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)
06/29/23
May 17-19, 1943 - Taffy, still unconscious, is taken to a private home away from the eyes of all the servicemen who are eager to make her acquaintance.
How can they say she has amnesia if she is still unconscious? Wouldn’t they have to talk to her to determine if she knows who she is?
May 20-22, 1943 - Terry and Flip continue Terry’s training. Terry passes the basic level of flight school. He and Flip still wonder about what happened to Taffy.
I found the final panel of the third of these strips was surprisingly moving considering that I know that Taffy has been rescued.
07/01/23
May 23, 1943 - Taffy wakes up but can’t remember who she is or how she came to be lying in bed. Joss Goode wants to visit Taffy but finds the chaplain visiting with her.
More humor.
07/02/23
May 24-26, 1943 - Joss Goode visits Taffy and is annoyed to discover that she remembers Pat Ryan but him.
07/03/23
May 27-29, 1943 - Taffy tries without success to remember who she is. She pictures herself as an actress, housewife, missionary, secretary, nurse, and murderess but none of those thoughts help to bring anything back to her. She gets tired of sitting around and decides to get dressed and go see the chaplain.
I anticipate more attempts at humor when Taffy goes out.
07/04/23
May 30, 1943 - the sailors and marines build a stage. The chaplain raffles off dances with Taffy, who still doesn’t remember who she is.
This is starting to make me a little uncomfortable.
07/05/23
May 31-Jun 2, 1943 - Taffy collapses while dancing with one of the sailors. Goode continues to carry a torch for her. Two locals watch the American sailors and marines from a distance and talk about them.
07/06/23
Jun 3-5, 1943 - one of the locals tells the other about the Japanese (without mentioning them by name) and explains that they pay in gold. The first local then goes home and tells his wife, who has been caring for Taffy, to spy on the Americans. She balks so he beats her.
The beating is not shown but the effects of it are shown. There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the villains or the villain for this arc.
07/07/23
Jun 6, 1943 - the local woman who has been caring for Taffy eavesdrops on Taffy’s conversation with Joss Goode and Pat Ryan but they are using some slang and she misunderstands what they are saying.
Humor?
07/09/23
Jun 7-9, 1943 - Taffy tries writing some things down, hoping that might help to jog her memory. The local woman looking after Taffy takes some of the pages which leads Taffy to question her memory as to how much she wrote down.
I wish Caniff would give these locals some names. It would make it a little easier to write about them.
07/10/23
Jun 10-12, 1943 - the pages that Taffy work on make their way to the desk of the local Japanese commander who orders aerial reconnaissance to confirm the veracity of what is written on them. Joss Goode visits Taffy, without Pat Ryan, but she is feeling kind of gloomy.
I grow weary of Taffy’s amnesia. The only thing worse might be Caniff’s attempts at humor.
07/11/23
Jun 13, 1943 - Joss is petulant over the fact that Taffy (whose name he doesn’t know) doesn’t reciprocate his feelings for her. The Americans shoot down a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft and recover some intel from the downed plane.
07/12/23
Jun 14-16, 1943 - one of the pages recovered from the Japanese plane is a map that was drawn by Taffy and stolen by the native who has been looking after Taffy. Pat and Joss tell the CO about how they urged Taffy to try writing things down.
07/13/23
Jun 17-19, 1943 - Pat and Joss capture the local guy who sold the page that was stolen from Taffy’s lodgings. The CO thinks that Taffy might be working for the Japanese. Pat and Joss decide that they need to do something to resolve the situation that they helped create for Taffy.
It just occurred to me that Connie and Big Stoop haven’t been seen for a while. They last appeared in the strip over a month ago (May 13, 1943).
07/14/23
Jun 20, 1943 - Pat Ryan goes on an observation flight over nearby islands looking for the field from which the Japanese reconnaissance flight might have originated.
07/15/23
Jun 21-23, 1943 - Taffy remembers something from her training as a nurse but can’t place how she knows it. Pat looks at some of the pictures he took during the observation flight. Taffy talks to one of the marines guarding her hut.
So glad to see that Taffy is finally waking up.
07/16/23
Jun 24-26, 1943 - Pat shows the airfield’s CO what he found on one of the nearby islands, a possible concealed Japanese airfield. Terry daydreams while up in the air training with Flip, and suffers the consequences.
07/17/23
Jun 27, 1943 - the CO sends Pat, Connie, and Big Stoop on a mission to keep a close eye on the Japanese airfield that is currently under construction.
The color in this strip is very faded. I assume that’s because this is the best existing copy they could find.
07/18/23
Jun 28-30, 1943 - Captain Casey asks Terry about why he is walking around with a full pack. Taffy ponders her situation and talks to the marine that brings her some chow.
Taffy says “I’m falling in love” in the last panel of the second of these strips. I’m not sure if that comment is slang for something but it has me perplexed.
07/19/23
Jul 1-3, 1943 - Pat, Connie, and Big Stoop are dropped off by a submarine in the sea near Island 407. They spot a suspicious looking fishing boat.
07/20/23
Jul 4, 1943 - Taffy ponders her situation, wonders why she can’t remember her past, and admits that she is in love with Pat Ryan.
One mystery solved. I didn’t see her falling for Joss Goode.
Caniff does some interesting things with color in this strip.
07/21/23
Jul 5-7, 1943 - Pat, Connie, and Big Stoop get close enough to the suspicious looking fishing boat to confirm that the occupants are Japanese. The "fishermen" try to escape but Big Stoop takes care of them.
I would think that the disappearance of two Japanese sailors would raise red flags.
07/22/23
Jul 8-10, 1943 - Pat and his two companions arrive on the closest island. They meet a couple of the locals who it turns out are working with the Japanese.
