Katherine Collins on Caniff's view of his own work

I think it is a very interesting, enlightening, and complete interview, and gives a very good picture of Milton Caniff's thinking. You will see, however, that despite my repeated rephrasing of the same basic question--are comics Art or aren't they?-that he never truly addressed what I wanted to discuss. And as it turns out, that lack of discussion was his answer. He doesn't think about it. He doesn't care. He probably wouldn't know how to think about that question if he wanted to. At the time, this drove me I crazy. I couldn't believe it. How could he not think about it, considering his achievements? Didn't he think that his terrific ability to portray character, to convey mood, to evoke emotion, gave him the right to demand to be taken seriously? The answer, apparently, was no. His answer was, as he often has said, he just wants to sell newspapers.