Steve Canyon Volume 3: 1951-1952
Four years into Steve Canyon’s four-decade run, these 1951–52 installments begin to show the Cold War trappings that colored the strip for the rest of its days. With the onset of the Korean War, Canyon, initially a globe-trotting pilot-for-hire, has joined the U.S. Air Force, and in this volume, his missions involve rescuing American captives from a prison camp in Communist China, retrieving an errant Russian guided missile, sabotaging a Soviet submarine operation, and saving a military base on a strategic island from being blown up by Reds. In the process, he crosses paths with a bevy of gorgeous dames, most notably Summer Olson, the widow of one of Steve’s comrades-in-arms, who would become the strip’s primary love interest, providing a soap-opera element to leaven the high adventure. The collection, sharply reproduced from syndicate proofs, brilliantly shows off the hallmarks—cinematic storytelling, dramatic illustration, exotic locales, appealing characters, and snappy dialogue—that made Caniff one of  comics’ most highly regarded and influential artists. --Gordon Flagg