Scorchy Smith is an American adventure comic strip created by artist John Terry that ran from March 17, 1930 to December 30, 1961.

[1] Scorchy Smith was a pilot-for-hire whose initial adventures took him across America, fighting criminals and aiding damsels in distress.

Charles Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight increased interest in aviation, and together with several other flight-related adventure strips, Scorchy Smith debuted in 1930, created by John Terry for AP Newsfeatures.

Sickles' impressionistic style and cinematic compositions, plus his frequent use of areas of pure black ink and Zipatone shading, was dramatically different from any other cartoonist at the time.

[3] After working on the strip for two years, Sickles estimated that Scorchy Smith was running in about 250 newspapers, which would make the syndicate about $2,500 a month.

After Robbins left the strip, it was taken on by Edmond Good (1944-1946), Rodlow Willard (1946–1953), Alvin Hollingsworth (1953-1954), George Tuska (1954–1959), and John Milt Morris (1959–1961).