More On the Passing of Dale Messick



It was publicly announced through an Associated Press client yesterday that Dalia "Dale" Messick had recently passed away in California, where she had been under the care of her daughter. Messick was known as the creator of Brenda Starr, the long-time adventure and romance strip still in syndication today helmed by Mary Schmich (a columnist best known for the fake Vonnegut sunscreen graduation speech) and June Brigman (a former Marvel cartoonist who was recently recruited to one of the many announced graphic novel book lines based on her chops). Messick began Starr in 1940.

A native of Indiana, Messick always came across in the press as smart and charming, and my estimation is that on top of the skill she brought to the page -- I liked the quirky, old-school exaggeration of the designs -- her strip enjoyed a certain amount of added status for the hook of its creator's gender and her graciousness in embracing her role as a female creator in a mostly male field. Although she's often credited as a pioneer, I think of her as more of a great achiever rather than someone who led where others followed: she had predecessors in the newspapers generally, and no female creator to my memory really followed her unique career path. If the good-natured ribbing she received when accepting the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement award in 1997 from the National Cartoonist Society was any indication, Messick was also very well-liked by her peers.



At its height Brenda Starr had 250 clients, a credible but not staggering number, although the economics of strips in the 1950s meant Messick was probably afforded a very good living -- enough to have assistants, including future comic book stalwart Mike Grell. Recent articles indicate she stopped drawing Brenda Starr in 1979, and stopped working on the strip in any capacity in 1985. Starr was among those classic comics characters included in a 1990s stamp offering by the U.S. Postal Service, and was enough of an icon that a movie version starring Brooke Shields made sense at least to the film's makers. Messick reportedly didn't care for the film which if I remember correctly was delayed for years. My hunch is that like the film version of The Phantom such a movie could be counted on to have some appeal in overseas markets, but I could be completely wrong about that. There was a movie serial early on, crossover promotions like the picture above, a hardback collection I've seen, and I think what looks like a series of paperback books in Britain that pop up on an image search.

Because of her place as the only female cartoonist to come out of the adventure strip glory years and survive well into the gag-strip era, Messick was the subject of numerous profiles and interviews. Her place in comics history should be secure. Messick's obituary ran in the New York Times as well as on yesterday's wire. She was described by Lambiek, remembered by Mark Evanier and Lea Hernandez, profiled extensively in various media sources, had her importance related to readers by Trina Robbins, and saw her character described at both Answers.com and by Don Markstein.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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