We'll Miss You Brenda Starr

So for the past few weeks I have repeatedly mentioned how much I have been enjoying Brenda Starr, blissfully unaware that it was announced in early December that the strip would end January 2nd. (I actually do have a saved google news search for comic strip news. I'm still scratching my head on how it missed this one.)

Brenda Starr, 1/2/2011

And there she goes....walking into the sunrise, quoting Vonnegut. Not quite an "ack" in Mom's living room, eh?

On the one hand, I am not happy to see a strip I enjoyed so much end. On the other, I am glad I never ending up feeling about Brenda Starr the way I do about so many of the zombie strips.

They even slipped in a little shout out to one of my favorite comic strip artists on Saturday, and I sat there wondering why, never thinking to do a couple of quick googles to see what the deal was. Duh!

Brenda Starr, 1/1/2011

Ramona Fradon was the regular penciler on the strip for 15 years, from 1980 to 1995. Ramona was one of the first women to break into comics (back in the 1950s) and did a lot of work for DC comics. Her wikipedia bio seems to be pretty trustworthy.

I have a real weakness for both Dale Messick's (Brenda's creator) and Fradon's style on the strip.

Messick:

A strip from Messick:

Messick has the class golden age serial strip feel that I really learned to love as a kid.

Fradon:

A strip from Fradon:

Fradon is a little more cute and cartoony, but in a great way.

It's popular to make fun of The Super Friends, and I loathed the cartoon even as a kid, but I enjoyed her work on that comic book. Hey layouts and design were both quirky and dynamic, a nice break from the often staid and tedious DC Comics of the day.

But the real charm in Brenda Starr was that it never committed the sin of taking itself too seriously. The older strips are tough to read at times as it was very much a romance strip, but unlike many of the other strips of its day, there were some deliberate laughs in there. The newer strips of the past decade or so have been a real treat for me; as the Huffington Post article I linked to explains, Brenda Starr grew up a bit and started to include some commentary on the evolving news industry.

I'll miss you Brenda Starr. The current creative team seemed to leave the door open to some sort of new incarnation. Here's hoping!