IDW TO COLLECT TERRY AND THE PIRATES

[MattBrady]

Press Release

Celebrating the centennial of Milton Caniff ’s birth, IDW Publishing will publish a fully authorized six-book series collecting the entirety of Caniff ’s groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages will be reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips.

No cartoonist has so heavily influenced his medium as has Milton Caniff, and no comic strip has had more imitators than Terry and the Pirates. He is considered the great American novelist of the comics medium.

“In Terry and the Pirates,” wrote Jerry Robinson in The Comics, “all the storytelling techniques of the adventure strip fused and a classic style emerged. Caniff developed and integrated the narrative and its visual expression into a uniform aesthetic balance.” Jules Feiffer noted, “Before Caniff introduced the Dragon Lady to Pat Ryan, before Burma and Raven Sherman and Normandie Drake fell for our hero, there was not a hint of sex to be found in the American newspaper strip. Caniff changed all that.”

Terry and the Pirates provided the vehicle for Caniff's maturation both as an artist and as a storyteller. He set the strip in exotic China, where historic events then occurring in the region during the 1930s provided the raw material from which he blended fantasy and reality to create an extraordinary graphic narrative. Howard Chaykin, who has written the introduction to Volume One, says, “It's historically the first, and for my money, greatest example of what we do. The evolution of what Caniff did with Terry in his first year is unbelievable. It's pure core storytelling.”

The story introduces young Terry Lee, his adult pal Pat Ryan, their sidekick Connie, as well as an array of unforgettable brigands such as Captains Judas and Blaze, and the two toughest women to ever sail on the China Seas: the alluring Burma and the inimitable Dragon Lady.

Volume One, to be published in July, contains more than 800 consecutive strips, from the series' beginning in October 1934 through the end of 1936. An informed essay provides biographical material, and places Caniff ’s seminal work in the context of both comic strip history and of the real-world events reflected in the stories.

The Complete Terry and the Pirates also launches a new imprint for IDW: The Library of American Comics. “There's no better comic strip to inaugurate The Library of American Comics than Milton Caniff's masterpiece," says series editor and designer Dean Mullaney.

"This is the definitive edition of the definitive adventure series (NBM’s long out-of-print collections printed the color in separate volumes from the B&Ws). The books will be oversized, 11” x 8.5” oblong, in order to showcase the richness of Caniff ’s art and storytelling. All Sunday pages have been lovingly restored from the original color pages culled from my private collection, and supplemented by the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University.”

Color is essential to Terry. The syndicate had dedicated engravers working on his Sundays. Caniff was thrilled, “I never had a chance like this in my life to do real newspaper color…Right from the start, I started using the most elaborate color schemes I could get.” Future editions will be released on a quarterly schedule.

Born in Hillsboro, Ohio in 1907, Milton Caniff received two Reuben awards from the National Cartoonists Society, the Exceptional Service Award of the United States Air Force, as well as the nickname "the Rembrandt of the comic strip." The Complete Terry and the Pirates joins IDW’s ongoing The Complete Dick Tracy series presenting the best examples of the American newspaper comic strip.

A Library of American Comics Original
THE COMPLETE TERRY AND THE PIRATES
Vol. 1: 1934-1936
by Milton Caniff
Introduction by Howard Chaykin
Hardcover, 11” X 8.5”
Full Color & B&W • 368 pages, with index
$49.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-100-7

[violentmarv]

And the hits just keep coming! I'm picking this up and am interested in what other titles will be in their 'library' series.

[Cormorant]

Awesome. Much respect to IDW for re-introducing one of the greats to a modern audience.

[Skinshark]

YAHHHH! This'll sit nicely next to my Kitchen Sink Press volumes of Flash Gordon.

=s=

[Rob S.]

In light of the lovingly collected reprints of Peanuts, Dick Tracy, and the upcoming Pogo, THIS was the announcement I was waiting for. Thanks, IDW!

[FIG]

$50 for 300 + pages? Awesome. I am there.

[Barry Strange]

I have the old NBM paperbacks, but I am so getting this!

What next, IDW?

BTW, what are IDW's, Fantagraphics, etc sales plans (if any) for marketing these collections that are coming out these days to public libraries? I know, when I was a kid, I would love it when I would find an old collection containing comic strips in a library. Collections like this, Dick Tracy, Peanuts, etc are a great way to get older readers through the library system.

[Sambo253]

Oh this is good news. I hope these come out more frequently than the Popeye ones.

[SouthtownKid]

YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!

I can't believe how long this stuff has been left out of print. Like Barry Strange, I have some of the NBM paperbacks, and I also have about half the run in the NBM hardcovers of the color Sundays, and the B&W dailies and Sundays, but I am all over this. It's amazing they're cramming it all into 6 volumes, though. The last set was 12 hardcover volumes, and those already seemed huge... And those all-B&W hardcovers were already like $35 or so for half the material, so this is really a great deal. I hope a lot of people take advantage of this chance to discover this material.

As for the quality, IDW did a fantastic, fantastic job on their first volume of Dick Tracy, so I know this is going to be great.

Actually, I hope that if this stuff does well for them, they continue and collect the Wunder material also. I've never had a chance to read any of that run anywhere, and I've only ever seen a few random strips at conventions.

Anyhow, this news made my year.

[Duke Jupiter]

This is wonderful news indeed. Caniff's work is still amazing after all these years, and it will be fantastic to have this classic strip restored and preserved in such a great collection. Bravo, IDW.

