DivaLea: Dale Messick, RIP

Seen first at the always-doughty The Beat, Dale Messick, creator of Brenda Starr, has died. (That link is a NY Times one, and may require a bugmenot.com username and password.)

I can't say how well-known Messick is to cartoonists of either gender today, but I knew of her from when I was 12, and saw her in People Magazine. Until then, I didn't know girls could be cartoonists, even though I wanted to be one. The papers and few comic books I got were full of nothing of strips drawn by men, and featured mostly male characters. This was before the debut of Lynn Johnston's "For Better or for Worse", or "Six Chix", never mind Nicole Hollander's "Sylvia". "Cathy" was about to debut in The Dallas Morning News, but being a tweenie, the anxiety- and diet-ridden career girl Cathy said nothing to me.

And there was Dale Messick in People, glamorous as hell, and a cartoonist most of her life. If she could do it, I thought, it could be done again. Of course, she did change her name to "Dale" to fight editorial prejudice. In Trina Robbins' "The Great Women Cartoonists", Messick told of being passed over for at least one job in favor of a man.

The NY Times is snarky in a way I don't recall it being snarky when Will Eisner's death was reported, and it makes me wonder: can a female cartoonist not even get respect when she's dead? But that's an entry, perhaps, for another time. I'm going to take the day to remember that discovering Messick set me on a path I didn't even know was mine to walk: of being a girl adventurer in cartoons.

R.I.P.