The Fabuleous Fifties

Juneday, Juneday

Friday Comic Book Day

Continuing my theme of Milt Caniff-influenced artists, I am showing you half of a late fifties comic book version of Steve Canyon (from Four Color #1033). The art on this book is probably done by Ray Bailey, who in my opinion makes it look even better than the then current newspaper strip. Bailey used to backgrounds and assorted inking for Caniff in the mid-forties (including working on Caniff's saucy military strip Miss Lace) and this story shows the lush rock formations and pretty women Caniff himself had long since abandoned for Steve Canyon.

Reason to show this is that Hermes Publishing has announced a two volume reprint of all ten or twelve Steve Canyon comic books by Dell. I cannot honestly recommend orering it blindly, having seen Hermes' muddy reprinting of Andru and Esposito's Get Lost, their amateurish desig on their Gil Kane books, the editorial preference for the wellknown rather than the rare, the way they have treated my Australian friend Danny on his book about Mike Esposito and the way they treated Will Eisner's former editor Paul Fitzgerald on his PS book, I can't escape the empression they are the worst kind of opportunistic publishers. If anyone sees a copy I'd love to hear what they think about it.

But for now, here is one of these stories.