IMAGE: Milton Caniff poses with Bek Stiner for a publicity photo in 1952. Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Adelman.

One of the more frustrating questions to consider with Miss Mizzou is the character’s visual influences. Did the look of Marilyn Monroe influence the character the most or was it the official character model Bek Stiner?

According to a 1971 book, at some point Caniff mentioned that the first Miss Mizzou was drawn from a picture of Marilyn Monroe. If true, I’m thinking that this image was probably the one that I used for my book cover; it looks closer to images of Marilyn Monroe than Bek Stiner in my opinion. Once Caniff got this drawing done, he probably took it down to the Copacabana nightclub where he found Bek Stiner. Could the picture above be the first meeting between Stiner and Caniff?

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

When the character started appearing in the comic strip in August 1952, she still somewhat looked like Marilyn Monroe, but I think the features of Bek Stiner started to slowly get integrated into the character.

IMAGE: Steve Canyon Sunday comic strip, October 5, 1952 — Copyright 2014 the Milton Caniff Estate.

By October of 1952, she looks quite a bit closer to Bek Stiner, and I think the character stayed with this look during the rest of her comic existence.

It’s hard to determine how much Caniff intended the character to look like any one model because he wasn’t always the greatest portraitist. In an infamous example, TIME magazine wanted to feature him on the cover in 1947, so he drew up a self portrait for the magazine. They didn’t like the result enough, so they got another artist to draw him instead. In later years I think his portrait skills increased when he gave it the time and effort outside his comic strip, such as when he started doing portraits for the Aviation Hall of Fame. He was the sole portrait artist for the organization starting in 1962 until his death in 1988.