Dale Messick (born April 11, 1906) is an American comic strip creator. She is best known as the creator of Brenda Starr.

Dalia Messick was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1906 to a seamstress and commercial artist. She had an interest in writing and drawing since childhood. She studied briefly at the Ray Commercial Art School in Chicago but left to begin a career as a professional artist.

She began working for a Chicago greeting card company and was successful but decided to quit and move to New York City in 1934 to advance her career. She found work at another greeting card company at a higher salary and began assembling a portfolio of comic strips after work. Messick was not the first female comic strip creator; Nel Brinkley, Gladys Parker, and Edwina Dumm had all achieved success in the field. But there was still a bias against women and Messick decided to change her first name to Dale to help get her work seen by editors. She produced a number of ideas for strips with titles such as Weegee, Mimi the Mermaid, Peg and Pudy, the Struglettes, and Streamline Babies, none of which were picked up for publication.

Messick created the character of Brenda Starr in 1940. Messick wanted to produce a strip with a female protagonist; she decided a career as a reporter would allow her character to travel and have adventures. Starr's appearance was inspired by Rita Hayworth.

In 1940, the Chicago Tribune-New York News syndicate had decided to expand their comic strip section and was seeking new submissions. Messick submitted her new strip and it was accepted. Brenda Starr, Reporter made its debut on June 30, 1940 and was quickly a success. The escapist mixture of adventure and romance was popular with both male and female readers.

Messick went on to create a number of other comic strips but none achieved the success of Brenda Starr. The only other strip which she worked on which is generally remembered was Perry Mason which she illustrated.

Messick retired from producing Brenda Starr in 1980. Ramona Fradon (artist) and Linda Sutter (writer) took over the strip from 1980 to 1985. June Brigman (artist) and Mary Schmich (writer) have done the strip from 1985 to the present.

Messick was married and divorced twice. Following her retirement from Brenda Starr, she moved to Oakmont, California to be near her daughter and grandchildren. She continues to work and has created a new strip, Granny Glamour, which runs in Oakmont Gardens Magazine, a local weekly magazine. In 1995, Brenda Starr was one of twenty comic strips honored by a series of United States postage stamps; Messick was the only living creator.