steve canyon, vol. 4: 1953–1954 preview

8/12/2019 Steve Canyon, Vol. 4: 19531954 Preview

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RETUR N

TO

DAM

MA

NINETEEN

53

54


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STEVE CANYON


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RIGHT: Caniffdrawing the

November 2, 1952Sunday in his New

City studio.


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IDW PUBLISHINGSan Diego

19531954

MILTON CANIFF


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Published by:IDW Publishinga Division of Idea and Design Works, LLC5080 Santa Fe StreetSan Diego, CA 92109

www.idwpublishing.com

Distributed by Diamond Book Distributors1-410-560-7100

ISBN: 978-1-61377-855-5First Printing, February 2014

IDW PublishingTed Adams, Chief Executive Officer/PublisherGreg Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer/PresidentRobbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic ArtistChris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-ChiefMatthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial OfficerAlan Payne, VP of SalesDirk Wood, VP of MarketingLorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services

Photograph at left: Delivery vehicle for Marshall Fields ChicagoSun, the Field Syndicates flagship newspaper, announcing thestart of Steve Canyon, 1947.

Steve Canyon and 2014 The Estate of Esther Parsons Caniff, Harry Guyton, Executor. All rights reserved. The IDWlogo is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All rights reserved. The Library of American Comics is atrademark of The Library of American Comics, LLC. All rights reserved. Stage Dressing 2014 Bruce Canwell. Withthe exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the comic strips in this publication may be reprinted withoutthe permission of The Estate of Esther Parsons Caniff. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information and retrieval system, withoutpermission in writing from the Library of American Comics. Printed in Korea.

The strips reprinted in this volume were produced in a time when racial caricatures played a larger role in society andpopular culture. They are reprinted without alteration for historical reference.

THE COMPLETESTEVE CANYON

VOLUME 4: 19531954STORIES ANDART BYMilton Caniff

LETTERING BYFrank Engli

INTRODUCTION BYBruce Canwell

THE LIBRARY OFAMERICAN COMICSEDITED AND DESIGNED BYDean Mullaney

ASSOCIATE EDITORBruce Canwell

ART DIRECTORLorraine Turner

MARKETING DIRECTORBeau Smith

SPECIAL THANKS TO:Harry Guyton, John Ellis, and Russ Maheras;

and for supplying the material used in thisvolume, thanks to Jenny Robb,

Susan Liberator, Marilyn Scott, and thestaff of the Milton Caniff Collection atThe Ohio State University Billy Ireland

Cartoon Library and Museum.Additional thanks to Jackson Glassey

for scanning, Joseph Ketels and Valarie Jones

for production assistance, and toAjit Shenoy, Justin Eisingerand Alonzo Simon.


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FAR LEFT: Introductory page from the

first Ste ve Canyon co mic b oo k(Four Color #519). Art by WilliamOvergard, except the Canyon head byCaniff. Seven comic books featuringthe flyboy were published between1953 and 1959.

NEAR LEFT: Drawing for a 1949King Features promotional book.

BELOW:A no n-canon ical sp ecialtydaily prepared for Canadiannewspapers, June 12, 1954.

OPPOSITE: Caniff with syndicate

owner Marshall Field Jr, the man whoconvinced Caniff to quit Terry andthe Pirates and start his own strip.

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York or Chicago; Field was eager to service both metropolitan and suburban

populations. So for Milton Caniff, in the early 1950s, his Steve Canyonwas

appearing in many locations where Terry and the Pirateshad never been seen at

all. Transforming a character like April into Holly, or getting extra mileage from

shtick like the parade on arrival gag, made perfect sense, because a sizable

portion of Caniffs readership had never seen those first appearances and thosearound for both the original and the reworked versions likely had long forgotten

the earlier incarnations.

Audiences in the 21st Century, experiencing the work over a shorter

timeframe via a more focused presentation, may be aware of the refriesbut

Milton Caniff never gave two hoots about the 21st Century, anyway.

One thing Milton Caniff did care about was his reputation and professional

standing. After decades of hard work on projects ranging from The Gay 30sto

Dickie Dareto Terry and the Piratesand, finally, to Steve Canyonwith carefulattention to all facets of the cartooning business being paid throughoutMilton

Caniff had found success and security in equal measure.

A Commission Account statement provided to the artist by Field

Enterprises/King Features shows the market for Steve Canyon reached from

Bangor, Maine to San Diego, California and included international clients such as

the Mexico City Newsand Romes Societa Editrice Atlantide. A single months

payment to Caniff totaled more than sixteen thousand early-1950s dollars (today,

accounting for inflation, the monthly pay-out would be more than five times that

amount).

Holding the cards for a financially-stable hand, Caniff began to alter the way

he worked, relying on assistants more heavily than ever before. He discussed thosechanges in a Sidebar piece published only seven months before his death, in

issue number eighteen of Kitchen Sink Presss Steve Canyon magazine, beginning

by saying:

Sharp-eyed readers might note that some backgrounds and

some secondary figures were not drawn by me in [the Indian

Cape story]. Dick Rockwellstarted doing bits and pieces for me

in 1953. He was doing comic books at the time, and he needed

extra work in addition to what he was doing

Richard Waring Rockwell would work on Steve Canyon for the next thirty-

five years, until the strip ended in 1988. Rockwell broke in through the comic

book market, with stories appearing in Lev Gleasons notorious Crime Does Not

Payand various other titles. Reportedly he applied for membership in the National

Cartoonists Society in 1952, submitting samples of his work along with his

application. As one of the NCS members reviewing applications, Milton Caniff issaid to have spotted the quality of the work, called Rockwell and told him his

membership was approved, while also asking if he would be available to help on

Canyon. Their partnership began with that phone call.

Caniff may have also learned that Dick Rockwell was the nephew of superstar

artist Norman Rockwell, and the lure of that connection could have factored into

his thinking in a minor way. If so, Norman was not as impressed as Caniff may

have been. Dick said, One day, when I met [my uncle] at the Illustrator's Club,

he said, Are you still drawing that guy's pictures for him?

There was more to Dick Rockwells career than either his famous relative or


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The Korean War made storytelling easier for Caniff. He liked

having his hero back in uniformit solved the problem of explaining

how Canyon made a living, since Steve was operating on Uncle Sugars

payrolland he was comfortable using and expanding his own spy

network of contacts throughout the armed services, people instrumental

in helping him make the work ring true enough so an unnamed airman

first class flying combat in Korea could observe, We like Steve becausehes up-to-date, right now, and not drawn with a peppermint stick.

The Indian Cape storyline that encompasses much of the first

half of 1953 is a perfect example of the authenticity Caniff layered into

his strip. The idea of conflict between a small town and the air force

base it hosts seemed an excellent story springboard. The problems of

small towns around the bases were very real, Caniff wrote in 1987,

when looking back at this continuity. There were sonic booms.

There were flights in the small hours of the morning, with people

losing sleep. Cows stopped giving milk because of the noise. There

were people who were taking advantage of this on a real estate level,

telling residents who lived near a new base that the noise drove the

property values down, and theyd better sell cheap to the agent. The

artist experienced some of these disruptions first hand when he visited

a friend, a general commanding a base in Missouri; the sound of jets

roaring away on regularly-scheduled overnight patrols threw a monkey

wrench into his own sleep patterns. As a result of his creators research,

ruminations, and experience, Steve Canyon became commander of the1420th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, stationed at Indian Cape; Caniff

then addressed an actual situation within a fictional framework.

Knowing his plot tapestry would need additional threads, he

wove in another true-to-life difficultyovercoming public apathy

and recruiting volunteers for the national Ground Observer Corps

(GOC)plus a pair of reliable stand-bys: good-looking gals in the

persons of Slippery Elm and her fellow school teacher, Georgia (as

well as Steves constant heartthrob, Summer Olson), plus a dash of

romance that inevitably comes when mixing charismatic heroes with

beautiful women. The result is one of Steve Canyons most memorablestorylines.

Indian Cape became the focus for a piece in the March 1954

issue of the Air ForcesAir Trainingmagazine. Lieutenant Robert A.

Hatch, the articles author, had this to say about the positive effects

of the story:

Within that [Indian Cape] sequence Caniff pounded

home the need for a strong GOC and a workable

community-relations scheme between military and

civilians. Information on variouscommunity relations

programs was cited in the strip to show how people inuniform and mufti could get along side by side.

The response was tremendousletters, editorials,

and quotations from the Caniff sequence brought

attention to the problems and helped the Air Force and

civil defense people sell their points.

Hatchs piece was titled The Air Forces Super-Salesman and it

referenced the gratitude the Air Force felt toward Caniff and his flyboy

heroes. One spokesman was quoted in the piece as saying, We couldnt

ABOVE: Twoillustrations forthe Air Forces

Air Trainingmagazine, 1954.


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buy the space to tell our story, and we couldnt tell it nearly as well as Milton

Caniff does. Caniffs receipt of the Air Forces 1953 Arts and Letters Award

was also noted. One of the cartoonists boyhood heroes, General Jimmy Doolittle,

bestowed the honor, which read in part, translation [of the Air Forces position

in modern life] into story form capable of holding a mass audience requires

genius. Milton Caniff has this genius. Through the medium of the daily comic

strip he presents the air power requirement to millions of avid readers with great

artistic skill, technical accuracy, and dramatic impact.

The article concluded with a heartwarming story that hammered home the

magnetic pull Canyon exerted on its most ardent followers:

A prime example of some of the strange requests [Caniff ] gets

came from a mother who wrotethat her fifteen-year-old boy, a

Steve Canyon addict, had run away from home. The mother

didnt know whether the boy would try to join the Air Force, or

whatbut she did know hed be reading Stevewherever he was.

Could Caniff help her?He re-drew one of his daily strips, put in an orderly room

scene, and on the bulletin board pinned a note to the boy to call

home, collect. A few days after the strip appeared another note

came from the mother. The boy had gotten in touch with his

folks. The message from Canyon had turned the trick.

The strip in question, the January 2, 1953 daily, can be seen on page 20 of

this volume. The cartoonist placed other secret messages on that board. One is

addressed to his nephew: Harry Guyton, do you know anyone from Boston?

When asked about it for this book, Harry said, Milt always put us in his strips.

Neil Corbitt is my brother-in-law and Phyllis was my sister, referring to anothermessage on the board. The final name on the board is that of cartoonist Frank

Springer, who may have assisted Caniff on some strips.

One hopes young Butch Fogarty was on his way home by the time Pipper

the Piper debuts, two days later. Many Caniff students have remarked on Pippers

physical resemblance to charismatic war hero (PT109), then-freshly-minted U.S.

Senator, and eventual U.S. President John F. Kennedy; less widely discussed is the

friend whose personality served as the template for Pippers brash, devil-may-care

attitude.

David McCallister Jr. met Milton Caniff in the 1940s, during World War II,

and while not as publicly-celebrated a contact as Frank Higgs or Phil Cochran,

McCallisters colorful career and larger-than-life presence made a deep impression

on both Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon.

McCallister began his aviation career for his country by instructing gunnery

personnel in Florida before becoming a fighter pilot and shipping overseas into

the European theater, where he flew as part of the fighter escort in Americas first

daytime bombing run on Berlin. Based at Kings Cliffe in the United Kingdom,

Davey Mac used both his skill with the stick and his glib tongue to draw the

assignment to test fly Gloster Meteor, the Allies sole operational jet fighter at that

time. McCallister and Caniff began a correspondence during the Second World

War that led to a memorable face-to-face meeting, one that helped Caniff

coalesce in his minds eye a character soon to be introduced to the Terry and the

PiratescontinuityHotshot Charlie.

After the war McCallister served in the Delaware Air National Guard and,like Steve Canyon, was called back to active duty in 1951 as part of the

mobilization for Korean combat. Four years later, with the country back on a

peacetime footing, he participated in the Earl T. Ricks Memorial jet fighter cross-

country race, winning it during his second run, in 1956, aboard the Cindee Lind,

a jet he personally modified and named after his two daughters.

The colorful flyboy appealed to Caniff not only because of his skill in the

cockpit, but also his talent at the typewriter: McCallister wrote numerous non-

fiction articles throughout the 1950s. Working with writer Linda Boyes, he

authored the novel Sabres over Brandywine, with Caniff producing artwork for the

books cover. McCallister unfortunately did not live to see the publication of that

storyhe died at age forty-one, bringing down a crippled jet in an unpopulatedarea. An advance copy of Sabres over Brandywinewas buried with him in 1961.

Both Pipper the Piper and Steve Canyon directly benefited from Caniffs

relationship with Light Colonel McCallister: Peter Pipper inherited Davey Macs

pilots instincts and his insouciant approach to life. And Canyon? He took

command of the 1420th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron only months after

McCallister became top kick of the 142nd Fighter Squadron. Art imitates Life,

even if by necessity it sometimes carries an extra digit


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Life also has a way of affecting Art in surprising ways. Milton Caniff

learned this lesson in 1941-42, while his Terry and the Piratescast was embroiled

in an escapade set in Hong Kong when, in real life, the Japanese invader had

overrun and seized control of the real Hong Kong on Christmas of 41. With

his story written and drawn weeks in advance, Caniff could do nothing but

let the tale play out as planned, asking forbearance (which his devoted fansoverwhelmingly granted) because the fiction was at odds with the new normal

in that Far Eastern locale.

