Editing Terry and the Pirates (section)

==Characters and story==
The adventure begins with young Terry Lee, "a wide-awake American boy," arriving in then-contemporary China with his friend, two-fisted journalist Pat Ryan. Seeking a lost gold mine, they meet George Webster "Connie" Confucius, interpreter and local guide. Initially, crudely drawn backgrounds and stereotypical characters surrounded Terry as he matched wits with pirates and various other villains. He developed an ever-larger circle of friends and enemies, including Big Stoop, Captain Judas, Cheery Blaze, Chopstick Joe, Cue Ball, and Dude Hennick.

[[Image:Terry and Pirates 2-29-36 Strip.png|thumb|right|600px|Milton Caniff's ''Terry and the Pirates'' (February 29, 1936). Terry, Pat Ryan, and Connie find themselves marooned on an island with mysterious Burma. Note Terry's boyish appearance in this early strip and backgrounds alternating from dark and detailed to blank.]]

Most notable of all was the famed ''[[femme fatale]]'', the [[Dragon Lady (Terry and the Pirates)|Dragon Lady]], who started as an enemy and later, during World War II, became an ally. Caniff included a number of non-American female antagonists, all of whom referred to themselves in the third person. These included the Dragon Lady and crooks and spies like Sanjak and Rouge. In a rather bold move for a 1940s comic strip, Sanjak was hinted at being a lesbian cross-dresser with designs on Terry's girlfriend April Kane.<ref>[http://www.cagle.com/hogan/features/out/out.asp Applegate, David. "Coming Out in the Comic Strips"]</ref> Caniff purportedly named the character after an island next to the isle of [[Lesbos]].<ref>Robert C. Harvey (ed.), ''Milton Caniff: Conversations''. University Press of Mississippi, 2002, page 231.</ref>

Over time, owing to a successful collaboration with cartoonist [[Noel Sickles]], Caniff dramatically improved to produce some of the most memorable strips in the history of the medium. {{ill|Ray Bailey (comics)|fr|Ray Bailey|lt=Ray Bailey}}, Caniff's assistant on ''Terry and the Pirates'', went on to create his own adventure strip, ''[[Bruce Gentry (comics)|Bruce Gentry]]''.<ref name=toon/>

===Main===

* Terry Lee: A teenager when the series begins, he is excitable and loves adventure. As the series goes on, he matures and joins the U.S. Army, becoming a pilot. After World War II, he works for the government in the [[post-war]] territories. In his last comic strip Feb 25, 1973, Colonel Lee is a USAF officer who helps break up a heroin smuggling ring which results in the arrest of its head, the President of a foreign country.
* Pat Ryan: Terry's friend and mentor, a writer and man of action who helps his young protégé out of scrapes. When World War II begins, he joins the [[U.S. navy|U.S. Navy]] and sees action in the Pacific.
* Connie: George Webster Confucius, a Chinese man Terry and Pat hire as a guide. He speaks in [[Chinese Pidgin English|Pidgin English]] and refers to himself in the third person.  He is fiercely loyal to the duo. He eventually works with Pat as part of the Chinese resistance against the Japanese in the war.
* Big Stoop: A {{convert|9|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} Mongol whom Connie helped when he was being picked on by bullies.  He remains with the trio out of gratitude. Immensely strong and mute, he earns his nickname from the phrase "he stoops to conquer". He was once a servant of the Dragon Lady; she cut out his tongue when he was young, earning his hatred. He works with Connie in the Chinese resistance during the war.
* [[Dragon_Lady_(Terry_and_the_Pirates)|The Dragon Lady]]: A beautiful but cold pirate queen who clashes with Terry and Pat continuously. As the Japanese invade China, she becomes a resistance leader, attacking Japanese forces, making it clear it is not out of patriotism but wanting to keep her riches intact. It is hinted she is in love with Pat, but she is unwilling to give up her empire for him. After the war ends, she returns to criminal activities.
* Burma: Real name unknown, a con artist, former pirate confederate and sultry singer with a good heart. She encounters Terry and Pat several times. She and Terry share a casual romantic connection, but Burma is afraid of letting it become serious. She has a habit of singing "St. Louis Blues".
* Normandie Drake: An heiress and Pat's true love, they grew close when he worked for her father. Her high society aunt refused to see her marry a "commoner" and forced her into an arranged marriage to the weak-willed Tony Sandhurst. When She and Pat meet again, she is pregnant with Tony's child and is committed to the marriage. When they meet again during the War, Normandie's child Merilly is four years old. When she discovers that Tony is working with the [[Axis Powers]], Normandie still refuses to divorce him.
* Raven Sherman: An heiress who used her fortune to support missionary work in China. She and Pat seem romantic, but she falls for pilot Dude Hennick. She dies in Hennick's arms after being attacked by Captain Judas and is buried in the China desert. Following her death in October 1941, Milton Caniff received annual reminders of her passing.<ref>[https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/big-deals-comics-highest-profile-moments "Big Deals: Comics' Highest-Profile Moments," ''Hogan's Alley'' #7, 1999]</ref>
* April Kane: A Southern belle who wins Terry's heart. She works as Pat's secretary when he is an agent of the Dragon Lady, but she leaves when she becomes the target of a blackmailer. She returns in 1944, having spent the last few years in a Japanese prison camp. The experience has hardened her, and she tries to make Terry jealous by cavorting with Flip Corkin.  She tries to set up an airfield near an island army base but she learns too late that the Army is abandoning the island, and she is stranded there alone.
* Flip Corkin: Terry's flight instructor in the Air Force, who delivers the Sunday page lecture on military duty. Based on [[Phil Cochran]].
* Taffy Tucker: Flip's girlfriend, an Army nurse. She briefly develops amnesia and is rescued by Pat, and they connect romantically. She returns to Flip after regaining her memory.
* Hotshot Charlie: Charles C. Charles, a comically flippant Boston pilot who becomes Terry's best friend in the Air Force. After the war ends, he is stifled by civilian life and jumps at the chance to help Terry out in post-war Asia doing government work.

