Stolzer, Rob :: Caniff, Milton

Milton Caniff - Terry and the Pirates - 1940 Daily

Artist: Milton Caniff (All)

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Milton Caniff - Terry and the Pirates - 1940 Daily Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Milton Caniff - Terry and the Pirates - 1940 Daily
Artist:	Milton Caniff (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Comic Strip
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	1,593
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	1/10/2011
Comic Art Archive:

Description

This example of Terry and the Pirates, from July 31, 1940, features none of the main characters, but shows off a couple of Milton Caniff's best secondary characters. This daily features the sixth appearance of "Dude" Hennick, the first character Caniff based upon a real person. The strip also features the second appearance of Chu, AKA "Chopstick Joe", an unsavory but likeable Chinese gangster, once based in New York.

The character "Dude" Hennick was based on Frank "Dude" Higgs, a good friend of Caniff's from their days at Ohio State University. The named Hennick was taken from a local OSU hangout, Hennick's coffee shop. Higgs was a larger than life character. He was an extroverted guy, with a unibrow over his eyes, much like his comic strip counterpart. And also like Hennick, one of Higgs' exclamations was "Bless Bess!" But Higgs was important to Caniff in another way. He became a pilot in the Army Air Corps after college, and resigned his commission in 1938 to help Claire Chennault, of the Flying Tigers fame, to help train Chinese pilots in southwestern China. Over the next few years, Higgs would write to Caniff with some frequency, giving him descriptions of the locale of "Terry and the Pirates". When Caniff introduced the Hennick character in July 1940, he had just received a letter from Higgs, explaining that he had recently shaven his head because of lice. So Higgs' first appearance in the strip was as a bald character, much to Caniff's delight. Hennick later became involved in one of the most moving of Caniff storylines: the death of Raven Sherman.

Frank Higgs was killed in a plane crash on October 20, 1945, as he was flying from Canton to Shanghai. Caniff hadn't used his friend in the strip in a while, and with Higgs' death, Caniff laid the character "Dude" Hennick to rest. On December 25, 1945, Caniff provided the following elegy to Higgs in a poignant daily strip:

"Do you remember Dude Hennick?... Dude was a really hot pilot with whom Terry Lee had many adventures before we had entered the shooting war. It was he who first steered Terry's interest towards aviation and what it means to attempt to solve the blue mystery of the sky.

As has often been the case in this strip. Dude was patterned after a real person. His living counterpart had the same wide buccaneer-black brows, close cut hair and the shaded eyes of men who must stare into weather.

Today, your mind will be on your particular Joe who didn't come back for Christmas. But if you liked Dude Hennick, you may wish to spare a thought for Frank Higgs. Dude died with him."

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About the Owner

	Rob Stolzer Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	September 2004
Last Login:	January 2026
Ebay Id:	robart
Website:	https://freeassociationfunnies.com/
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Aaron N.
Member Since 2009

Posted on 1/11/2011

A perfect Chopstick Joe example!

Jeff Singh
Member Since 2004

Posted on 1/11/2011

Great peice, great description. Caniff was a true class act. Respectful, a patriot and a gentleman.

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