Terry and Pirates daily 5/15/39 by Milton Caniff

Here begins my favorite Terry and Pirates story-line. Those than know me know to the point of nausea how much I love this particular run. Here Terry saves a shot and wounded Dragon Lady from two pursuing thugs. In thanks for this, the Dragon Lady agrees to help Terry with a little problem he has. He can't dance and so he fears he will not be able to impress April Kane and so has planned to leave China. He had just written a note to April saying he can't take here to the Governor's Ball. He is on the way to deliver the letter when he happens upon some action and sees someone being shot at dumping something into the water. It turns out to be the Dragon Lady in disguise. He nurses her back to health in secrecy and she gives him dancing and life lessons. April does get the note and decides to go to the Ball with Terry's love rival for April, Deeth Cripin the Third. Just as Terry becomes confident in his dancing he rushes to find April only to find out she has accepted an invitation to the Ball with Crispin. A broken hearted Terry is again about to give up until talked to by the Dragon Lady who attends the Ball as Terry's date. I have the one daily with the Dragon Lady dancing with Terry (and giving him advice) already in my collection. Of course, the Dragon Lady's help is not strictly altruistic and she has other plans that night which involve assassinating another attendee. This story-line continues from the first story of 1939 which begins with the introduction of April Kane (see my Jan 1, 1939 Sunday for the first appearance of April and Sanjak) and the twisted plot of the cross dressing, disguise wearing lesbian Sanjak who hypnotizes April for unspecified purposes only to be saved by Pat and Terry. Oh the drama! The dancing lesson sequence is also the story-line that plunges Terry from an adventure strip into a war strip and we see the Dragon Lady slowly move into her role in the Chinese Militia.