Wednesday, September 3, 2014

29 Faces #3 Binky Starr, Brenda Starr, Reporter's Sister (Play along with me here)

After I finished drawing this face, it kind of reminded me of one of the first female cartoon characters I thought was so cool when I was a girl: Brenda Star, Reporter. So I did  a little research and copied the following quote from Wikipedia concerning one of the first inroads for a female cartoonist. It wasn't easy back then for women doing art in a male dominated profession but this one persevered:
     "A greeting card illustrator for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Dale Messick created Brenda Starr, Reporter following the rejection of a female pirate-based comic strip that she had previously submitted.[5] The character name, Brenda Starr, was based on Brenda Frazier, a debutante of the 1930s, while her appearance was based on the movie actress Rita Hayworth.[5] The strip initially encountered resistance from Tribune editor Joseph Medill Patterson because its creator was a woman.[2] After the strip was established, other instances of resistance were reported. "Whenever Ms. Messick drew in cleavage or a navel, the syndicate would erase it. She was once banned in Boston after showing Brenda smoking a polka-dot cigar.""[6]

2 comments:

  1. Another nice face. I read Brenda Starr Reported comic strip as a kid and I always assumed the creator was a man. Dale can be a male or female name. Interesting. :)

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  2. Thank you! I, too, read it when I was a kid and couldn't get enough of a strip devoted to the female slant. I thought it was by a male too! I checked out your Cotton Picker blog and was tickled to find your vegan recipes. I'm not one yet but I'm heading that way and have been collecting recipes on Pinterest.

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