Vol. 4: 1941-1942
By Milton Caniff
Escape from Hong Kong
Jan 25 - Jul 18, 1942
This is the first of twelve stories in what Carl Horak, author of the Terry and the Pirates Companion, considers to be the fourth era of Caniff’s run on the strip. This era begins in late Jan 1942 and ran through early Nov 1945 and is called The War Years in the companion book.
The Wikipedia article on Terry and the Pirates breaks the entire series down into 60 arcs. It breaks this arc down into the following smaller arcs:
36 - (1/24/42 - 3/29/42) "Refugees"
37 - (3/30/42 - 6/12/42) "Normandie Meets the Dragon Lady"
38 - (6/13/42 - 8/21/42) "With the Air Corps"
10/06/22
Mar 30-Apr 1, 1942 - Pat and Normandie talk while Merrily takes a nap. Normandie has figured out what Pat did to her husband. She is still devoted to caring for Tony even though he is a heel. She sees right through Pat’s attempt to win her back.
I didn’t see this coming. I’ve got to give Caniff credit for having Normandie call out Pat for the way he is acting.
10/11/22
Apr 2-4, 1942 - Pat tells Normandie how he sees things. The tank runs out of gas the next day. Pat booby traps the tank before they abandon it. They walk until they find an abandoned house. They take shelter in the house unaware that someone is watching them.
Pat’s confession was an interesting counterpoint to Normandie’s read of him. This is a little more complex than I thought it would be. I like that.
The final panel is the only one wordless one. The man watching them doesn’t look like an enemy soldier but he is in th shadows so it is hard to see him clearly.
10/12/22
Apr 5, 1942 - Pat keeps watch while Normandie and Merrily sleep but eventually he falls asleep too. They wake up to find they have a visitor whom Pat assumes is a local.
Pat calls Normandie a thoroughbred. What a compliment. He also uses racial slang to refer to the Japanese. I think I liked it better when they were just called the invaders.
10/13/22
Apr 6-8, 1942 - Nip-Nip, the Chinese man, shows them his secret underground living space. The Japanese have his wife and child. It makes him happy to see a family that is still together. He feeds them. Merrily asks Normandie a question about her father which places some suspicion on Pat, whom Nip-Nip assumed was her father.
What kind of name is Nip-Nip for a Chinese character? Just as I think Caniff is starting to raise the level of this strip he goes and does this.
10/14/22
Apr 9-11, 1942 - Nip-Nip questions Merrily about her father. He learns from her that Pat is not her father but that Pat still has it bad for her mother. Normandie learns that Pat kissed her one night after she was asleep.
I looked but I could not find a strip in this arc where Pat kissed Normandie. It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, it just wasn’t shown.
10/25/22
Apr 12, 1942 - Nip-Nip does his part to sabotage the enemy’s war efforts.
11/21/22
Apr 13-15, 1942 - Normandie talks about leaving with Merrily but without Pat. Pat tries to talk some sense into her.
I think Caniff is just looking for an excuse to get things moving again and to create some tension between Pat and Normandie.
11/23/22
Apr 16-18, 1942 - Pat tries to get Normandie to warm up to him but Nip-Nip returns just as he feels that he is making some progress. Elsewhere, the Invaders are driven away by guerrillas led by a woman.
The third of these strips is kind of ambiguous. I wasn’t sure who the characters in this strip were supposed to be until they mentioned being beaten by a woman. They also mention Nip-Nip in a way that makes me think he is working for the Invaders.
11/24/22
Apr 19, 1942 - Pat and Normandie talk about Nip-Nip. Merrily talks to Nip-Nip. The Dragon Lady wonders why Nip-Nip has not completed his mission.
I can see things a little more clearly now. Nip-Nip works for the Dragon Lady and not the Invaders.
12/01/22
Apr 20-22, 1942 - Nip-Nip explains to Pat and Normandie what he’s been hiding from them: he speaks English fairly well and that his job in the war against the Japanese is blowing up bridges. He suggests that they leave with him by boat.
Nip-Nip calls the enemy Japanese. I think that’s the first time they have been identified as such. Slurs such as Jap and Nip have been used but I think this is the first time they have been clearly identified since the strip began in Oct 1934.
12/02/22
Apr 23-25, 1942 - Pat and the others prepare for the trip by boat to the coast. The Dragon Lady anxiously awaits the shipment of dynamite that Nip-Nip brings with him.
I like the use of silhouettes in two of these panels.
12/04/22
Apr 26, 1942 - a Japanese patrol boat stops Nip-Nip’s boat but they don’t board it. Just as they are about to leave one of the Japanese soldiers tosses a lit cigarette on the Chinese boat, not knowing that it is loaded with dynamite.
Tension! Suspense! What will happen! Will the boat blow sky high killing everyone aboard? I doubt it.
12/05/22
Apr 27-29, 1942 - Pat finds the cigarette butt and extinguishes the fire before it spreads too far. They continue down river but it isn’t long before they encounter another patrol.
The part with the cigarette butt was wrapped up very fast. I thought Caniff would drag that out for at least a few days.
12/07/22
Apr 30-May 2, 1942 - a Japanese soldier shoots Nip-Nip as he and the others are running through a blockade. Pat comes up with a plan to evade the Japanese soldiers.
Where is the Dragon Lady? Is she going to rescue Pat and the others? Will Nip-Nip survive?
12/08/22
May 3, 1942 - Pat takes over guiding the boat. Nip-Nip tells him where to go. The Dragon Lady spots the boat coming in and who is piloting the small craft.
There are two panels in the middle of this Sunday strip that are wonderfully dialogue free. I wish there was more of that in this strip.
