Mae West: Becoming Burma

MAE WEST pops up in all sorts of places where muscular mates congregate — — including IDW’s new series of reprints of "Terry and the Pirates."
• • One of the giants of the American newspaper comic strip was an Ohio native Milton Caniff [28 February 1907 — 3 May 1988]. In 1934, Caniff came up with a feisty adventure strip "Terry and the Pirates," writing and illustrating it through 1946. He also created "Steve Canyon."
• • Commemorating the centennial of Caniff’s 1907 birth, Fantagraphics Books has just published a bio bigger than a tombstone. Weighing in at 952 pages, "Meanwhile...: A Biography of Milton Caniff" was written with Caniff's cooperation by Robert C. Harvey, a comic strip scholar.
• • A gifted storyteller, Caniff suggested the title "Meanwhile" [a standard caption in continuity comic strips]. It is undeniable that his muscular chiaroscuro style of inking brought an intensely masculine vibe and a dramatic atmosphere to his illustrated pulp fiction. Aware that a few good men deserve a few femme fatales to stir the plot, Caniff injected a refreshing new sensuality to the funny papers during the Depression with temptresses such as the Dragon Lady and Burma, a cigarette-smoking vixen modeled on MAE WEST and introduced in early 1936.
• • Burma, the Dragon Lady, and Terry's gang live on through IDW’s new series of reprints of "Terry and the Pirates" reprints. The 1936 issues are where you'll find the illustrated adventures of Mae's a-MAE-zing cartoon clone — — the beautiful babe-licious Burma.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's clone Burma • • 1936 • •
NYC
Mae West.