Before Barbie was Barbie, she was Lilli, a German comic strip sexpot

Tom Heintjes, of the comic strip history publication Hogan's Alley points out that Mattel's Barbie was based on a German doll named Lilli, which was from a bawdy German comic strip about a sexy young woman.

The website Messy Nessy describes the 1952-1961 Lilli comic strip that appeared in the West German publication Bild: "The comic strip character was known as 'Bild Lilli', a post-war gold-digging buxom broad who got by in life seducing wealthy male suitors." — Read the rest