- DJ

[Titansmaster]

I plan on picking this up. Caniff was THE master of daily action strips. His plots were well planned, the artwork conveyed the story brilliantly.

Hopefully if this collection is successful, they will follow with STEVE CANYON.

[SouthtownKid]

Originally Posted by Titansmaster

I plan on picking this up. Caniff was THE master of daily action strips. His plots were well planned, the artwork conveyed the story brilliantly.

Hopefully if this collection is successful, they will follow with STEVE CANYON.

Steve Canyon is currently in the process of being reprinted (although at a smaller size and not in hardcover), so I wouldn't expect to see IDW able to do that for a while. Anyway, for that, the excellent Kitchen Sink reprints can still be found here and there, and it also runs every month in Comics Revue. Sure I'd like it in HC, but at least it's availible in some format...

[randall]

Speaking of Kitchen Sink comic strip reprints, I have their softcover Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond. Sure would be great to have that in HC, but first up -- Terry & the Pirates!

[Louis Lane]

Good to see Dean (Eclipse Comics) Mullaney back.

Matt -- how about an interview with Dean on his life in comics?

LL

[Kolimar]

Ah, I can almost see it in my library and my niece reaching out for it... It does my heart good to see the treasures of the past rescued for the new generations.

[Chuy]

FINALLY. Seriously I thought I'd never live to see the comic strips collected again. So happy news ... the price is ... scary but it's Terry and the Pirates so ... yeah, I'm all over it. Color pages ... w00t.

[deanmullaney]

I'm glad everyone seems to be as excited about the Terry & the Pirates project as I am. It's been a dream of mine for half my life to do Terry the right way -- Sundays in color next to the dailies.

To answer some of the questions/comments:
The 6 volumes will be released quarterly. I'm working on all books simultaneously to insure timely publication. Most of the Sundays are from my personal collection, supplemented by the Bill Blackbeard archive at OSU, where I'm also getting all the dailies. For the first volume, Peter Maresca, who did such an incredible job with Little Nemo (buy it if you haven't already!), is helping me out with some hard-to-find Sundays. Howard Chaykin wrote the intro to V. 1; Pete Hamill is writing for V. 2. Bruce Canwell is writing the continuing biographical essay in all six books.

Libraries: IDW and I are working very hard, directly and with Diamond, to get the books in libraries. We believe the imprint "The Library of American Comics" is a natural for public, school, and university libraries.

Price point: I think $49.99 for two years, Sundays in color, is a bargain. The NBM books of years back cost about $70 per year, and you had dailies & B&W Sundays in one book, with color Sundays in a separate book. Now, we can have it all complete in 6 books, with the absolute best reproduction and paper quality, at almost a third of the price!

[rip kirby]

Oh Yeah!
Cant wait for this. Finally some publisher in the US who knows how to present great art in hardcovers.

I wish IDW [i'm sure they will for the awasome library collection] would also print the following strips in beautiful HC editions:

1. Rip Kirby by Alex Raymond [this baby is the best of the best]
2. Johhny Hazard by Frank Robbins
3. Steve Canyon by Canniff - this is done by checker publishers but in horrible tiny edition which is extremely hard to read and appreciate the art...plus they have done it in softcover which automatically makes it non-collectible and non-archival.

Thank you Dean, IDW and all of you that are working on great projects as this.

I have more that I can recommend but those above are my favorite and all these years I had to buy them in different languages because in english they were generally poorly doe, eg, softcovers, tiny etc, etc...

[Comic-Reader]

First book comes out in July. Definitely getting this.

[Comic-Reader]

Originally Posted by rip kirby

Oh Yeah!
Cant wait for this. Finally some publisher in the US who knows how to present great art in hardcovers.

I wish IDW [i'm sure they will for the awasome library collection] would also print the following strips in beautiful HC editions:

1. Rip Kirby by Alex Raymond [this baby is the best of the best]
2. Johhny Hazard by Frank Robbins
3. Steve Canyon by Canniff - this is done by checker publishers but in horrible tiny edition which is extremely hard to read and appreciate the art...plus they have done it in softcover which automatically makes it non-collectible and non-archival.

Thank you Dean, IDW and all of you that are working on great projects as this.

I have more that I can recommend but those above are my favorite and all these years I had to buy them in different languages because in english they were generally poorly doe, eg, softcovers, tiny etc, etc...

I agree with these suggestions, and as grateful as I am to Checker Books for reprinting "Steve Canyon," I do feel they made the wrong choice by making it portrait rather than landscape format.

In general, ALL the adventure strips need to be reprinted. I'd definitely go for "Buck Rogers," too now that we've got Flash Gordon. Also, "Secret Agent X-9."

I think the current list of comic strip reprints are:

- Peanuts
- Dennis the Menace
- Flash Gordon (Alex Raymond)
- Steve Canyon
- Gasoline Alley
- Dick Tracy
- Popeye
- Modesty Blaise
- James Bond
- Dan Dare
- Pogo (upcoming)
- Terry and the Pirates (upcoming)

any others?

[rip kirby]

I would also love for Scorchy Smith by Noel Sickles to be reprinted and maybe slightly after him by some other artists. But a nicely done HC edition one volume to two volume set would be enough I think.

I also love Casey Ruggles...a 2 to 3 HC volume set [or more as there are beautiful sundays too ic color]] would be awasome. Ohh boy I wish one day all these above and more are reprinted by Dean and IDW. It would be fantastic!

How about Flash Gordon [gold key issues] and Secret Agent Corrigan by Al Williamson..ooooh am I asking maybe for too much!