I can’t wait for this story to end. The attempts at racial humor land for me somewhere between not funny and offensive.
07/23/23
Jul 11, 1943 - Pat explains the situation to Connie and Big Stoop. He draws them a map showing what he thinks the Japanese armed forces have planned. He burns the map after explains it all to them but one of the locals is nearby keeping an eye in them and possibly overheating Pat’s lecture.
07/24/23
Jul 12-14, 1943 - Pat comes up with a plan to allow them to spy on the Japanese from close-up. It involves disguising themselves as locals.
Here we go again.
07/25/23
Jul 15-17, 1943 - Pat proceeds with his plan which involves he and Connie disguising themselves. They hide behind big masks.
This is dumb. I’m sorry but this really doesn’t do it for me. I can’t imagine that strips or arcs like this are what people are talking about when they talk about the importance of Caniff’s strips.
07/26/23
Jul 18, 1943 - the Americans get ready for a battle with Japanese. Taffy is put on an airplane headed for Australia. The pilot is Joss Goode.
07/27/23
Jul 19-21, 1943 - a Japanese soldier spots Pat and Connie on the radio. Big Stoop grabs the soldier and throws him off a cliff before he can raise the alarm.
07/28/23
Jul 22-24, 1943 - Goode’s co-pilot spots a fleet of Japanese ships headed toward the island they just left. He radios in the report back to the base.
07/30/23
Jul 25, 1943 - Japanese fighter planes attack Goode’s transport airplane. One of the engines is hit. Goode looks for a place to land and spots the Japanese field that Pat Ryan, Connie, and Big Stoop are keeping under observation. The Japanese soldiers at the airfield, under cover of darkness, mistake Goode’s airship for one of their own.
07/31/23
Jul 26-28, 1943 - Goode lands the airplane on the Japanese airstrip. The Japanese notice that it is an enemy plane and get ready to attack. Pat, Connie, and Big Stoop are also nearby and shoot the Japanese troops before they can attack the American airplane.
08/02/23
Jul 29-31, 1943 - Pat and his group hook up with Joss and his group. They can see the Japanese and the American forces converging on their location. No one seems to notice but Taffy isn’t feeling well.
Under different circumstances I might wonder if Taffy was pregnant. In this case I think that Caniff is foreshadowing the return of her memories.
There are some nice panels in all three of these strips in which people are silhouetted against the skyline.
08/03/23
Aug 1, 1943 - the battle over the island with the new landing strip begins. The Japanese start to land aircraft on the island. American fighter planes attack the Japanese fleet of supply ships. American Marines start to parachute down to the island.
There were US Marine units that were trained for parachute attacks during World War 2 but according to my research none of those units executed such an attack in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War 2.
The final panel of this strip shows Taffy experiencing some sort of trauma but the exact nature of the trauma is unclear.
08/04/23
Aug 2-4, 1943 - Taffy runs off trying to escape from the noise of the battle. She meets Luigi, a US Marine who just parachuted on to the island.
The third of these strips is exactly 80 years old today.
08/05/23
Aug 5-7, 1943 - Luigi gets killed by a Japanese soldier but Luigi gets off a shot and also kills the Japanese soldier who shot him. Taffy’s memories start to come back to her. She remembers that she is a nurse but she doesn’t remember how she got to the island.
The first of these strips is exactly 80 years old today.
08/07/23
Aug 8, 1943 - Taffy functions as a corpsman. She is explaining something to a doctor she is assisting when she suddenly remembers who she is.
I find it hard to believe that no one recognized that Taffy is a woman.
08/08/23
Aug 9-11, 1943 - the doctor whom Taffy is assisting finally gets the picture and understands that she is a woman. Pat and the others watch the battle and get ready to join the fight.
08/09/23
Aug 12-14, 1943 - Pat, Joss, and the rest of their small team almost get killed defending the beach from an amphibious assault by Japanese troops.
08/10/23
Aug 15, 1943 - Pat and Joss locate Taffy but she doesn’t show any sign that she recognizes them.
I guess this is how amnesia works in this strip.
08/14/23
Aug 16-18, 1943 - this is more or less a rehash of the end of the Sunday strip that preceded it.
08/15/23
Aug 19-21, 1943 - Ryan and Goode have a chat with Taffy, who still doesn’t recognize them. Pat kisses Taffy in the hopes that it will jog her memory but he doesn’t exactly ask permission.
I know this scene is played for laughs but I am at best conflicted over it. I didn’t think it was funny when Pat kissed Taffy.
08/16/23
Aug 22, 1943 - Taffy explains what she knows about what happened to her to Pat Ryan and Joss Goode. They are still eager for her to choose between them. They get interrupted by the chaplain who informs them that Taffy can leave on the next air transport departing the island.
Taffy doesn’t get a chance to tell them that she already has a man. Just before the chaplain showed up it seemed like she was about to tell them.
08/17/23
Aug 23-25, 1943 - Taffy is still under suspicion of being a spy until she sees someone that recognizes her.
08/18/23
Aug 26-27, 1943 - Taffy gets a parting gift of a clean uniform from the sailors.
That’s it for this arc. Rouge and Joss Goode do not return after this point, according to the companion book. Goode was a bit of meathead and I don’t mourn his loss but I think Rouge was a great villain. It’s a shame that she does not return in the remaining three plus years that Caniff worked on the strip.
I’ve got to say that I wasn’t very impressed by this arc. Caniff didn’t do much with the amnesia plot device that appealed to me. I suppose he must have been getting positive feedback to stick with it for as long as he did. Here’s hoping that the next arc is a little less of a slog for me.
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