One hundred years ago today was the birth of Milton Caniff. He was born in Hillsboro, Ohio -- about an hour and a half drive from where I live now. Caniff would later go on to draw the wildly popular newspaper strips: Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. Caniff brought a decidedly "legitimate" artistic integrity to the funny pages with intricate details in his work, as well as some IMHO superb brushwork. I only started reading some of Caniff's work several weeks ago, when Humorous Maximus began publishing Steve Canyon online. He's one of the many artists I know more by reputation than by his actual accomplishments, so I've tried to take it upon myself to see just how good he was. That it's now available for free is a decided bonus.
That's been my (and I suspect many others') biggest hindrance to not knowing more about the history of comics and comic art -- much of what has come before is not in wide circulation, thus making research very cost-prohibitive. The internet has helped considerably and I've benefited enormously in the past year or two with the volume of material that was simply not even available a few years ago.
In honor of Caniff's birthday, I suggest you head on over and start reading Steve Canyon -- even in the short time I've been reading, it's been easy to see why people enjoyed it. But I might also suggest your looking up Wowio and Golden Age Comics Online for other materials. There's so much more to comics than Batman and Captain America (and in light of Civil War, that should come as a huge relief!) that I think it makes sense for everyone to take advantage of the opportunities to experience what else is out there. You might not like Steve Canyon or Gold Digger or Airboy, but you're not going to know that until you try them out, right?
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