Terry and the Pirates Vol. 5 - Extras

Terry and the Pirates Vol. 5: 1943-1944

By Milton Caniff

Preface

by Dean Mullaney

Milton Caniff continued to change things up in Terry and the Pirates in 1943 and 1944. One of the most notable things he did was to have the main characters serve in the military and have the focus of the story be the war itself.

Introduction: One of Their Own

by Russ Maheras

The circulation of Terry and the Pirates increased greatly after Dec 1941. It was seen by many as a way to connect with others who were back home or who were stationed far from home. Milton Caniff put a lot of effort into making the military aspects of the strip authentic.

Caniff, on one occasion, foresaw military action right before it happened (the Allied invasion of Burma in Mar 1944). Caniff also helped to persuade the military to try using gliders by showing their use in a story in 1944. Caniff was buried with full military honors when he died in 1988.

Setting the Stage - The 4-F Saga: Femmes, Fliers, Field, and Flip

by Bruce Canwell

The United States had been at war for two years by the end of 1943 but for other countries the war had been going on for much longer.

Caniff was classified as 4-F and unable to serve in the military. He instead turned his efforts to other ways to support the war efforts of American troops. His biggest contribution was a strip that was carried in many newspapers published by the armed forces. It was originally published as though it was part of Terry and the Pirates but he ran into legal issues. The issues were resolved by making Burma into a brunette named Miss Lace and changing the name of the strip to Male Call.

Male Call was a little more risqué than Terry and the Pirates. There are three pages of samples from Male Call included in this section of the book.

Caniff introduced several new characters during World War Two. Chief among them is Flip Corkin. He was modeled after Philip Cochran, a real war hero and US Army pilot. Cochran served in North Africa and the China-Burma-India arena. Canwell goes into some detail about Cochran’s adventures during the war. 

A profile of Caniff that ran in the New Yorker in Jan 1944 spoiled the mystery of Captain Midi but the uproar over the reveal garnered Caniff and the strip lots of press. Towards the end of 1944 Caniff signed a deal to start working for the Field Syndicate once his deal with News Syndicate ended at the end of 1946. 

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