Well, this is news to me:

Since the late 1980s, the [Special Collections division of the University of Missouri-Columbia Libraries] has been involved in building a collection of cartoon and comic art that’s used by scholars, students and comic enthusiasts of all ages. The Comic Art Collection, which includes original comic strip art, animation cells, printed comic strips and books about cartooning and graphic novels, originated from a number of MU alumni, faculty and library staff members.

V. T. Hamlin, creator of Alley Oop and Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois, are MU alums. Art Stack, an underground cartoonist perhaps most famous recently for his work on Harvey Pekar’s Our Cancer Year, was on faculty in the MU art department.