Press Release
Brenda Starr is back! Brenda Starr, the world’s most famous fictional reporter and a role model to scores of aspiring female journalists, whose run in syndicated newspapers officially ended on January 2, 2011, is available again, now in a deluxe full color hardcover book from Hermes Press.
Created by Dale Messick, one of the first women to draw a syndicated newspaper strip, Brenda Starr successfully mixed romance, fashion, and adventure into one of the longest running features in newspaper history.
Brenda Starr made her first appearance in a Sunday newspaper strip on June 30, 1940, and soon became one of the most recognizable comic strip characters in the world. Her exploits have been translated into movie serials, comic books, dolls, a feature length film, and even a United States postage stamp.
Hermes Press’ new book, Brenda Starr, Reporter: The Collected Dailies and Sundays: 1940 – 1946, starts at the beginning of the strip and for the first time ever presents the first year of full color Sundays. Also included in this exhaustive survey of the strip is one of the most famous film noir-esque continuities of the feature from 1944, reproduced entirely from the original pen and ink artwork. The volume finishes with the complete “Man of Mystery” storyline which introduces Brenda Starr’s love interest, Basil St. John. In addition to the comic strips presented in the book, world renowned feminist comics historian, Trina Robbins, has written an extensive essay placing the Brenda Starr strip in historical context. The book also features remembrances by Brenda Starr creator Dale Messick’s daughter Starr, as well as her granddaughter Laura Rohrman.
Brenda Starr Reporter: The Collected Dailies and Sundays: 1940 – 1946 also presents historical and documentary materials as well as numerous examples of Dale Messick’s original artwork accompanied by commentary by one of Messick’s assistants, Richard Pietrzyk. Available in bookstores everywhere and on Amazon.com.