12/09/22
May 4-6, 1942 - the boat pulls in. The Dragon Lady greets them. She gets a look at Pat with Normandie and Merrily and starts laughing.
There are five panels in the third strip, the last three of which are wordless.
12/10/22
May 7-9, 1942 - Normandie explains that Pat is not her husband and not the father of Merrily. She sees that the Dragon Lady is attracted to Pat, who turns on the charm once he and the Dragon Lady get a moment alone.
More than half of the final panel is filled by text but I like what illustration there is in that panel. The text adds nuance to the illustration which is heavy on shadows.
Is Normandie disappointed to learn that Pat has caught the Dragon Lady’s eye? Probably.
12/12/22
May 10, 1942 - the Dragon Lady hits Merrily. Normandie returns the favor when she finds out what happened.
Five of the panels in this strip are silent. I appreciate the intent but there is something here that felt inadequate. It might be the yellow in the backgrounds.
12/13/22
May 11-13, 1942 - Pat talks to the Dragon Lady who explains why she hasn’t struck back at Normandie.
There is a lot of text in these three strips.
12/14/22
May 14-16, 1942 - a Chinese fisherman is brought to the Dragon Lady. He was picked up by some of her men. He claims to have valuable information. The Dragon Lady tests him and decides that he is actually a Japanese spy.
The Dragon Lady’s tests are less than scientific.
12/15/22
May 17, 1942 - Pat tells the Dragon Lady about Normandie and his past involvements with her.
I think this is a first. I don’t recall seeing a recap like this before in this strip. Some of the panels look like they were lifted from old strips and some look new to my eyes. I like the borderless nature of some of these panels.
12/16/22
May 18-20, 1942 - Normandie and the Dragon Lady chat about Pat Ryan. Normandie angers the Dragon Lady with her frankness but the Dragon Lady restrains herself because she wants to hear everything that Normandie has to say.
This is one of the best wordy exchanges I’ve seen in this strip in a little while.
12/18/22
May 21-23, 1942 - Merrily tries to endear herself to the Dragon Lady for a second time. This time the Dragon Lady doesn’t react violently but she does let her troops think that Merrily got punished. Pat tells Normandie that he’s heading out with the Dragon Lady and her troops to strike a Japanese convoy. She acts brave but after he leaves she starts crying.
12/19/22
May 24, 1942 - The Dragon Lady explains the plan to Pat and gives him a copy of the map. Merrily gets her hands on Pat’s copy of the map and draws things on it.
This feels like it is slowing down a bit. I wish they would just get to the raid on the Japanese convoy. Pat at one point sings a bit of the Pirate King song from Pirates of Penzance.
12/28/22
May 25-27, 1942 - Pat and the Dragon Lady get ready to leave on their mission. Normandie cries and then later kisses Pat goodbye. The Dragon Lady watches Pat and Normandie embrace. Merrily wonders about her mother.
I really like the final panel in each of these three strips. The first two are silent. The third one is not but one of the two characters in it is silent.
12/29/22
May 28-30, 1942 - the Dragon Lady let’s Pat know (in no uncertain terms) who he needs to be loyal to now that he is serving under her command.
I love the misdirection in the second of these strips. The stunned look on Pat’s face is priceless.
12/30/22
May 31, 1942 - the Dragon Lady, Pat Ryan, and her boats converge on the Japanese convoy. They carefully fool the enemy into thinking they are being attacked from the air when actually the attack is on the surface of the water.
There was a little more text than I like to see in a comic strip but I do like how it is all laid out. I especially like the final panel which is wordless.
01/01/23
Jun 1-3, 1942 - Pat single-handedly takes on the Japanese troops that attempt to repel the attack by the Dragon Lady’s forces on the sinking cargo ship.
Presumably there were others fighting on the same side as Pat but the strip makes it look like Pat is the only one.
01/02/23
Jun 4-6, 1943 - the Dragon Lady’s boats hit one of the Japanese destroyers hard. The Japanese general deploys airplanes to find where the Dragon Lady’s forces are headed next. Normandie wonders why Pat and the others have not returned yet and worries that that the Dragon Lady will steal him away from her.
Each of these strips has its own focus. There are lots of words and for the most part it is the words that tell the story.
01/03/23
Jun 7, 1942 - Pat, the Dragon Lady, and her boats are still headed toward the shore when the sun comes up. They are spotted by Japanese airplanes who radio the information back to the Japanese general. Everyone in the Dragon Lady’s camp, including Normandie, sees and hears the Japanese airplanes and prepares to leave.
It looks like things are heating up.
01/05/23
Jun 8-10, 1942 - Japanese fighter planes circling the Dragon Lady’s village receive orders to gun down everyone fleeing. Pat attempts to take charge of the Dragon Lady’s forces and quickly finds out that they are very loyal to their queen. The Dragon Lady reveals that she didn’t care for the effect that Normandie was having on Pat.
What now? Will Normandie and Merrily survive the raid by the Japanese airplanes? Will they be reunited with Pat? Where is the Dragon Lady headed with Pat and her troops?
01/06/23
Jun 11-13, 1942 - Pat and the Dragon Lady continue to spar, verbally, until Japanese planes are spotted. The villagers prepare to escape the attack from the Japanese airplanes who have begun their attack.
I’m enjoyed the back and forth between Pat and the Dragon Lady. They both have sharp words for one another.
Are the airplanes spotted by the boats the same ones that are attacking the village? I’m not sure at this point.
The second of these strips is the final strip in the second installment of this arc. Things are just starting to heat up. Hopefully the third and final installment will deliver the sort of drama and adventure that I like. I’m guessing that all the central players will survive but nothing is certain.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment