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Dale Messick

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Artist

The Resume

    (April 11, 1906-April 5, 2005)
    Birth name was Dalia Messick
    Created the strip ‘Brenda Starr, Reporter'
    Received the National Cartoonists' Society Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award (1997)

Why he might be annoying:

    She changed her name to the gender-ambiguous Dale to avoid a perceived bias against female cartoonists.
    Her first five ideas for strips were rejected by publishers.
    She said, ‘I used to get letters from girl reporters saying their lives were nowhere near as exciting as Brenda's. I told them that if I made Brenda's life like theirs, nobody would read it.'
    She based Brenda's love interest, Basil St. John, on a handsome assistant artist, who she later fired because his lettering was not good enough.

Why he might not be annoying:

    She was the first female cartoonist whose strip was syndicated.
    She never missed a deadline during a 43 year career.
    She based Brenda Starr's appearance on Rita Hayworth.
    When male fans wrote asking for private sketches of Brenda in a more ‘daring' pose, she would send a picture of Brenda in a barrel going over Niagara Falls with a note, ‘Is this daring enough?'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 91.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 12 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 27 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 34 Votes: 55.88% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 59 Votes: 55.93% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 51 Votes: 54.90% Annoying