Number 1409: Dragon Lady is no drag

Terry and the Pirates, a phenomenally popular strip, well written and drawn by Milton Caniff, was, like all newspaper features, disposable. Newspapers were thrown out after being read, or used to wrap fish. I’m sure there were people clipping and saving the strips day-by-day, but for the most part newspaper comics were one-and-done. That is, until comic books came along with an insatiable need for content. Then many popular newspaper comics, including Terry, got another life.

The Dragon Lady, one of the most popular characters, is introduced in this first issue of the Terry and the Pirates reprint series from Harvey Comics. (The comic says #3, but it was a continuation of Boy Explorers, which lasted only two issues). Although the Dragon Lady had been introduced in newspapers in 1934, the comic book was published in 1947, which gave it a huge new batch of readers who weren’t around when the original strips were published.

It was another era...China was a faraway place, a strange universe of its own, far from America of the 1930s. Stereotypes were used (Connie especially, although next to Chop Chop of the Blackhawks he seems almost acceptable). Despite being the title figure, Terry Lee was something of a secondary character next to his adult pal, Pat Ryan. Terry grew up later, but in these early strips he’s a callow youngster.