Fans of vintage newspaper comics will recognize the name Milton Caniff, creator of the popular adventure strips TERRY AND THE PIRATES (October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973) and STEVE CANYON (January 13, 1947, until June 4, 1988). Caniff is revered among cartoonists and his style influenced and inspired many other artists for many years.
Between Terry and Steve was his strip MALE CALL, which he drew (gratis) during his military service in World War II. The strip was circulated in military publications from January 24, 1943 until March 3, 1946 for the purpose of improving morale through the use of humor.
Considering the target audience, MALE CALL was spicier and more suggestive than his mainstream strips. As a result, he was required to have each episode "cleared" through a military censor. Along with the suggestive dialogue, he introduced a female character by the name of Miss Lace who was considerably more risqué than the previous female lead, Burma.
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| Book cover of a collection of reprinted strips. |
Part Dragon Lady and all sexy, Miss Lace is undoubtedly the most remembered character of the strip as she frequently appeared in revealing clothing and exuded seductiveness, so much so that a number of the strips were -- considering the times -- prohibited from being published. Times changed and it's not hard to see a later parallel in Wallace Wood's CANNON in which those restrictions were lifted and so were the clothes that came off women in nearly every panel.
Miss Lace was racy enough for PLAYBOY to include a 3-page feature about her in the January 1954 issue. The article includes a page of sample strips that were published and a page of examples that were rejected and never published. The first one's a doozy.
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