[crashryan]

Revisiting this complex episode I'm struck once more by two things.

First, how bloody the story is. Nothing demonstrates the difference between adult-oriented British comic strips and kid-oriented American strips like the scenes of the natives parading with severed heads!

Second, how virulent the racism is. Even in the uncensored twenties no American syndicate editor would have dreamt of printing some of the epithets used here.

Jack Monk's artwork is strong, though I prefer his postwar work. I get the impression that British strips, like their American cousins, shrank after the war. The panels here are roomier, with fewer closeups and head-and-shoulder shots than the postwar strips.

Link to the book: Buck Ryan 05 - Terror in New Guinea