From the beginning of the Indian Cape story, Milts original intent for

the strips next adventure was to transfer Steve and his squadron to Korea; the

Air Force reportedly went so far as to draw up traveling orders for the 1420th.

Newspapers of the day, however, were filled with headlines about peace talks

and a possible cessation of hostilities. Those talks had dragged on for two years

of protracted diplomatic wrangling, first being held in Kaesong before moving

to Panmunjom. Early in 53 reports of significant movement began to appear,

causing Caniff to scuttle his plans to ship out the 1420th. Doing this avoided a

repeat of the Terry/Hong Kong glitchthe formal armistice ending the Koreansituation was signed on July 27, 1953, and there seems little doubt had the artist

stayed with his initial vision Steve Canyon, Peter Pipper, Murky Murphy, and

their cohorts would have been depicted still fighting the Korean War long after

their flesh-and-blood brethren had obeyed orders and stood down.

Caniff instead embarked on a course correction that allowed Canyon to serve

as a one-man military troubleshooter. His crossing paths with the Halls and Cobra

Johnny in the final four months of 1953 introduced new faces into the mix, but

otherwise Steve renewed a string of old acquaintances. He spent 1954 trying to

pin a dope smuggling charge on the villainous Herself Muldoon (Caniffs treatment

of the drug trade and heroin addiction was provocative for its time, yet as the

artist later remarked, my audience went along with it in great style. I never got

into any sort of trouble for depicting drug addiction) before getting into a hearts-

and-flowers triangle with Summer Olson and the mysterious Clarke Netherland,

then once more spending time in the North Woods with the irrepressible Miss

Mizzou, ending the year reuniting with the 1420th, Colonel Sam Index, and his

conniving wife, Delta.

Before that string of escapades, Steves immediate jumping-off point following

his departure from Indian Cape was the pocket nation of Damma and renewed

contact with anti-Communist rebel leader Princess Snowflower; her chief advisor,

the disgruntled American, Doagie Hogan; and old friend and instant comedy

relief Happy Easter. The lead-in to this 1953 saga also allowed Caniff to insert

another quick contest within the body of his story.

Beginning inside the May 17th Sunday page, a message in code is revealed

that is directed at Steve Canyon. Those serving in the armed forces were invited to

take a shot at cracking the code, with a one hundred dollar Savings Bond awardedto both the first correct domestic and foreign-based response (Canyon ran on a

delayed basis overseas, leaving those stationed abroad at a disadvantage, hence

their separate prize).

This stunt received far fewer responses than 1949s Pick the Movie

contest, but Caniff was perfectly all right with that. I wasnt trying for a general

readership in this instance, he later reminisced, because most of the clues were

from manuals that would be almost impossible for a civilian to get. The puzzle

wasnt for the fifth grade reader; it was for the military reader. A brisk amount of

mail nevertheless flowed in from those in service as well as from retired cryptologists

who kept up with the science for pleasure. John F. Connors, also known as

KOHOP, president of the Albany, New York Code and Cipher Club and amember of the American Cryptogram Association, was an example of the latter.

Connors, a Navy cryptologist honorably discharged at the end of 1944,

admitted having never read the series before spotting the May 20th entry, but

enthused, If you will continue to give us this kind of delightful fare in your Steve

Canyon strip, I shall be a regular reader of it. Lacking any knowledge of Steves

history, KOHOPs guess is wide of the markThe nose indicates possibly [that

four presumed landing fields] are Russian fields (long nose) or in the north (cold

nose). The hut, on a guess, means Chinese village, or possibly means the airfields

are camouflagedbut he cannot resist tweaking the cartoonist in his last

paragraph: Incidentally, it seems to me your characters say contradictory things.

In one panel they call [the mysterious message] a simple substitution, in another it

is referred to as code. How can it be both? Code and cipher are mutually exclusive

terms, if it is one, it cant be the other. Can it?

