I’ll confess that Brenda Starr was not my favorite comic strip in the Akron Beacon Journal while I was growing up; back then I found Dale Messick’s art more than a little disturbing. Usually this is where I say how foolish I was back when I was a kid but frankly I still find Dale Messick’s art a little disturbing, in a good way of course. It’s also absolutely individual and idiosyncratic; Dale Messick’s art on Brenda Starr is like nothing else — as you’ll see for yourself in adventures reprinted from a 1948 Brenda Starr comic book. On the cover she’s declared “America’s Favorite Newspaper Comic Strip”, which is demonstratively untrue and inside the text claims Brenda to be “the most beautiful girl in comics”, which is entirely subjective. But also untrue.