The ' Sublime ' Terry and the Pirates enters its 6th year

Rating:

What a comic strip.

The first three volumes of the already gripping adventure began in 1935 with a blocky, art deco style almost flat and hyerogliphic like all good early 1930s strips in the vein of Chester Goulds' Dick Tracy.

The masterful Milton Caniff yet to emerge as the consummate storyteller he was so soon to become developed a new style, in his use of heavily stylised black areas, and fantastic lighting, along with meticulously accurate real life scenery, bringing out volume by volume a true American original.

The prinicipal characters, Terry Lee, Pat Ryan, and their Chinese servant and interpreter, Connie, lead all manner of rivetting adventures in the South China Seas battling the pirates of the title such as the Dragon Lady.

By this, the fourth volume, its the eve of America's War in the Far East, and in the weeks before Pearl Harbour, our interpid heroes suffer their first true tragedy when Raven Sherman, the beloved of the character, Dude Hennick, a loose tail Flyer dies horribly slowly after being thrown from the back board of a speeding truck by arch villain, Captain Judas.

Poor Raven, relief worker to Chinese orphans, and philanthropic Heiress died from her injuries, and in real life, provoked a storm of reader protest unparalleled in the World of the funny papers.
The cover of this volume depicts the luckless young Terry Lee, and Dude Hennick, burying the body of their friend in cinematic long shot, on a barren Chinese hill, in a nameless grave. Highly poignant and very sad, this is storytelling of pure Hollywood calibre.

The volume here is the first real acknowledgement that people do die in war, and as the strip moves into the early months of 1942, Caniff finally manages to emerge from his veiled pro War stance which up until the real war had been thinly disguised due to the editorial policy of his newspaper, to a full - fledged commitment to military activity. Gone are the boyish serial adventures, replaced by a reality of America field hospitals, and air operations.

This is a beautiful book in keeping with the other parts to this series, with two very good essays, and some various pieces of non comic strip continuity art, and other features. Of particular interest was the piece written by John Romita Snr., about his own experiences as a ten year old reader coping with the death of Raven Sherman, and his drawing a parallel to his own career at Marvel, thirty years later when he had to kill off a popular comics character, Spider Man's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.

Excellent ...................
This reviwer cannot wait for volume 5.