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Brenda Starr

Brenda Starr is a comic strip about a glamorous, adventurous reporter. Created by Dale Messick for the Chicago Tribune syndicate, it initially encountered resistance from Tribune editor Joseph Medill Patterson because its creator and main character were both women. Although set in Chicago, in its early years it was the only syndicate strip not to appear in the Tribune itself. The strip was relegated to a supplement, but quickly worked its way into the Sunday paper. A daily strip was added in 1945.

The strip debuted on June 30, 1940, syndicated by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. Messick retired in 1980, succeeded only by women, first by Ramona Fradon. When Ramona Fradon retired in 1995, she was followed by Linda Sutter, and June Brigman.

Brenda has always been a modern woman, noted for her exotic adventures and steamy romances. Messick and the other artists concentrated on keeping Brenda contemporary in clothing and hairstyles.

Before Messick retired, Brenda finally married the mysterious Basil St. John, whose eyepatch and black orchid serum have been a regular plot element. Brenda had Basil's baby, shortly thereafter. It was a girl named Starr Twinkle St. John.

Later, Brenda and Basil divorce. Then they would meet again, and sparks will fly. During one of Basil's reappearances, Brenda discovered Basil had a son, named Sage, with the talk show host, Wanda Fonda. That marriage also ended in divorce. Brenda and Wanda are today good friends.

Since then, Brenda has been kicked upstairs from a reporter to becoming the Editor. Basil continued to be missing, until his sensational reappearance in 2008 during one of Brenda's many adventures. Occasionally their grown daughter makes appearances in her adventures.

In the summer and fall of 2008, Brenda and Sage are having a major adventure in the fictitious central Asian nation of Kazookistan, looking for Basil. Father and son are briefly and emotionally reunited - then Sage is kidnapped. Brenda remains unconscious. When she wakes up, Basil confesses that Sage is missing. Meanwhile, Sage has escaped from captivity with the help of his Kazooki friend, Miella, a girl his age who loves to read Nancy Drew. Brenda persuades Basil to stop wallowing in guilt, and the two former spouses ride forth on horses to look for the missing teenager. Sage, meanwhile, has escaped from his original captor, but only to fall into the hands of a worse villain. Brenda, Basil, Sage and Miella are reunited - alive and free, but without a sacred treasure that the villain has appropriated. Dropping off Miella (much to her disappointment) at her village, the other three pursue the treasure to London.

The strip's current writer is Mary Schmich, who is herself a Chicago reporter and columnist at the Tribune. The strip often lampoons newspapers, with inexperienced reporters and corporate newspaper owners frequent targets, and it is a favorite of people working in the newspaper industry, particularly reporters.

There have been three film versions of the strip: Brenda Starr, Reporter, a 1945 serial with Joan Woodbury, a 1976 TV movie with Jill St. John, and a 1989 Brenda Starr (film) with Brooke Shields and Timothy Dalton. The latter version, which was not released in the US until 1992 due to lengthy litigation over distribution rights, was a notorious critical and commercial failure.

USA, 1995, Brenda Starr