Dale Messick

Dale Messick was the creator and longtime artist of the newspaper strip *Brenda Starr, Reporter*, a glamorous adventure serial that at its peak in the 1950s appeared in 250 papers. She was born Dalia Messick on April 11, 1906, and died on April 5, 2005. After early work in greeting cards and advertising, she broke into comics in the late 1930s, eventually convincing the Chicago Tribune Syndicate to launch *Brenda Starr* in 1940. The strip’s red-headed, independent heroine—a rarity in a field dominated by male leads—became a cultural touchstone. Messick wrote and drew the feature for decades, with her crisp, expressive linework and sense of fashion defining the strip’s look. She collaborated with various assistants over the years but remained the strip’s primary creative force. Beyond *Brenda Starr*, her credits include work on *Thrilling Adventure Strips* and several collected editions. She received the National Cartoonists Society’s Silver T-Square Award and was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Messick’s legacy is that of a pioneering woman cartoonist who created one of the most enduring heroines in American comics.