The Hermes Press is leaking slowly reproductions of the famous comic strip titled “Terry and the Pirates.” The talented Milton Caniff created this innovate and artful adventure comic strip in 1934 and continued it until 1944. George Wunder continued the strip until 1973.
In this volume are three rather mediocre stories of Terry and his cadre traipsing about China and Indochina unbraiding the “bad guys and gals.” His art, at times in masterful—characters are sharp and the backgrounds are detailed. However, frequently, he skips the background. His composition generally is satisfactory, but sometimes it’s pedestrian. Mimicking Caniff, his gorgeous and sensuous dames have wasp thin waists, high arched eyebrows, and brazen figures. Without fail, they lust after Terry with perfidious schemes. Oftentimes they’re close to success, but they never succeed. After all, this was a strip published in the newspapers for family reading.
The book I have has serious binding problems—ten pages are missing, twelve are misplaced, and two are duplicated fifty pages deeper into the tome than their original position. Additionally, the printing (in China) of the black and white images are far too contrasty. And color images are slightly too contrasty.