This is my own personal geeky triumph. For YEARS, I collected
Brenda Starr Reporter comic strips. My Grandmother would save the comics section
from the Washington Star for me every weekend. She'd fold them, then
stack them up daily on top of the fridge next to the toaster, for my weekend visits. I was regaled by Brenda's
adventures with her Mystery Man, Basil St. John. The Washington Star folded and I lost
touch with Brenda. As a young adult, I started making trips to the
library. I discovered microfiche!!! Sound ancient? It is. Really. I found
Brenda in the P.G. Journal, then the
Chicago Tribune. What followed was
complete insanity. Every AWS day, every other Tuesday off (Government
speak for: Alternative Work Schedule - a day
off), I would go to the library and
print out a ton of Brendas. It took YEARS to compile everything. But, I
did it. I shrank them down, lined them up, taped them to pages, then
bound them together as spirals. Before I knew it, I had almost all of
Brenda's adventures from 1948 - 1995. The 40s were a little harder to
find, but I got some good stuff!!! I went to a convention. I met
Ramona Fradon who drew Brenda for 15 years and even worked with the
comic goddess herself ---
Dale Messick!!!! Well, I do things
obsessively. I'll binge on creativity. And, I binged on the Dale
Messick/Ramona Fradon years of the Brenda Starr strips I'd collected. I
put them together in cute little spirals, created covers and marketed
them --- to myself!!!! I have four beautiful Brenda Starr volumes.
And, I just wanted to say --- Yahoo!!! At last!!! A dream come
true!!!! (Can't you see how happy I am?)
And, Brenda is still being commemorated.
Effanbee and
Tonner Dolls has an entire line of Brenda dolls. There's a chapter movie in
1945 starring
Joan Woodbury. Then, there's a movie in 1976 with
Jill St. John as our glamorous red head. And then, one in 1986 (though released in 1992) with the beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful Brooke Shields. Plus, the books just keep coming. Brenda paper dolls. Brenda's first have been adventures reprinted: Brenda's
dailies (Even though it skipped stories!!!). And, now ---
Brenda comic books in bondage!!! Shriek! Gasp! Clutch! (Well, not really in bondage. The covers were just re-drawn that way with beautiful new covers of "good girls in bad situations" before the comics codes during the
Jack Kamen Period - pre-comics code.) All I can say is --- bring on more Brenda Starr!!!
And, here's more!!!