While he undoubtedly won points for anal retentiveness, Mr. Connors did

not come away with the prize. Neither did Camp Lejeune Staff Sergeant Arthur

Buckley, who interpreted the codes RLS to mean Red Landing Strip, the

flower to stand for camouflage, and the nose to mean odar [sic] or smell.

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PAGES 13-15: Six pages fro m a May 1953 feature in Coronet magazine.


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By the start of July the winners had been chosen, the prizes had been

awarded, and a personal letter from Milton Caniff complimented the winners.

Lt. John C. Harralson of the Marine Corpss 790th Quartermaster Reclamationand Maintenance Company received this message, postmarked from New York:

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that your correct

solution to the cryptogram recently published in my Steve

Canyon contained the earliest postmark of all the mail received

from overseas personnel and you are the winner of the $100 U.S.

Savings Bond mentioned in the Sunday page of May 24th.

I am grateful, indeed, for your interest in my work and I am

happy to enclose herewith your award.

All good wishes

The full solution originally ran in both the May 31, 1953 Sunday and again,

in compressed fashion, in the June 1st daily, and appears here on page 84.

Milt truly did have nothing but good wishes for the men and women in

uniform who formed such a loyal segment of his fan-base, but he knew he could

not appeal strictly to the military readership. Caniffs office staff carefully tracked

the incoming mail and he was aware of how people responded to Steves romantic

entanglements, especially with Summer Olson. Three decades later, the artist

observed that during the 1950s he averaged roughly twenty-five pieces of mail

each day, but when Steve and Summer were in the midst of a soap opera crisis,

the flow jumped to a thousand letters daily. Little wonder, then, that the summer

of 1954 was also the summer of Summer, with Steves blonde heartthrob torn

between her longtime beau and a wealthy playboy newcomer, with the action

set against the backdrop of a fancy resort hotel. It was a total departure from any

Canyon story previously told, but it not only resonated with Dizzy Gillespie, it

sharpened the focus of female readers, who could not be neglected if one was to

keep ones strip among the upper echelon of popular newspaper features. The

Steve-Summer-Clarke triangle gave way to a more traditional Canyon adventure,

though this one also featured the striking of a few sparks between the series star

and that quintessential Caniff dame, Miss Mizzou. The mysterious case Steve

was sent north to crack was the backbone of the story, but what kept womenreadingand doubtlessly writing letters of condemnation or approval, depending

on their individual preferencewere the scenes involving clinches and lines like

the one where Steve tells Mizzou, She [Summer] dearjohned me the last time I

saw her. From the outset Caniff had said Steve Canyon was the sort of guy who

could have girls at every port of call; the artist certainly capitalized on that during

1953-54, building feminine interest every time he placed a new potential

romantic partner in Steves path.

Paying attention to the distaff segment may have also been a case of fair

is fair, since Caniff had ample opportunity to cater to his male fans, including

a feature aimed squarely at men everywhere that began with an extended

correspondence between the cartoonist and a newcomer to the publishing game.On June 8, 1953, writing from 6052 S. Harper; Chicago 37, Illinois,

Mr. Hugh M. Hefner wrote to Caniff saying:

We would like to do a feature on your fabulous Miss Lace

and would appreciate permission to reproduce five or six of the

originalMale Call strips in an early issue of Stag Partya new

mens magazine beginning publication this fall.

We think alot [sic] of ex-G.I.s have a warm spot in their

hearts for Miss L. (we admit to one ourselves) and would enjoy

seeing her again.

The letter goes on to inquire about the availability of pin-up drawings, any

anecdotal material, and the few strips the army never got around to okaying

that have never appeared in print.

Three days later, Caniff penned a letter to one of his contacts at King

Features asking that the syndicate check out Hefner and the type of publication

they are planning to put out. Also of passing interest is Caniffs mention of

an exhibit in Chicago in 1947 that featured many examples of the slightly-

salaciousMale Callstrip the cartoonist had produced free of charge for military

newspapers during World War II.


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By the time of the next letter, on July 20th, Hefner had had Stag Party:

The New Magazine for Men stationery printed, and he used a sheet of it to

repeat hisMale Callinquiry to Caniff, adding that he had a convivial telephoneconversation with the syndicate representative, and ending, Thanks in advance

for your every consideration from a fan of long standing.

Before the end of the month Caniff sent Hefner a package of Miss Lace

pin-up art, adding that the clip sheet showing the final strip is my only copy

and I will be grateful if you will arrange to return it to me when it has served

your purpose.

