Review: ‘The Complete Steve Canyon on TV Vol. 1’
When Milton Caniff broke away from [[[Terry and the Pirates]]] to create (and own) [[[Steve Canyon]]], he began an odyssey that lasted from January 13, 1947 until his death and the strip faded with him on June 4, 1988. Along the way, he populated the strip with friends, family and enemies, bringing a serialized melodrama to the newspapers while also supporting the armed forces. Canyon was an ex-WW II pilot who re-enlisted when America entered the Korean conflict. He never left the service from that point, which allowed Caniff to send our hero around the world multiple times.
While the strip was popular with readers, and respected by fellow cartoonists, it didn’t spawn the usual assortment of merchandise. Few today recall there was even a short-lived television series that aired on NBC from 1958-1959. In all, there were 34 episodes which began with Canyon as a traveling nomad until halfway through the season when he became commanding officer at Big Thunder Air Force Base. At $48,000 per episode, it was the most expensive show from the three networks and its middling ratings didn’t justify renewal. After rerunning on ABC in 1960, it vanished.
Fans of Caniff have worked with the estate to lovingly restore the series and has begun releasing the series on DVD. Three volumes, collecting all 34 episodes, are expected with the first being released a few weeks back.
Dean Fredericks stars as Canyon and resembles his print counterpart, playing the role with a deadpan, serious demeanor. As happened in the 1950s, our television stars are flawless role models who always know best. None of the rich supporting cast made it to the series, which left the show all the poorer. In fact, the show seriously lacked supporting characters to play off Canyon which also made the show feel thin.
In May 2009, NBM Publishing brings back one of the 20th century’s great comic strips. George McManus’ Bringing Up Father is the third and latest in NBM’s Forever Nuts series of classic screwball strips. In 1913, McManus started a comic strip about Jiggs and Maggie, a lower-class couple who came into money. “While the snobbish Maggie and beautiful daughter Nora (referred to various times as Katy and Mamie in the strip’s early days) constantly try to ‘bring up’ Father to his new social position,” comics expert Clark Holloway has said, “Jiggs can think of nothing finer than sitting down at Dinty Moore’s restaurant to finish off several dishes of corned beef and cabbage, followed by a night out with the boys from the old neighborhood. The clash of wills that ensued often resulted in flying rolling-pins, smashed crockery, and broken vases, all aimed in the general direction of Jiggs’s skull.“ McManus’ Bringing Up Father became the 20th century’s second longest running strip. It ran from January 12, 1913 until its end on May 28, 2000.
Rod Serling’s [[[Twilight Zone]]] remains one of the brightest spots of television history. The teleplays were inventive, occasionally funny, often thrilling and always thought-provoking. In thirty minutes, he managed to tell a story with relatable characters and situations then twist things and entertain you through surprise.
KBS TV, a South Korean network has reported that SSD has signed an agreement with Fox TV Studios to co-produce and distribute a live action TV series based on Tsukasa Hojo’s City Hunter manga. 
Director JJ Abrams posted a brief note on the Star Trek movie’s Facebook 
The Spirit earned a mere $6.5 million during the three day holiday weekend, good for just ninth place on the top ten. Based on numbers from Box Office Mojo, the Lionsgate film earned an average of $2595 per screen compared with the number one film’s $10.632. 
As 2008 winds down, the future looms large and one of the murkiest predictions regards the future of newspapers. With people increasingly getting their news from the Internet, newspapers seem to serve readers with advertising circulars, classifieds and the comics. As various papers struggle with declining advertising revenue, they have shrunk newsrooms, dropped pages, reduced their size and trimmed features. Newspapers that carried two or three pages of comic strips are half that size and it gets harder for new cartoonists to gain a toehold.
Looking for something to do before school or work begins again? Well, 
Happy birthday to Stan the Man! (Geez, I’m not even half his age and I don’t have half his energy. Let this be a lesson to you, kiddies– when you’re writing, stand up while you type. You’ll be in much better shape when you get older.)
SAN DIEGO — Comic-Con International, the largest comic book and popular arts event in the United States, announced today that submissions are now being accepted for consideration by the judges for the 2009 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards. Publishers wanting to submit entries should send one copy each of the comics or books they wish to nominate and include a cover letter indicating what is being submitted and in what categories. There are no entry fees for any submissions.
