Terry and the Pirates (30)
Vol. 5: 1943-1944
By Milton Caniff
The Lost Girl
Feb 15 - Aug 27, 1943
This is the fourth 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 began 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 arcs:
41 - "Terry Joins Up" (2/20/43 to 3/21/43)
42 - "Escape" (3/22/43 to 5/16/43)
43 - "Amnesia" (5/17/43 to 8/29/43)
05/30/23
Mar 22-24, 1943 - Rouge asks that Terry and Flip come see her. They do but they don’t show her any compassion despite the fact that she is desperate because she has been condemned to death.
Rouge must still have some trick up her sleeve. I’m not sure if she is going to escape execution but her story isn’t over just yet.
05/31/23
Mar 25-27, 1943 - Rouge pretends to be sick and gets Taffy to come and see her. She admits she was faking sickness and steals some morphine from Taffy’s medical kit when the nurse is turned the other way. Rouge finally gives some clear indication as to what her plan is.
Taffy is wearing pants instead of a skirt in these three strips. I think this might be the first time she has been shown wearing pants.
06/01/23
Mar 28, 1943 - Rouge enacts her plan once Terry and Flip have taken off on another training flight. Taffy is fooled by Rouge’s act, suspects that the redhead has attempted suicide by cyanide, and gets her loaded onto an ambulance.
The tension mounts. Will Rouge’s escape attempt be successful?
06/02/23
Mar 29-31, 1943 - Rouge escapes out the back of the moving ambulance after knocking out Taffy and the guard. The driver doesn’t notice and keeps driving. The guard is dead but Taffy is still alive.
Finally! I think it would be better for the strip to have Rouge evade recapture for now.
06/04/23
Apr 1-3, 1943 - Rouge changes clothes with Taffy who is still unconscious. She feeds Taffy an overdose of morphine. Rouge takes off suddenly when she hears someone nearby.
I didn’t anticipate that Route would attempt to kill the unconscious nurse. Caniff is really doing what he can to make Rouge as villainous as possible.
06/05/23
Apr 4, 1943 - the ambulance drivers finally discover that their passengers are missing. Rouge takes off, leaving Taffy barely alive.
Is this the last we will see of Rouge? She is walking toward the horizon when she is last seen in this strip.
06/06/23
Apr 5-7, 1943 - the Chinese farmers who found Taffy are getting ready to bury her when they notice she is still alive. Colonel Vince Casey arrives at the base looking for Taffy.
I’m not sure what to make of Colonel Casey just yet. The fact that he has been given a name in the first strip in which he appeared is significant.
06/07/23
Apr 8-10, 1943 - Flip and Terry fly around looking for Taffy and unknowingly pass very close to the Chinese farmers who are transporting her.
06/08/23
Apr 11, 1943 - a Japanese fighter plane shoots up the boat carrying Taffy and the two Chinese farmers
The farmers seem to be dead. Taffy was unconscious before the attack. I suspect that she is still alive and still unconscious.
06/09/23
Apr 12-14, 1943 - the boat carrying Taffy, still unconscious, and the bodies of the two Chinese farmers floats downstream. Flip goes out looking for Taffy. Terry studies morse code.
Flip, nervously playing with the radio, taps out Taffy in morse code repeatedly in the second of these strips. Caniff has conveniently included a chart of Morse code.
06/10/23
Apr 15-17, 1943 - an American military transport airplane piloted by USMC Lieutenant Joss and carrying Connie and Big Stoop runs out of fuel and lands in the river near the boat that is carrying Taffy, still unconscious, downstream.
Connie and Big Stoop have only appeared in a couple stories since World War II began in 1939 and none since early 1942 when the U.S. involvement in the war was acknowledged to have begun, in the strip. The last time they were seen was in Jan 1942, around the time that Terry left Hong Kong in search of April Kane.
06/11/23
Apr 18, 1943 - Flip continues to search for Taffy without success. The boat that Taffy is in floats past a Japanese observation post at night without being noticed. Connie and Big Stoop are out on patrol when they spot the boat from a distance.
