YEAR 1940: THE DRAGON LADY

Not counting the character's appearances in a 1937-43 film serial, where her voice was contributed by Agnes "Bewitched" Moorehead, the first live appearance of Milton Caniff's "Dragon Lady" was in a 1940 film serial, "Terry and the Pirates."

Unfortunately, though actress Shiela Darcy had the looks to pull off the glamorous role, the script and direction for the serial were thoroughly routine.  The Dragon Lady was not a wily Chinese bandit, but a stereotypical high priestess in a remote Oriental kingdom called "Mara."  The titular Terry and his friend Pat are seeking Terry's lost father when they get mixed up with a bandit gang seeking to plunder Mara.

The Dragon Lady barely has a reason to exist in the serial.  Her one action consists of giving the order to have one of the good guys executed, under the false impression he's there as a bandit.  Actress Joyce Bryant, playing the main heroine of the serial-- one given the name of another Caniff character, "Normandie Drake"-- has no more in common with her namesake than Shiela Darcy's version of the Dragon Lady.  But the Drake character gets into the thick of the action a bit more, for what that's worth.

YEAR 1934: THE DRAGON LADY

My notes for years previous to this only show about three or four significant femmes formidables a year up to this point.  However, for some reason 1934 brings a bumper crop of four important characters in comic strips and five in prose (though admittedly three of the latter were authored by Robert E. Howard).

The chief among these figures is the Dragon Lady, the premiere opponent of the heroes of the TERRY AND THE PIRATES comic strip.  Allegedly Milton Caniff's boss Joseph Patterson not only steered Caniff toward the subject matter-- young men having adventures in the China Seas-- but also suggested that the heroes should initially encounter a sexy female pirate.  Caniff apparently based his fictional creation on certain real lady pirates of the period, and in a later continuity he even attributed the name of a real pirate, Lai Choi San, to his creation.

According to Wikipedia Caniff seems to have originated the term "dragon lady" for a tough-minded Asian woman, though the term can sometimes cross ethnic boundaries and be applied to a woman of any ethnicity.  But though Caniff's character was not by any means the first major Asian femme formidable, it's arguable that she's the best-known one.

Though like many villainesses the Dragon Lady is physically bewitching, she's unique among many villainesses in that she usually shows a tough-minded intelligence.  It's a given that she could knock off the strip's heroes Terry Lee and Pat Ryan without half trying; her perennial mistake is giving in to her female emotions and her desire for Ryan.

She may also be the first Asian female character shown to possess some martial arts skill, as a 1934 sequence shows her defend herself successfully from two male attackers with a combination of judo and weapons-skill (both with pistol and knife).

The Dragon Lady remained a presence in the TERRY strip long after Caniff departed it for STEVE CANYON.