IMAGE: Miss Mizzou makes up her name on the spot in her debut in the Steve Canyon comic strip, September 5th, 1952. Image courtesy of the Columbia Tribune. Copyright 2014 the Milton Caniff Estate.

Today is the day I’m announcing the release of my book “Miss Mizzou: A Life Beyond Comics.” This is also Miss Mizzou’s 62nd birthday. The character coined her name in the above panel from September 5th, 1952.

The character actually started appearing in the comic strip a few weeks before this however. On July 26th, 1952, two characters started to mention her in a two panel aside. On August 1st, she is shown in shadow–you can’t even tell the color of her hair. In the following week we see her blond hair from the back and we get a glimpse of her trademark trench coat. Caniff definitely was playing up the mystery of this character for as long as he could. It wasn’t until August 12th that Caniff pulled in for a close up and also put her name into question.

IMAGE: Steve Canyon daily comic strip, August 12th, 1952. Copyright 2014 the Milton Caniff Estate.

I was able to assemble my book and hit “publish” on amazon.com the date of August 12th, which seems somewhat appropriate considering her “close up” introduction to the strip on that very date. I’ve spent the last few weeks preparing for the book release and it just seemed to make sense to officially announce the book today on the official birthday of the character.

In the coming year I’ll be writing more in depth blog posts about Miss Mizzou. Stay tuned for more!