The package of rough scribbles that Cathy Guisewite sent to the Universal Press Syndicate in 1976 did not look at all like the accomplished comic strips that Lee Salem usually edited.

“I could not draw at all,” Ms. Guisewite recalled. “What I sent Lee wasn’t organized into a strip; it was just raw emotion on the page. These were drawings meant for my mother’s eyes only: the humiliating, worst moments of one young career woman’s life.”

But Mr. Salem recognized a strong new voice in Ms. Guisewite’s embryonic work. Rather than tell her to spend more time developing her idea s, he quickly sent her a contract to create “Cathy” — an anxiety-ridden (“Ack! "), body-conscious woman whose vulnerability would strike a nerve with readers pleased to follow her, frame by frame.

“He sent me a note with the contract saying he was confident I could draw,” Ms. Guisewite said in a phone interview.