===Recurring===

* Captain Blaze: A boisterous English pirate who helps Terry and Pat out against the Dragon Lady, later returning to help Pat out in China.
* Captain Judas: A debonair criminal who clashes with the heroes several times. A former partner of Burma's, he sustains severe facial burns when she throws a lamp in his face. He shoved Raven out of a truck, leading to her fatal injuries before being shot by Dude Hennick and presumably killed.
* Papa Pyzon: A corpulent criminal Terry and Pat meet in China who later returns as an Axis agent during the war.
* Nasty: Nastalathia Smythe-Heatherstone, a young heiress Terry and Burma rescue from a crashed plane. Her bratty and selfish attitude drives them crazy and nearly gets them killed. Years later, the now-grown Nasty returns to involve Terry and Charlie in her efforts to ship food to Chinese refugees, which is really an attempt to win Terry. She tries to woo Charlie to get at Terry.
* Tony Sandhurst: Normandie's rich but immoral husband, who puts himself above everyone. He tries to have Pat put in jail for ruining his business and is later revealed to be working for the Axis during the war and becomes a criminal kingpin in the post-war period.
* Hu Shee: The Dragon Lady's aide and confidante who sometimes impersonates her for some missions. She seems interested in a romance with Terry. She is apparently drowned under a sinking ship with new love, pirate Johnny Jingo.
* Cheery Blaze: Captain Blaze's hefty daughter who hates her father with a passion. She returns during the war working with the Axis but is arrested for her crimes.
* Singh-Singh: A dim-witted would-be warlord who clashes with Pat and the Dragon Lady. He later marries Cheery Blaze but is arrested with her.
* Chopstick Joe: An underworld figure who is a friendly rival of the Dragon Lady.
* Dude Hennick: An old friend of Pat's, an ace pilot who helps the heroes out. He goes to work for Raven Sherman, the two falling in love but she ends up dying in his arms. He vanishes from the strip and a Christmas, 1945 strip has Caniff saying he based the character on a pilot friend, Frank Cliff, who was killed in Shanghai and "Dude died with him."
* Sanjak: A Frenchwoman who dresses like a man, using a monocle to hypnotize people. She works for the Axis, impersonating a pilot to infiltrate Terry's Air Force base and is apparently killed in a crashing plane.
* Jos Goode: A Southern soldier who serves with Pat, Connie, and Big Stoop in the Pacific.
* Snake Tumblin: A fellow pilot of Terry's, he is apparently killed in a crashing plane. However, Caniff's final strips show him seemingly alive but blinded.
* Jane Allen: An Army nurse who falls in love with Snake. She and Terry seem to be getting closer but when she sees a picture of Snake alive, she leaves Terry on the tarmac in Caniff's final strip.