Encouraged by this show of support from one of his cartooning idols,

Hefner was emboldened in his August 8th letter. In addition to promising to

return the tear sheet of the finalMale Callinstallment and provide copies of

the completed feature (It has been tentatively scheduled for our February

issue), Hefner went on to ask:

Have you ever given any thought to doing magazine pin-up

work? Your strip and other activities may keep you much too busy

and perhaps its nothing that would interest you. Im thinking of

the girlie-gag-type thing that Esquireused to run a lot of [Editors

Note: Hefner started in publishing as a copywriter at Esquire]

though in your case, something [rendered] in line, with just spots

of color. We could supply the gag material, so it would be just an

art problem.

I just toss the thought out as something that might interestyou. We couldnt pay very much for anything during the first few

issues (short shoestring operation herefinancially speaking), but

if youre interested, we could delay it a few months until we can.

Caniff needed exactly zero time to consider Hefners offer. His August 10th

response says, in part, the pressure of my daily schedule precludes the possibility

of my taking on such a pleasant task.

Four months passed before the next communication between the two men.

For Hefner it was a busy four monthsthe already-extant mens adventure

magazine Staghad heard about his proposed launch and threatened to sue for

copyright infringement if

Hefner hit the stands with

the name Stag Party.Brainstorming with family

and friends generated

several alternate titles such

as Gentleman, Satyr, Top

Hat, Pan, and Bachelor

before Playboywas

ultimately settled upon.

It was under this heading

(though new letterhead had

yet to arrive, apparently) that

Hefner returned theMale Call

material to Caniff in a brief

message dated December 3rd,

along with advance copies of

the new mens entertainment

magazine Playboywith the

feature on your fabulous Lace.

Hefner goes on to say, Ive been a Caniff fan since the days when Terry was just

a little shaver traveling under the guidance of Pat Ryan and Pat was a mighty

unhappy boy because his one true love was hitched up with that old SOB

Sandhurst.In the early 21st Century, with Playboy and Milton Caniff continuing to

attract attention, it is intriguing to look back at the middle of the 20th Century,

when Caniff was far more of a household name than was Hugh Hefner. It would

hardly surprise Caniff that the emphasis on female sex appeal was a crucial

element in allowing both Hefner and him to continue to be relevant deep into

The Communication Age.

After all, Milton Caniff never gave two hoots about the 21st Century, but

he knew that a pretty girl could always attract an audience.

RIGHT:A pag e f rom the 1954 calend ar distribute d to po tent ial advertise rs in Sunday co mics se ctionsby the Metropolitan Sunday Comics Group, a consortium of newspapers that banded together tooffer a nationwide audience to advertisers. In 1953 Metropolitan boasted forty-two Sundaynewspapers that had a total reach of eighteen million homes.


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Steve & Summer

Gil Hall Hollister Hall Herself Muldoon Clarke Netherland

Meena Miss Mizzou Delta Copper Calhoon

Are they onor are they off?These star-crossed lovers dontknow themselves, and if theCopperhead has any say

Pipper the Piper is a realhotshot pilot who literallyrushes into a burning buildingfor his C.O.

The patriotism of this well-meaning small town school-marm and her mechanic beaufar exceeds their common sense.

A gutsy medic who makesboth Snowflowers and DoagieHogans hearts beat fasterfortwo very different reasons.

The nanny of Summers young

son, she encourages heremployer to stand by hermanboth of them!

This blonde-bombshell chanteuse

is still in the North Woods, stillhanging with Steveand stillwearing that trenchcoat!

Steve hits the nail squarely:

Colonel Sam Indexs wife isstill playing the angles, to themisfortune of many.

The Copperhead keeps toying

with Summer and Stevebutthis time she may have finallygone too far

Though without her vision,Gil is both perceptive andfar-seeinghandy qualitiesfor a diplomats wife.

Gils teenaged belle of adaughter springs Steve out ofjail, then tries to sentencehim to matrimonial prison.

Is she running an independentairline or a heroin-smugglingoperation? Steve suspects theleopard doesnt change its spots

His carefree ways and sunnydisposition brighten Summersdays and darken Steves nights.Does he hide a troubling secret?

Peter Pipper Slippery Elm Dr. Louis Shu


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January 1-3, 1953

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January 4, 1953 21


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January 5-7, 1953

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January 8-10, 1953

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steve canyon, vol. 4: 1953–1954 preview

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