Over a decade ago, I wrote about how one master cartoonist had influenced my two favourite cartoonists and the people In try to emulate the most. I still can't stop marvelling at the depth and beauty of Alex Toth and Hugo Pratt's work. But as recounted in the article, how each diverged from Milton Caniff is an incredible feat of creation.

Often people don't understand my fascination for comics. It's hard to explain. In the first pic by Pratt, look at the use of space to create a contrast with the dozing Corto Maltese. The lines are simple, irregular but direct. There is no hesitation and not overuse of sketching. He just draws and fills in part of the space with blacks. The woman next to Corto Maltese is Bouche Dorée. Most of her silhouette is black except for the exposed areas of her face. We can tell that she is a black woman without any caricature or exaggeration. The texture for the beach house elements use basic constructions lines and just a few spot blacks. There is a lot of abstraction in this pic.

The quality of his lines here seems better than both Pratt and Toth who both favoured shorter strokes. Caniff is able to draw a contour and a shaped line that are strong and long. Yet, they are round and not jagged. He uses the same quality when he spots the shadows on the plants. They are dots with large irregular but pleasing shapes that are so concentrated in one area of the panels' surface that they create mass without necessarily drawing your eyes there, as seen in the last panel.Our eyes, instead are drawn to the silhouettes of the soldiers who are surrounded with just enough white space that we can tell their shape but best what they are up to.