Product Description: In the final volume of The Complete Terry and The Pirates, reprinting every strip from the years 1945 and 1946, World War II comes to an end, and then Milton Caniff says goodbye to his greatest creation. Readers will be sometimes delighted, sometimes shocked by their last visits with the Dragon Lady, Pat Ryan, Burma, Hu Shee, Snake Tumblin, Papa Pyzon, Tony Sandhurst, Baron de Plexus, Nastalthia Smythe-Heatherstone, Jane Allen, Deeth Crispin, and April Kane.
Not the end of Terry, but certainly the end of an era By the time I was exposed to Terry and the Pirates, George Wunder had been working on it for close to 20 years.
I associated Milton Caniff with Steve Canyon and although I became aware of his much-admired work on Terry over the years, I only read some of the early 1930s continuities. They were okay, but they didn't impress me like Mr. Caniff's Steve Canyon.
So being able to read all of Mr. Caniff's Terry continuities from late the 30s through the end was more than treat--it was almost humbling.
The last five years worth of Terry and the Pirates is a magnificent epic and Mr. Caniff's powers as a story-teller, an artist and a dramatist are still absolutely at the top of the peak.
It's quite the startling experience to look back and realize that the best work in the "graphic narrative" form was done at least two generations ago.
Wonderful, magical and immortal work.
A TRIUMPHANT ENDING! (and some advice) Caniff brings this adventure strip, the greatest of all time, to a close. But he does it with two years of action, suspense and snappy dialogue that characterized the best the strip has to offer. Surprises are in store for the longtime reader, as beloved characters and reviled villains are brought back for their curtain calls.
My only advice is to read R.C. Harvey's foreword as an afterword. Much of the plots and surprises are given away by Harvey in his description of how Caniff drew the strip to a close before embarking on his next feature, 'Steve Canyon'. So, read the strips, then Harvey's essay, and then, if you haven't already, check out Harvey's Caniff bio, 'Meanwhile...'.
Final volume in the classic series. This volume, the 6th and last, cover the last 2 years of Caniff's work on this strip. After this he would go on to do Steve Canyon, leaving T&P to be done by George Wunder.
We get our last visit with several characters done by Caniff. Terry is the main focus of the strip now. Pat Ryan is seen a bit at the begining before he leaves. We once again see Connie or Big Stoop, but without Ryan. We twice see the Dragon Lady, and in her second apperance, she seems to be going after Terry like she used to go after Ryan. We also get to see Hu Shee at the begining, and a final, brief appearance of Burma. We see a few other characters, good and bad, from previous years.
April Kane returns before Terry moves on.
The ending of the war is handled in the first third or so. Because of the delay between creating the strip and when its published, Terry & friends are stuck on an island in the Pacific and think the war is still going on. With little fanfar we learn its over, and we move to the post-war Occupation. Terry returns to China and further adventures.
One does wonder what happens with these characters under Wunder. The fate of several characters are left up in the air. Others have asked for a reprint of those years, tho I doubt we will see them.
Its also interesting how much the final year is to Steve Canyon. While Terry is a undercover agent of the Air Force, he is working for a small airfreight service in China and getting into adventures. This is very similiar to how Steve Canyon started out before Canyon re-uped into the Air Force. I assume Terry also probably rejoined the air force as things changed in China, but don't know, having never read any of the post-Caniff Terry.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
