Michelin also edited road maps and built milestones to help early time drivers find there way on the roads !

They did not start it for the reason in the comic. That is a complete fabrication.

It was an internal list of restaurants to wine and dine fine clients, and it was a massive success and many people who wanted to know where to take their own clients kept trying to find out about the Michelin list

I always knew because my parents had this book with the tire guy on it:

I don't remember if it mentioned restaurants in it as well, but the association with them and travel guides made the connection for me, I guess.

Nah, originally it was just a complementary map for those who bought tires. They ended up just being the most reputable reviewer with their star system that it became a prestige thing afterwards.

I mean, when you're a tire company and not a lot of people have cars or good reasons to put lots of miles on them...