Clark Gable or Ronald Coleman to me.
04/21/22
May 25, 1941 - Burma chats with Wolff. She tries to get him to say something disloyal about the German government but he doesn’t. She meets with Terry late that night. They don’t know it but Wolff sees them.
Terry is posing as a Russian refugee. What will Wolff do about what he witnessed?
04/22/22
May 26-28, 1941 - Terry does what he can to confuse the Russian interpreter. Burma discovers how stupid the men who are keeping tabs on her are.
I think these are more attempts at humor, which is not Caniff’s strong suit in my opinion.
04/23/22
May 29-31, 1941 - Burma demonstrates to one of her minders what she plans to use on Wolff. The man gets quite flustered. He dashes off a status report to their superior. The Chinese servant to whom he gives the report takes it to Wolff, instead of sending it.
Burma uses the term concentration camp. Another indication that these men are definitely Germans.
04/24/22
Jun 1, 1941 - Terry has a plan for how he and Burma can escape but her minders are keeping a very close eye on her. Wolff catches the minders eavesdropping on Burma and gives them a hard time. Wolff points out some inconsistencies in Burma’s cover story without actually calling her out.
Wolff seems to have really turned the tables on the two spies.
04/25/22
Jun 2-4, 1941 - Burma’s minders see the Chinese servant with whom, they entrusted their message return and erroneously assume that he mailed it. Wolff tells Burma that they need to have a private chat.
What is Wolff going to talk to Burma about? He has read the secret message so he must know she is working for the secret police.
04/26/22
Jun 5-7, 1941 - Wolff explains to Burma how he knows that she’s not Kamp’s wife. He doesn’t understand how Burma can work for the secret police of Germany. He goes on for quite a while making it implicitly clear that he doesn’t like the leader of his country. He doesn’t know that Burma’s minders are in the next room and that they can hear it all.
What now? How is Wolff going to deal with Burma’s minders? He’s in big trouble if they report in to their boss.
04/27/22
Jun 8, 1941 - Wolff is placed under house arrest. Burma’s minders take over the construction of the dam and increase the pace of work. The Chinese workforce object and signal to their guerrilla countrymen that now is the time to attack. No time is wasted and that night the dam is bombed.
Things sure went south fast for those two.
04/28/22
Jun 9-11, 1941 - Terry runs when the Chinese guerrillas come after him. They assume that he is working with the Invaders because they saw him near Wolff’s house. Terry tries convincing the Germans to let him in but they won’t. The guerrillas decide to burn down the building that the two Germans have holed up in.
Terry tries to throw in with the Germans. Not his proudest moment.
04/29/22
Jun 12-14, 1941 - Terry falls from the roof on to a train car filled with dirt. He runs into Wolff and Burma as they emerge from a tunnel.
I didn’t fully understand what the last panel in the second of these strips was all about. It seems like the guerrillas are looking for Wolff and Burma but it isn’t very clearly illustrated.
05/01/22
Jun 15, 1941 - Terry, Burma, and Wolfe escape in Wolfe’s car. They pause to catch some rest once they are far enough away from the dam. Wolff changes into his uniform while Terry and Burma are sleeping.
I’m not sure what to make of Wolff’s uniform. What is the significance of it?
05/02/22
Jun 16-18, 1941 - Wolff has Terry drive the car. He explains his plan to turn Terry in as an escaped prisoner. He doesn’t say what plans he has for Burma.
Wolff isn’t the zealous type or seem like a bad person but I’ve got a feeling that he is going to get killed, possibly in a car wreck, before he gets a chance to turn Terry in.
05/03/22
Jun 19-21, 1941 - Wolff has a chat with Burma about his intentions and why he is treating them the way that he is.
He’s man-splaining.
05/04/22
Jun 22, 1941 - Terry and Burma escape in the car while Wolff is talking to one of the Invader officers. Burma reveals that their escape was part of Wolff’s plan.
This is where the arc ends according to Wikipedia. There are 10 more strips in the arc according to the companion book.
05/05/22
Jun 23-25, 1941 - Terry and Burma are captured by Chinese soldiers who view them suspiciously.
Terry and Burma are out of Wolff’s clutches but is their current situation much better? Will they ever see Wolff again?
05/06/22
Jun 26-28, 1941 - Terry and Burma take turns bathing in a makeshift tub. Terry washes the dye out of his hair. The Chinese soldiers assume they must be spies when they see how Terry changed his appearance.
I don’t know about that bathtub. It is basically just a hole in the ground which is lined with something. I seriously doubt that Burma could clean up that nicely under those circumstances.
05/07/22
Jun 29, 1941 - Terry and Burma redeem themselves in the eyes of the Chinese soldiers by helping Chinese civilians out when the Invaders attack.
There are no word balloons and very little in the way of narration after the last six panels of this Sunday strip. I like it but the turn of events feels a bit unearned.
05/09/22
Jun 30-Jul 2, 1941 - the Invaders send two spies to the village where Terry and Burma are living. The spies spread a rumor that panics the population of the village.
The Invaders are trying to isolate the guerrillas so that it will be easier to wipe them out.
05/10/22
Jul 3-5, 1941 - Terry and Burma almost get trampled by the peasants fleeing away from the village. The Invader troops almost find them right after that but they hide in a stack of hay.
Terry saves Burma from getting tackled. Burma is hurt but she makes a joke about what he did. It’s kind of a sexy moment between the two of them. Under different circumstances things might have turned out differently.
That’s it for this arc. I’m not sure what comes next. I’m also puzzled as to why the companion book says it ends here versus the Wikipedia article which says it ended 10 days ago. I think that must mean that this interlude with the Chinese troops is over and the Terry and Burma are on to something new.
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