Milton Caniff, 1950
(Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series of profiles of life-long Buckeyes who have had a notable impact on the University. In other words, they bleed scarlet and gray.)
We’ve been talking lately about football season, and Homecoming, especially, which for alumni is always a great time to reconnect with other former students. One of OSU’s more famous alumni – and one of its most loyal – is Milton Caniff, sometimes known as the “Rembrandt of the comic strip.”
Caniff was born in 1907 in Hillsboro, Ohio, and he began drawing cartoons in grade school. One of his first professional jobs was at the Dayton Journal Herald. As an undergraduate at
Caniff in the Scarlet Mask show "Beau Kay", 1927
Ohio State he served as art director of the Makio and the Sun Dial, also creating football program covers and working as a cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch. These projects also helped to fund his education. Caniff was also a member of Sigma Chi, president of Strollers, and vice president of Scarlet Mask, a male acting troupe at OSU. He graduated in 1930 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. He later wrote that, “In my five years [at OSU], I have run up a debt I will never liquidate. But I shall try, even though there can be no price tag on brain surgery from within.”
Caniff went on to become a world-renowned cartoonist. He is most famous for his two comic 
strips, “Terry and the Pirates,” and “Steve Canyon.” Caniff later said that he took inspiration for many of his “Terry” characters from real people he met at OSU, including his good friend Frank “Dude” Hennick (OSU class of 1925), who inspired the character of Capt. Dude Higgs. In 1947, Caniff launched “Steve Canyon,” a serial cartoon about an Air Force pilot for hire that was so popular, it spawned a short-lived television series in the late 1950s. Canyon wrote the strip for more than 40 years.
At the August 1974 Commencement, Caniff was awarded an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters and gave the Commencement address. Milton Caniff died on Easter Sunday in 1988 at the age of 81. He donated much of his work to the School of Journalism. His papers and artwork became one of the founding collections of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, named for Caniff’s good friend and fellow Columbus Dispatch cartoonist.
Filed by C.N.
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