22 Facts About Milton Caniff

Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.

Milton Caniff was an Eagle Scout and a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.

At Ohio State University, Milton Caniff joined the Sigma Chi fraternity and later illustrated for The Magazine of Sigma Chi and The Norman Shield.

Milton Caniff died on April 3,1988, and was buried in the Mount Repose Cemetery, Haverstraw, New York.

In 1932, Milton Caniff moved to New York City to accept an artist job with the Features Service of the Associated Press.

Milton Caniff did general assignment art for several months, drawing the comic strips Dickie Dare and The Gay Thirties, then inherited a panel cartoon named Mister Gilfeather in September 1932 when Al Capp quit the feature.

Milton Caniff was hired by his friend Bil Dwyer when Dwyer took over the Chic Young-created comic strip Dumb Dora in 1932, and needed help while learning the routines of a daily cartoon strip.

Milton Caniff continued Gilfeather until the spring of 1933, when it was retired in favor of a generic comedy panel cartoon called The Gay Thirties, which he produced until he left AP in the autumn of 1934.

In July 1933, Milton Caniff began an adventure fantasy strip, Dickie Dare, influenced by series such as Flash Gordon and Brick Bradford.

In 1934, Milton Caniff was hired by the New York Daily News to produce a new strip for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate.

Daily News publisher Joseph Medill Patterson wanted an adventure strip set in the mysterious Orient, what Patterson described as "the last outpost for adventure," Knowing almost nothing about China, Milton Caniff researched the nation's history and learned about families for whom piracy was a way of life passed down for generations.

Milton Caniff continued Male Call until seven months after V-J Day, ending it in March 1946.

In 1946, Milton Caniff ended his association with Terry and the Pirates.

Milton Caniff produced his last strip of Terry and the Pirates in December 1946 and introduced his new strip Steve Canyon in the Chicago Sun-Times the following month.

At the time, Milton Caniff was one of only two or three syndicated cartoonists who owned their creations, and he attracted considerable publicity as a result of this circumstance.

Milton Caniff nonetheless continued to enjoy enormous regard in the profession and in newspapering, and he produced the strip until his death in 1988.

Milton Caniff was one of the founders of the National Cartoonists Society and served two terms as its president, 1948 and 1949.

Milton Caniff received the Society's first Cartoonist of the Year Award in 1947 for work published during 1946, which included both Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates as well.

Milton Caniff would be named Cartoonist of the Year again, receiving the accompanying trophy, the Reuben, in 1972 for 1971, again for Steve Canyon.

Milton Caniff was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1988.

Milton Caniff received the National Cartoonists Society Elzie Segar Award in 1971, the Award for Story Comic Strip in 1979 for Steve Canyon, the Gold Key Award in 1981, and the NCS has since named the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in his honor.

Milton Caniff creates Poison Ivy, a strip-within-a-strip, in which the titular character is a combination of Lace of Male Call and Mata Hari.