By Aaron Milavec
When Milton Caniff learned of the work being done by Mike Stimac in Africa, he was intrigued and inspired. Only once did he meet Mike, thanks to the connections of his chief promoter and fund raiser[1], Jane Hamilton, a woman who was an explorer and adventurer in her own right.[2] She took a personal interest in Wings for Progress, received ten hours of flight training from Mike Stimac, passed her flight test, and then went to Kenya to experience first-hand the daring feats Mike Stimac who, with his “can do” orientation, was moving people and supplies between the missionary outposts scattered in eastern Africa.
Steve Canyon was an easygoing adventurer with a soft heart. Originally a veteran running his own air-transport business, the character returned to the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Caniff was intensely patriotic, and he used the story of a fictitious trouble-shooter in the Air Force as a way to alert his readers to Cold War intrigue and the hazards faced by American citizens in developing countries.
You might be asking yourself why Caniff would introduce a real person, Mike Stimac, and a real organization, UMATT, into his comic stories. In effect, Caniff’s characters were products of his own imagination. Caniff was famous for inventing colorful villains and intriguing female characters, such as Madame Lynx and the lovely exiled ruler, Princess Snowflower. These characters, however, were not purely imaginative. Madame Lynx, for example, was based on Madame Egelichi, the femme fatale spy played by actress Ilona Massey in the Marx Brothers movie Love Happy (1949). This character stirred Caniff’s imagination so much that he hired Ilona Massey herself to personally pose for him in his studio so that his comic strip would successful evoke her likeness. Besides casting Ilona Massey as Lynx, Caniff patterned Pipper the Piper after John Kennedy, and Miss Mizzou after either Marilyn Monroe or actress Bek Nelson-Gordon. The character of Charlie Vanilla (who would frequently be drawn with an ice cream cone in hand) was based on Caniff’s longtime friend Charles Russhon. In sum, for the millions of readers of the comic strips syndicated across the United States, it was no surprise that a real person, Mike Stimac, and a real organization, UMATT, would enter into his comic stories.
In this Appendix, you will have the opportunity to explore the artistry and imagination of Milton Caniff as he weaves into the life of Steve Canon comics an adventure in Africa. In the opening story, Poteet Canyon, a feisty cub reporter for the High City Herald, takes a personal interest in Henry M. Rize, a local industrialist who is reported missing in a fictitious rebel takeover somewhere in Africa. Her boss has assigned her to write the society column (the “tea-party beat”). She tries to persuade him to assign her to go to Africa and ferret out the truth about Mr. Rize. She explains that she knows a bush pilot who would be able to ferry her around. The bush pilot is named, Bitsy Beekman, and she is identified as flying planes as a relief pilot with “Wings for Progress” during her summer vacations. “Wings for Progress,” as you may know, is the official name for UMATT in Kenya.[3]
Caniff Inserts UMATT into his Sunday Comic Strip
Caniff knows full well that UMATT would be unintelligible to his readers so he uses “Wings for Progress” instead and characterizes them as “flying Peace Corps people” and “mercy-flight people.” Here’s a key frame in the second comic strip:
This frame is filled with amazing information:
- To the left, you see a small table with four persons are in the process discussing an urgent situation. To the right, you see the UMATT logo (the white peace dove). In Kenya, “the flying Peace Corps people” are legally registered as “Wings for Progress.” In the USA, the legal name is UMATT (United Missionary Aviation Training and Transport). Caniff gets all the details right here.
- Behind them is the first of the four UMATT planes, a Super Cub (Cessna 206) parked at the end of their make-shift runway. In fact the Super Cub was orange with a white underbelly and wings.
- Person #1 is a woman with her hair covered. This woman has the distinct profile of Sister Michael Therese Ryan aka “the Flying Nun.” The headdress and blouse should be “white.” But, in the shade, Caniff rightly needs to display the whites as grays.
- Person #2, who is holding a clipboard, is Bill Saint Andre, a U.S. Navy pilot who was the first volunteer pilot.
- The man leaning over the table and speaking is none other than “Mike Stimac.” Remember that Caniff has seen Mike. My hunch is that Mike’s profile was taken right from this photo [shown left] that was supplied to Caniff for background info. Notice that Mike’s right shoulder comes down directly from the peak of his chin in both depictions. The haircut in both pictures can also be seen as identical.
- Person #4 has either a deep tan or, then again, he may have black skin. Can it be that one of the team was an African? This is none other than Shadrach Sainepu, a tall Masai warrior who received his flight training from Mike Stimac. When Wings for Progress was formed, Shadrach accepted an invitation to join the team of pilots. He was considered an “ace pilot” by the group and always took “the most treacherous assignments.”[4] Caniff demonstrates here again his attention to details.