Brenda Starr

According to Don Markstein's Toonopedia, the comic strip Brenda Starr "had the working woman theme of Winnie Winkle, the soap opera style of The Gumps [and] the exotic adventure of Terry and the Pirates." Brenda Starr first appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1940, the creation of cartoonist Dale Messick. A high-octane redhead, Starr was a globetrotting reporter with a nose for adventure. The strip was an immediate hit and continues on in syndication today, most recently written by Mary Schmich and drawn by June Brigman.

Extra credit: Brenda Starr was one of 20 cartoons featured on U.S. postage stamps in 1995. Others included The Yellow Kid (by R.F. Outcault), Terry and the Pirates (by Milton Caniff) and Little Nemo in Slumberland (by Winsor McCay)... A Brenda Starr movie was filmed in 1986, with actress Brooke Shields as Starr and Timothy Dalton as her dashing paramour Basil St. John.