Facts about Brenda Starr
Brenda Starr Biography
The comic strip Brenda Starr “had the working woman theme of Winnie Winkle, the soap opera style of The Gumps [and] the exotic adventure of Terry and the Pirates,” according to Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.
Brenda Starr first appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1940, the creation of cartoonist Dale Messick.
A high-octane redhead, Starr was a globetrotting reporter with a nose for adventure. The strip was an immediate hit and continued on in syndication into the 21st century.
In later years it was written by Chicago journalist Mary Schmich and drawn by June Brigman. Late in 2010, Tribune Media Services announced that the strip would end publication in January of 2011.
Extra credit
Brenda Starr was one of 20 cartoons featured on U.S. postage stamps in 1995. Others included The Yellow Kid (by R.F. Outcault), Terry and the Pirates (by Milton Caniff) and Little Nemo in Slumberland (by Winsor McCay)… A Brenda Starr movie was filmed in 1986, with actress Brooke Shields as Starr and Timothy Dalton as her dashing paramour Basil St. John. Alas, the film was widely regarded as a flop.