Connie was an American adventure comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 created by the cartoonist Frank Godwin

Frank Godwin

Francis Godwin , better known as Frank Godwin, was an American illustrator and comic strip artist, notable for his strip Connie and his book illustrations for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood and King Arthur...

, who introduced a book illustration style to the comics page

Sunday comics

Sunday comics is the commonly accepted term for the full-color comic strip section carried in most American newspapers. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies....

. The strip ran from 1927 to 1944 for the Ledger Syndicate. Connie debuted as a Sunday page

Sunday strip

A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...

 on November 13, 1927.

Characters and story

The strip evolved as Connie Kurridge went through various situations and occupations, including aviator, stunt pilot, charity worker, reporter and detective. Villains were fooled by her beauty and underestimated her agility and resourcefulness. Comics historian Don Markstein

Don Markstein's Toonopedia

Don Markstein's Toonopedia was a web encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation. Don D...

 commented:

When Connie's daily strip

Daily strip

A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....

 began, on May 13, 1929, she became "flighty" in a different sense. There, she was played as an adventuring aviator, and the strips her series fit right in with included Tailspin Tommy

Tailspin Tommy

Tailspin Tommy was an air adventure comic strip about a youthful pilot, "Tailspin" Tommy Tompkins. Originally illustrated by Hal Forrest and initially distributed by John Wheeler's Bell Syndicate and then by United Feature Syndicate, the strip had a 14-year run from 1928 to 1942.In the wake of...

, Skyroads

Skyroads (comics)

Skyroads, a serialized aviation-based comic strip, was published from 1929 to 1942.After Charles Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, aviation became the focus of several comic strips. Tailspin Tommy was the first, but it was soon followed by others, including Skyroads.Skyroads was created...

and the early Brick Bradford

Brick Bradford

Brick Bradford was a science fiction comic strip created by writer William Ritt, a journalist based in Cleveland, and artist Clarence Gray. It was first distributed in 1933 by Central Press Association, a subsidiary of King Features Syndicate....

—except, of course, for her gender. Connie was the first female adventure hero in American comics, the precursor to Brenda Starr

Brenda Starr (comic strip)

Brenda Starr, Reporter was a comic strip about a glamorous, adventurous female reporter. It was created in 1940 by Dale Messick for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate....

, Deathless Deer, Modesty Blaise

Modesty Blaise

Modesty Blaise is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows the adventures of Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talents and a criminal past, and her trusty sidekick Willie Garvin...

and all the rest. Connie (last name Kurridge—sounds like "courage", get it?) was deceptively pretty, tho as a product of the flapper era, rather flat-chested compared to modern comics women. Neither villains nor readers back then expected to find an agile and resourceful brain beneath her lovely blonde curls. And she was capable of spectacular feats of derring-do, such as flying great distances cross-country in an unfamiliar plane, at night, with neither navigational equipment nor lights; or performing stunt flights in a plane she knew had recently been sabotaged.

Science fiction

Connie is capable of spectacular feats such as flying great distances cross-country in an unfamiliar plane, at night, with neither navigational equipment nor lights; or performing stunt flights in a plane she knew had recently been sabotaged. She even made a foray into outer space science fiction.
In The World Encyclopedia of Comics, Maurice Horn wrote:

Then came the Depression and Connie turned out to be a girl with a social conscience; she helped her mother with her charity work and often visited the men on the bread lines (one of the very few instances where the Depression was graphically depicted in a comic strip)... In 1934 Connie went to work, first as a reporter, then as the operator of a detective agency (a kind of female Sam Spade)... Connie is a liberated woman: intelligent, self-reliant, at ease in all situations. Holding her own against any man, she would certainly have made a better representative for the women's movement than... Wonder Woman.