Terry and Pirates Daily 12/21/35 by Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles

Beautiful early Terry and the Pirates daily by Milton Caniff featuring an iconic Chinese Junk (Ruben, that is the boat thingy in the last panel:)). There are a handful of stand alone dailies by Caniff that encapsulate the whole vibe and theme of the strip. I think this is one of those perfect dailies featuring Terry (growing up), Connie and a melancholy Pat Ryan beautifully rendered and lushly enhanced with a moody blue wash. When I first saw this strip, I thought it might even be 100% Sickles's work but probably just a heavy hand in this one. The influence of Sickles is certainly evident in this daily and although his tenure as Caniff's assistant was short, it left its mark on the rest of Milt's career. I think looking back you can pin point the day(August 16th, 1935) that Sickles started assisting or Caniff starting to change his style and over the next few months there was a great evolution in Caniff's art. By the time this daily was done, Caniff had reached a new maturity in his work that he would further refine over the next few years. My favorite period for Caniff is 1939 plus or minus a year. His style later evolved further for the war years Terrys and then again with later Steve Canyon work. All great art but my favorite period began with art around the period of this daily and continued for the next 5 years.