06/12/23
Apr 19-21, 1943 - Connie and Big Stoop find the boat and pull Taffy out of it, still unconscious.
It has been about three weeks since Taffy was knocked unconscious. I wonder much time has passed in the strip?
06/13/23
Apr 22-24, 1943 - Connie and Big Stoop return with Taffy. Lieutenant Joss is smitten and considers kissing her in order to wake her up.
Something feels different about the art. Maybe Caniff changed up something about the way he was drawing. Maybe the printing process changed. There is something about these strips since the focus shifted back to Connie and Big Stoop that is different. The lines seem cleaner and there isn’t quite as many of them.
The skipper, the senior man, has yet to appear. I think it is someone who has appeared in this strip before. I’m thinking it must be Pat Ryan or Dude Hennick. My first thought was Pat Ryan but he isn’t a pilot and Dude Hennick is.
06/14/23
Apr 25, 1943 - Lieutenant Joss puzzles over what to do with the woman that Connie and Big Stoop found. In the end he decides to consult his commanding officer, Lieutenant Ryan.
I’m pretty sure that is Pat Ryan under that beard. He is smoking a pipe and looks enough like the Pat Ryan who used to travel with Terry Lee for me to come to that conclusion.
Caniff must have his wires crossed or Pat is in the US Navy, unlike Lieutenant Joss, because the rank insignia he is wearing is that of O-3 (captain in the USMC, lieutenant in the USN).
06/15/23
Apr 26-28, 1943 - Ryan and Joss are alerted to the fact that they have visitors, Japanese visitors, while they are trying to decide what to do about the unconscious woman (Taffy). Joss kills one of the Japanese soldiers.
I should have looked at Ryan’s uniform a little more closely. It is pretty clear that he is US Navy. Joss calls him John Paul Ryan but I think that’s just a reference to John Paul Jones, the father of the US Navy.
06/19/23
Apr 29-May 1, 1943 - Joss catches the other Japanese soldier and kills him too. Ryan discovers that Taffy’s hair has been colored which makes him and Joss wonder if the Japanese planted her for them to find.
Joss gets a last name, Goode.
06/20/23
May 2, 1943 - Goode and Ryan talk about Taffy and how they should proceed with her. She wakes up suddenly, still out of it, but speaking one word: Rouge. She repeats it a few times.
Connie and Big Stoop are in this strip but they are functioning as servants to the two Americans and don’t have any lines.
06/21/23
May 3-5, 1943 - Pat Ryan hears a Japanese observation plane and comes up with a plan to keep the Japanese on their toes and buy him and the others some time.
I don’t know about Pat’s plan. It has to work but it seems kind of risky.
06/22/23
May 6-8, 1943 - an American bomber passes overhead. Goode signals the bomber for help which the bomber crew provides once they are sure it is actually Goode.
This all seems kind of ridiculous. What a coincidence that the bomber pilot knows Goode well enough to figure out it is really him.
06/23/23
May 9, 1943 - the bomber lands. Ryan, Goode, and the others fight the Japanese troops and start to flee the area with some help from the bomber crew.
This just seems silly. It is so wildly crazy as to seem like it is taking place in a universe other than the one that this strip usually is set.
06/24/23
May 10-12, 1943 - Pat Ryan and the others board the bomber, which is also a sea plane. They use a smoke screen to help provide some cover as they taxi before taking off.
06/27/23
May 13-15, 1943 - word of a rescued woman quickly gets around to the servicemen stationed at the airbase to which the bomber is headed.
I suppose that under normal circumstances Taffy might have been wearing dog tags but Rouge might have taken those.
06/28/23
May 16, 1943 - all the servicemen on the base want to get a look at Taffy but she is still unconscious and in sick bay
I understand that the men at this airbase are lonely but I don’t find this strip to be as funny as I am sure Caniff intended it to be.
Pat Ryan is singing a tune in one panel which I think might be a variation on The Shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert W. Service. Joss Goode is singing a tune in a different panel but I can’t figure out what it might be. I tried googling the lyrics without success.
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