I lived in Columbia, Missouri, for over ten years and loved nearly every minute of it.
Columbia is the home of the University of Missouri and the Mizzou Tigers. It also has a surprising amount of comics history. After all, how many cities can boast that one of its high schools has a cartoon character mascot? (Hickman High School’s athletes are known as the Kewpies.)
The folks at the Mid-Missouri Comics Collective (Midmococo) have put up an extensive history of Columbia’s comics connections. Some of the highlights from Midmococo’s page include Mort Walker’s tenure as an MU student, the introduction of Miss Mizzou in Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon strip, and Eclipse Comics moving its headquarters to and from the area. They even mention Comics Career Newsletter.
It’s well worth a visit if you have any interest in the local region. I think the history could be a model for other local comics groups to emulate. We’re getting to a point where some comics history could be lost forever unless interested amateur historians begin documenting it.