Fun in Chicago

As Marshall Field long ago discovered, there are other ways of fighting Colonel Robert McCormick besides broadsides from the editorial page. Last week, Chicago Sunman. Field raided Tribuneman McCormick's prize stable of comic-strip artists, and captured one of the best: Milton Caniff, whose syndicated Terry and the Pirates appears in 220 newspapers with a total circulation of almost 25,000,000.

There were two hitches: 1) the Sun must wait nearly two years for Caniff, until his present contract runs out in October 1946; 2) even then, Terry and his pals (Burma, the Dragon Lady, et al.) will stay in the Colonel's stable--because the rights to Terry belong to the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. Though this arrangement is common practice in the comic-syndicate field, it has been Caniff's most compelling complaint against his present boss. When he works for Marshall Field he will own his own strip, and also get $100,000 a year or better for five years (Caniff now earns about $62,000 a year).*

Particularly miffed because Caniff had not given it a chance to outbid Field, the Tribune-News syndicate also had a severe case of the haughties. The News's Publisher Joe Patterson had been virtually a stepfather to Terry: he chose Terry's name from 50 submitted by Caniff, himself added and the Pirates, and suggested the strip's Oriental locale. Now Joe Patterson will have to find someone else to match Caniff's slick draftsmanship, crackling dialogue and skilled adventure story. For his part, Caniff will have to create an entirely new character-cast and story for Field. So far he has decided only that he will not borrow from his Male Call, a lustier, bustier strip which he draws free for over 1,000 G.I. newspapers (TIME, Feb. 1, 1943).

*Although Caniff's new contract will be with Field, the new strip will be marketed by Hearst's giant King Features, to give it wider distribution. Thus, in Manhattan Hearst's Daily Mirror instead of Field's PM will carry Caniff.

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