Dale Messick - Other Strips

Other Strips

Messick went on to create a number of other comic strips, but none achieved the success of Brenda Starr. The only other strip which she worked on which is generally remembered was Perry Mason, which she illustrated.

On April 24, 1955, she appeared on What's My Line? After the panel correctly identified her as a comic strip artist, they were given a full description of her real name, professional name and job as "illustrator" of Brenda Starr.

Messick retired from producing Brenda Starr in 1980. Ramona Fradon (artist) and Linda Sutter (writer) took over the strip from 1980 to 1995. June Brigman (artist) and Mary Schmich (writer) have done the strip from 1995 to the present. Messick wasn't impressed with her successors' versions of Starr, according to a 1998 quote in the Sonoma County Independent: "Now it doesn't look like Brenda at all. She looks more like she works at a bank. No glamour, no curves, no fashion — but it's still going pretty good."

Following her retirement from Brenda Starr, Messick moved to Oakmont, California, to be near her daughter and grandchildren. She continued to work and created a new strip, Granny Glamour, which ran in Oakmont Gardens Magazine, a local weekly magazine. It ended after she had a stroke in 1998 and couldn't draw any more.