Although set in Chicago, Brenda Starr, Reporter initially was the only Chicago Tribune Syndicate strip not to appear in the Chicago Tribune newspaper. When the strip debuted June 30, 1940, it was relegated to a comic book supplement that was included with the Sunday Chicago Tribune. Soon the strip appeared in the Sunday paper and a daily strip was added in 1945. During the 1950s, at the height of its popularity, the strip appeared in 250 newspapers. In 2010, the strip appeared in 65 newspapers with 36 being international papers.