Sunday Funnies: BRENDA STARR

As one of the earliest female cartoonists to ever land a major syndicate deal, Dale Messick was a true pioneer in the field. Just think about it for a minute. We wouldn't have Cathy Guisewite, Marie Severin, Ramona Fradon, or even Kate Beaton if it weren't for Ms. Messick refusing to let herself be shut out of the "boys club" of newspaper cartoonists.

There's probly a better example of a really great Brenda Starr story, but they tend to run long; too long to really be put into a short blog post. But if it's any consolation to y'all, this is the very first story arc, so if you like it, go buy the book already.

by Dale Messick
from BRENDA STARR, REPORTER vol 1 (ISBN: 1-932563-80-6) 2012








The Final Stories Of Brenda
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Rare Hot Stuff

This is one of the rarest of Hot Stuff stories, mainly because it has a brief appearance of his dad, who some say is supposed to be Satan itself. It was probly that allegation that caused Harvey Comics to change Hot Stuff's parental figure to Aunt Clinker, then Grampa Blaze, or other various aunts and uncles.
I can't really say that the Harveys deliberately intended it to be Lucifer, but they must've not wanted parents to assume that, hence the change. Other than the appearance of dad here, it's a fairly typical Hot Stuff short feature.

from HOT STUFF #21, March 1960






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The Baby Sitter (letters to Patsy)

This is from the "Letters To Patsy" series that ran as an occasional backup in the different Patsy Walker titles prior to the "Marvel Age". While it's up for debate whether they at Atlas Comics actually used authentic reader submissions or just made them up in the office, a lot of these are actually readable. They kinda give off that "Andy Griffith Show - Leave It To Beaver" type vibe of old fashioned sitcom morality.

by Al Hartley and *Amy Doren*(??)
from PATSY WALKER #67, November 1956





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The Antics Of Bart Simpson

Adapting other media into comic format is always risky. Luckily, BONGO COMICS is actually owned by the original creators, so not too much gets lost in the translation.

Here's just a small sample that shows how great these comics are. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to say that the Bongo staff understands these characters better than the writers at FOX.

by Ian Boothby, John Delaney, and Dan Davis
from COMIC BOOK GUY #4, 2010




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