[2] The main character was a young woman who had to support her parents and adopted brother, serving as a reflection of the changing role of women in society.
It ran in more than 100 newspapers and translations of the strip's Sunday pages were made available in Europe, focusing on her little brother Perry Winkle and his gang.
Tribune Media Services, the syndicate that distributed the comic strip, "felt that the Winnie Winkle character was not recognized as a contemporary role model for the '90s."
[10] The eponymous character Winnie Winkle was a young, unmarried woman who had to support her parents, making it the second popular comic strip about working women (after Somebody's Stenog, which debuted in 1918).
[16] The comic strip changed significantly over the years; with Winnie working in the fashion industry after the war, seemingly as a widow until her husband returned after a few decades.
[17] Branner employed a number of assistants, including Royal King Cole (during the 1930s), Rolf Ahlson, Mike Peppe, and Max Van Bibber (1938–1962).
[19] After Branner suffered a stroke in 1962, Van Bibber continued the series until 1980, later followed by students from the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and finally by veteran artist Frank Bolle.
[20][21] Bolle (who enlisted Leonard Starr to write the strip in 1985)[22] recalled: In 1923, Winnie's adopted younger brother Perry Winkle and his friends the Rinkydinks became the focus of the Sunday pages.
In The Netherlands and France, local artists made new comics about Perry when the number of weekly pages by Branner was no longer sufficient.
The daily cartoons display traces of graphite, blue pencil, Zip-A-Tone, brush, pen and ink on illustration board measuring approximately 7 ¼ x 22 ½ inches.