Milton Caniff’s ‘Steve Canyon’ flies again

The cover of "Four Color #519: Mission in South America," which appears in the new collection of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

A page from "Four Color #519: Mission in South America," which appears in the new collection of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

The cover of "Four Color #578: The Maharaja of Bahar," which appears in the new collection of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

A page from "Four Color #578: The Maharaja of Bahar," which appears in the new collection of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

The cover of "Four Color #641: T-Bomb Experiment," which appears in the new collection of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

A page from "Four Color #641: T-Bomb Experiment," which appears in the new collection of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

Milton Caniff at home in 1958, reading a copy of "Four Color #641: T-Bomb Experiment." This photograph appears in the new collection of Caniff's Steve Canyon comics, "Steve Canyon: The Complete Series-Volume One." (Hermes Press)

(Hermes Press)

The box-office success of “Captain America: The First Avenger,” the 30th anniversary of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the ramping interest in “Tintin” make it as good a time as any to revisit Steve Canyon, the adventure hero who flew across the pages of American newspapers for four decades. The creation of Milton Caniff — who had become a newsprint icon with “Terry and the Pirates” — Canyon also made his way into comic books on several occasions although never with a great deal of pop-culture traction. One of the aviator hero’s more intriguing runways in the foreign medium was with Dell Comics in their “Four Color” series and those colorful artifacts are repackaged now in “Steve Canyon the Complete Series: Vol. One,” a 256-page hardcover ($49.99) that hits shelves this week. The work isn’t pure Caniff (Bill Overgard and Ray Bailey did the pencils) but Daniel Herman of Hermes says Caniff is there in every panel. “It’s abundantly clear that his guiding hand is everywhere in these stories … these comic books haven’t seen print in over 50 years so to fans of Steve Canyon they’re like buried treasure.” Check it for yourself in the photo gallery above.

– Geoff Boucher

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