Something I just learned about bomber nose art creator Milt Caniff (the comic strip artist who did Steve Canyon, Male Call, and Miss Lace just for the enlisted during WW2)

If you don't recall, check this post real fast about the nose art: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/10/miss-lace-character-from-comic-strip-by.html

Now, back to the new stuff:
The beautiful blonde “Miss Mizzou” was the work of comic artist Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates, Miss Lace, Steve Canyon) He created the character after a daylong trip in 1949 to the campus of  the University of Missouri where he spoke to journalism students.

Miss Mizzou — a waitress in Columbia, though not a Mizzou alumna — made her official debut Sept. 5, 1952, in Caniff’s Steve Canyon comic strip.

“Every college town has girls who live and work on the edge of the campus and who are very much a part of the life of the school,” Caniff wrote in the October 1954 issue of The Missouri Alumnus. “I decided my gal would be from the University of Missouri, if not of it.”

Caniff couldn’t have anticipated that his two-dimensional character would give rise to a three-dimensional prototype (model Bek Stiner on the airplane wing, top photo), a community controversy (the street name Caniff Boulevard versus Providence Road) and a campus tradition (the Miss Mizzou contest).

Oct. 21, 1960 Showme magazine cover Milton Caniff drew this cover for the premiere issue of the revived Missouri Showme magazine that appeared Oct. 21, 1960. The issue went on sale at 9 a.m., and by noon, all 3,200 copies had been sold.

https://mizzoumag.missouri.edu/2015/08/beyond-the-funny-pages/