[Quirky Quokka]

I'd heard about Brenda Starr comics before and wanted to read them, so was pleased to find this one-shot. It's different than I thought it would be. As she's a star reporter, I expected some investigative journalism to happen, but it was more of a lovelorn romance with Brenda wearing one fabulous gown and hairdo after another. Still, I enjoyed it for the nostalgia value and I liked the retro art.

Link to the book: Brenda Starr 1

[Robb_K]

Clearly this comic book was NOT an adaption formatting of reprinted stories from the newspaper comic strip,  to comic book format.  These were completely new stories drawn especially for a comic book series.  The artwork looks nothing like that of the newspaper strip, and the stories are nothing like the strip's stories.

[The Australian Panther]

Clearly this comic book was NOT an adaption formatting of reprinted stories from the newspaper comic strip,  to comic book format.

True, but the next comment? 

The artwork looks nothing like that of the newspaper strip, and the stories are nothing like the strip's stories.,

Quite mystified by this comment.
Brenda Starr was created by Dale Messick  who drew the strip from June 30, 1940 to 1980, when she wrote it and the art was done by Ramona Fradon till 1982. It was then continued for a while by others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Starr,_Reporter
The cover is clearly Dale Messick, her style is unmistakable. and the inside story is signed by Dale.
The story feathers all the regular characters and centers on Basil St John, Brenda's constant love interest. Nothing here that departs from the regular elements of the strip. 
Dale, it seems to me was reveling jn the opportunity to escape from the space limitations of a daily strip and show what she could do. .
The cover and the 3/4  panel on the last page are spectacular.   
   

[Robb_K]

Clearly this comic book was NOT an adaption formatting of reprinted stories from the newspaper comic strip,  to comic book format.

True, but the next comment? 

The artwork looks nothing like that of the newspaper strip, and the stories are nothing like the strip's stories.,

Quite mystified by this comment.
Brenda Starr was created by Dale Messick  who drew the strip from June 30, 1940 to 1980, when she wrote it and the art was done by Ramona Fradon till 1982. It was then continued for a while by others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Starr,_Reporter
The cover is clearly Dale Messick, her style is unmistakable. and the inside story is signed by Dale.
The story feathers all the regular characters and centers on Basil St John, Brenda's constant love interest. Nothing here that departs from the regular elements of the strip. 
Dale, it seems to me was reveling jn the opportunity to escape from the space limitations of a daily strip and show what she could do. .
The cover and the 3/4  panel on the last page are spectacular.   

Sorry.  I should have stated that the artwork doesn't look like that of the strip in the late '40s and early '50s, as I remember it.  The larger format gives the panels a lot of airy room, which the newspaper strip didn't have.  The comic book art seems to have a more streamlined, less detailed style than the late '40s-early '50s style (maybe that just shows up that way due to the larger size?).  As far as the stories, I was only going by the first story, which had very little about her journalism work.  But, I haven't seen any Brenda Starr newspaper strips since about 1955.  So maybe it was totally just the size difference that gives a completely different impression of similar art?

[SuperScrounge]

Brenda Starr was created by Dale Messick  who drew the strip from June 30, 1940 to 1980

Technically... she did use assistants though. Mike Grell who assisted on the strip before he went to work for DC in the early '70s says he drew almost everything except the heads which Dale drew. Not sure when she began relying more and more on her assistants though.

[The Australian Panther]

Technically... she did use assistants though.

Yes, I was aware of that.
Mike Grell? He would have been a good choice as there are elements of his art which i think would adapt well to Dale's style.
When did she start using assistants and why?
Well she wrote the the strip for 40 years, which must be some kind of record, so she likely got tired of  the drawing. Quite a  lot of the regular strip artists used assistants at one time or another.
Some of it known and some of it unknown.
Cheers.     

[SuperScrounge]

Her Lambiek entry has a list.

Late '40s is the earliest date for an assistant.

[dwilt]

If you look at Brenda Starr 13 which apparently reprints 1940s strips, you'll see Messick's earlier art style was not as assured or flamboyant as her later work.  So give her credit for evolving (or maybe it was the assistants!).

[The Australian Panther]

I would like to see her Perry Mason!

[Quirky Quokka]

Thanks you for all those comments everyone. I have only just discovered them. When I posted my first comment, I had only seen the 1963 comic. I've since found the 1947 one under the Ajax-Farrell group, and I liked that one better. It seemed to be a complete comic rather than a reproduction of comic strips. I had heard about Brenda Starr before but had never read one of her comics, and the 1947 one was more what I was expecting. The 1963 one was a bit too lovelorn for my tastes and I felt it devalued her role as a reporter.