MILTON CANIFF (1907 1988) Buy Buy Blackbird

Sale 2673 - Lot 19

Unsold

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

MILTON CANIFF (1907-1988)
"Buy, Buy, Blackbird." Comic strip art for Terry and the Pirates, 1940. Ink on board. 6 1/2 x 21 inches. Signed in final panel. Inscribed and dated, "N.Y. 5 Sept. 62. For Judy and Jules Feiffer -- true believers in a world that never was -- with gratitude for their interest -- Milton."

Provenance: From the collection of Jules Feiffer.

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Feiffer commentary: Before Eisner and along with Eisner, Milt Caniff was my hero. "Terry in the Pirates" was my idea of what a comic strip should be. It was like a movie on paper. He was the first guy to use heavy shading and that realistic look, and he was a good writer. He could tell a story and get you involved with the characters. Caniff, who I later became friends with, wrote for grown-ups. You believe the relationships and identify with the characters as if they are real people. Real people meaning actors in a good movie. Not real life. Because it is so clearly romance. The dialog, which there is more of than in most scripts, is sophisticated and adult and well written. The layout is movie layout - in that it moves from panel to panel like a screenplay. Milt was the first cartoonist to put all this together on a comics page. No one did it before him. He fashioned adult material for a daily strip in the comics and for Sunday page in color and it worked more successfully and on a higher level than in any other comic strip of his time.