During the researching and writing of the Miss Mizzou book, I stayed tuned to various people who were writing about Caniff online. Matt Tauber comes out head and shoulders above other Caniff aficionados on the web. His eye is ever sharp to Caniff happenings going on around the world, and I always seem to learn something new whenever I read his writing. He has also helped out as a contributing editor to the Library of American Comics volume “Caniff: A Visual Biography.”
Tauber wrote a review of the Miss Mizzou book that I had to shorten for the intro, but I wanted to share the full review with you here:
The notion of a celebrity cartoonist is hard to convey to modern audiences. Yes, there are still hundreds of comic strips, but most creators dwell in relative anonymity or face fading name recognition from fame earned decades ago. During Milton Caniff’s heyday, there was a platoon of popular and famous cartoonists. The newspaper was a daily household object, and some artists became as well-known as their creations, and their creations took on lives of their own.
This is the period mined with vigor by J.B. Winter in his new book – “Miss Mizzou: A Life Beyond Comics.” Mizzou was one of many femme fatales Caniff created for his “Steve Canyon” comic strip. “Steve Canyon” debuted in 1947 and could not have come out any later. The diffusion of television, the shrinking of strip size on the comics page and the decline of the adventure strip were all waiting in the next decade or so. He had just enough time to put “Steve Canyon” into the minds of the mass national culture. Caniff’s eagerness and enthusiasm for his new strip sold it to the public as much as mastery of his craft.
Caniff took the name Mizzou from a nickname he’d heard for the Missouri University in Columbia. His Miss Mizzou arrived in the strip in 1952, wearing nothing but a trenchcoat. Miss Mizzou gave the front of a worldly, independent woman, but under the façade was the broken-hearted girl next door looking for a shoulder to lean on.
Experienced at publicity, Caniff hired a model to do public appearances as Miss Mizzou. As the book relates in detail, this led to the model being invited to MU where she was feted like royalty. This led to the creation of campus traditions based on Miss Mizzou that would last for decades. The heart of the book uncovers the controversy created by citizens and students torn over how MU and Columbia could benefit by this association. Was this daring damsel with her suggestive outfit too sexy for Columbia, Missouri? These passionate feelings for Caniff and Mizzou set the city on its ear.
This book knocked me right in the cerebellum sweet spot. Winter looked at what most would call an interesting anecdote and said, ‘There’s way more to this.’ We dive in right with him and explore Mizzou on a molecular level. As a Caniff devotee, most of what I read was new to me, as were most of the pictures and news clipping reproduced in the book. This is what we need more of, a work of comics scholarship that isn’t dry and eschews academic blather. A story well told from a period in time when a comic strip heroine could come to flesh and blood life.
Thanks for the review Matt! You should all check out his blog, where he blogs about pop culture things, but also passionately (and predominately) blogs about Caniff.
Recommended Reading:
As I said above, Matt was a contributing editor to the Library of American Comics volume “Caniff: A Visual Biography.” He helped out Dean Mullaney and Lorraine Turner go through some of the collection at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and find some amazing Caniff pieces for this book. (You can read about this adventure on Tauber’s blog.) This book is a highly recommended visual treat!