The Press: Comic Battlefront

The funnies, those staples of the daily press, were invented some 60 years ago to make people laugh—or at least chuckle. But where are the pratfalls, "Pows!" and "Kerflooies!" of yesteryear? Some comic-strip artists, recalling a simpler era, still let their cartoon creatures play it for laughs. But a growing number of characters in the funnies are much too busy for such nonsense. They are earnestly fighting the cold war.

Some of the characters are old hands at the game. Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon made his first foray against the Reds in 1947. George Wunder's Terry, like Canyon a U.S. Air Force...

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