Nell Brinkley – the “Queen of Comics”
Nell is standing in the doorway with an envelope in her hand. It is 1907 and she is wearing a hat and coat in the style of that era.
PANEL 2
We can see over her shoulder as she holds the letter from the envelope. Its salutation reads:
“Dear Ms. Brinkley,”
PANEL 3
CLOSE ON Nell’s face as she reads with a loom of surprise.
NELL
Oh my! It’s from William Randoph Hearst. He wants me to move to New York to draw for his paper!
And so it started. Nell Brinkley’s career was about to take off, and she had no idea how quickly her star would rise. Her star sill shines, although it has dimmed somewhat over the years. Stars, the really bright ones, never fade.
The thing was, Nell wasn’t a stranger to being published as an illustrator. For a few years before receiving the offer from Hearts to draw for the Journal, she had been a contributing illustrator to the Denver Post. It was an exciting time for a young woman at the beginning of her twenties.
Nell quickly became known for the Brinkley Girls – independent, feminine, curly-haired, working women who loved fashion and lacy dresses. In 1908 her young, brash women were recognized by The Ziegfeld Follies. They were chosen as the theme and were the subjects of a handful of songs, including “The Nell Brinkley Girl.”
As a result, young women were obsessed with mimicking the “Brinkley Girl” style and often collected her illustrations for future inspirations. Early on, one of her subjects was actress Ethel Barrymore (the great aunt of actress Drew Barrymore!).
Suppose one thinks that Nell was content to spend her time hunched over with pencil and inks in hand. In that case, you may be thrilled to know that she lent her time to War Bond efforts during WWI and accompanied the famous aviator, Glen Martin, in one of his biplanes. Martin would build an airplane factory and appear as a pilot in 1915’s A Girl of Yesterday, starring the great Mary Pickford.
Nell died on October 21, 1944, and seventy-six years later, in 2020, she would be inducted into the Eisner Aware Hall of Fame. A true pioneer often hailed as the “Queen of Comics.”
Some of Nell’s series includes a heroine known as Golden Eyes. She appeared in a series of illustrations that ran for a year starting in 1918 called Golden Eyes and Her Hero, Bill. Poor Bill was eventually dropped from the title as it was Golden Eyes who drew in the fans.
Other notable characters include “Jungle Queen” and a Red Cross worker named Rosetta Millington. Rosie tossed away her lace to don the disguise of a man to join the Spanish Foreign Legion.
In one genuinely prescient illustration, Nell left us with a young girl fantasizing about the fashions of yesteryear…
Nell Brinkley (September 5, 1886 – October 21, 1944)