Dalia "Dale" Messick (April 11, 1906 – April 5, 2005) was the first woman syndicated comic strip artist in the United States. Events 491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 456 - St Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Print syndication is a form of syndication in which News articles columns, or Comic strips are made available to Newspapers, Magazines A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist She was best known as the creator of Brenda Starr, which at its peak in the 1950s ran in 250 newspapers. Brenda Starr is a Comic strip about a glamorous adventurous Reporter. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive
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Biography
Dale Messick was born on April 11, 1906 in South Bend, Indiana to a seamstress and commercial artist. Events 491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting South Bend is a city on the St Joseph river and a twin city of Mishawaka Indiana. Sewing or stitching is the fastening of Cloth, Leather, Furs Bark, or other flexible materials using needle and She had an interest in writing and drawing since childhood. She studied briefly at the Ray Commercial Art School in Chicago but left to begin a career as a professional artist. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States.
She began working for a Chicago greeting card company and was successful but quit when her boss lowered her pay during the Great Depression. She moved to New York City and found work at another greeting card company at a higher salary, and began assembling a portfolio of comic strips after work. The City of New York
Messick was not the first female comic strip creator; Nel Brinkley, Gladys Parker, and Edwina Dumm had all achieved success in the field. Edwina Dumm was a comic strip artist whose work included Cap Stubbs and Tippie. But there was still a bias against women and Messick decided to change her first name to Dale to help get her work seen by editors. She produced a number of ideas for strips with titles such as Weegee, Mimi the Mermaid, Peg and Pudy, the Struglettes, and Streamline Babies, none of which were picked up for publication.
Brenda Starr
Messick created the character of Brenda Starr in 1940, naming it after a debutante from the 1930s and basing her appearance on Rita Hayworth. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A debutante ( deb or presentation ball (from the French débutante, "female beginner" is a young lady from an aristocratic or The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. Rita Hayworth (October 17 1918 &ndash May 14 1987 born Margarita Carmen Cansino was a Spanish-American actress who rose to stardom in the 1940s as the era's leading Sex symbol Messick wanted to produce a strip with a female protagonist; she decided a career as a reporter would allow her character to travel and have adventures, adventures more glamorous than those actually experienced by most reporters. She later commented on this in a 1986 article about her in the San Francisco Chronicle:
- I used to get letters from girl reporters saying that their lives were nowhere near as exciting as Brenda's. The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H I told them that if I made Brenda's life like theirs, nobody would read it.
Her break came when she came to the attention of another woman, Mollie Slott, who worked as a "girl Friday" (à la His Girl Friday) for New York Daily News publisher (and syndicate head) Joseph Medill Patterson. Mollie Slott ( April 19, 1893 - January 24, 1967) kept the Chicago Tribune - New York Daily News Syndicate running in its mid-century glory days His Girl Friday is a Screwball comedy, a Remake of the 1931 film The Front Page, itself an adaptation by Charles The Daily News of New York City is the fifth most-widely circulated daily Newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 703137 Joseph Medill Patterson ( January 6, 1879 &ndash May 26, 1946) was an American Journalist and Publisher, grandson of publisher Patterson, reputedly biased against women cartoonists, wouldn't sign her up for daily publication in the News, but he accepted Brenda Starr, Reporter for syndication as a Sunday comic, and it made its debut on June 30, 1940. It was quickly a success; its mixture of adventure and romance was popular with both male and female readers.
Messick went on to create a number of other comic strips but none achieved the success of Brenda Starr. The only other strip which she worked on which is generally remembered was Perry Mason which she illustrated. Perry Mason is a fictional character a defense Attorney who originally was the main character in numerous pieces of Detective fiction authored by
Messick retired from producing Brenda Starr in 1980. Ramona Fradon (artist) and Linda Sutter (writer) took over the strip from 1980 to 1985. June Brigman (artist) and Mary Schmich (writer) have done the strip from 1985 to the present. Messick wasn't impressed with her successors' versions of Starr, according to a 1998 quote in the Sonoma County Independent:
- Now it doesn't look like Brenda at all. She looks more like she works at a bank. No glamour, no curves, no fashion — but it's still going pretty good.
Following her retirement from Brenda Starr, she moved to Oakmont, California to be near her daughter and grandchildren. She continued to work and created a new strip, Granny Glamour, which ran in Oakmont Gardens Magazine, a local weekly magazine. It ended after she had a stroke in 1998 and couldn't draw any more.
Recognition
In 1995, Brenda Starr was one of twenty comic strips honored by a series of United States postage stamps; Messick was the only living creator. A postage stamp is an adhesive paper evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services
She received the National Cartoonists Society's Story Comic Book Award for 1975 and their Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 for her work on Brenda Starr. The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional Cartoonists It presents the Reuben Awards. Milton Arthur Paul Caniff ( February 28, 1907 - April 3, 1988) was an American Cartoonist famous for the Terry
External links and sources
- Obituary from the Editor & Publisher website
- Dale Messick: A Comic Strip Life, a July 2000 article about Messick from Animation World Magazine
- Starr Gazer, a February 1998 article (with photo) about Messick from the Sonoma County Independent
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