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Post by electricmastro on Mar 30, 2020 22:04:21 GMT -5
This is an area of interest for me, so I appreciate seeing characters I'm not familiar with. I'm also very interested in the many unsung women artists, many of whom it seems were driven out of the industry as a result of the code. I'll have to get that book about Jackie ormes! One of the most prolific female comic book artists from before 1956 was perhaps Alice Kirkpatrick. She wasn’t known to have worked at Fiction House, which arguably makes her less known, though the amount of material she had accumulated from Quality, Ace, Marvel, and Ziff-Davis is still rather impressive. She drew mainly romance, but also drew for Manhunter, Sally O’Neil, and Betty Bates. How did the code drive women artists out? I can definitely see it drove out some of the characters though; I had a stamp style code approved Vooda comic with Matt Baker art ('40s reprints) that I might've thought would've been against their wholesomeness mandate... (Atlas' Lorna was equally 'well drawn' I suppose)...  I got to see some Lily Renee Werewolf Hunter art in the original size, they did a lot of comics much larger that the 10x15" frame back in the golden age. She used some very ambitious panel designs/motifs while still producing a readable story. In Kirkpatrick’s case, she drew the aforementioned more action-oriented Manhunter, Sally O’Neil, and Betty Bates in 1948 and 1949, so it was before the 1954 code, but I imagine the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP), whom had a code in the late 1940s, started affecting things even before Wertham spoke up more. That’s likely a big factor as to what led to her drawing mainly for romance later on, though then again, this seemed to happen with most artists. Source: womenincomics.fandom.com/wiki/Alice_Kirkpatrick |
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 31, 2020 12:26:45 GMT -5
On the subject of women that are unsung, I might as well share this list I organized of female comic book artists whom were active before 1956: Gladys Parker Alice Kirkpatrick Nina Albright Lily Renee Edwina Dumm Ann Brewster Ruth Atkinson Fran Hopper Claire Moe Ramona Fradon Tarpe Mills Marge Buell Marty Links Janice Valleau Hilda Terry Dale Messick Jill Elgin Emma McKean Ade Bethune Martha Orr Marie Severin Merrylen Townsend Linda Walter Olive Bailey Valerie Barclay Ruth Carroll Fanny Cory Merna Gamble Hazel Marten Marcia Snyder Violet Higgins Virginia Krausmann Lillian Chestney Louise Altson Dorothy Urfer Etta Parks Karen Karol Alice Harvey Cassie Bill LaVerne Harding Pauline Loth Vee Quintal Pearson Clara Peck Regina Levander Barbara Hall Lucy Feller Amelia Opdyke Jones Eleanore Claire Odin Burvik Serene Summerfield Connie Naar Florence Magarian Ruth Thompson Alberta Tews Joan Wenzel Ruth Leslie Vivian Berg Corinne Dillon Nadine Seltzer Peggy Zangerle Ann Young Gloria Kamen Jean Hotchkiss Ruth Harris Ruth Ruhman Sylvia Sneidman Source: womenincomics.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Golden_Age |
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Mar 31, 2020 12:56:00 GMT -5
How did the code drive women artists out? So, this is mostly speculation on my part here from what I've read, but it feels like the drastic shrinking of the comics industry left a lot of women artists in particular out in the cold. A great many artists, period, had to leave the industry because there was just a lot less work available. But some of the publishing houses that were particularly welcoming to women artists shut down entirely, like Fiction House. And with comics in general being a bit of a boys club, with so many artists looking for work, I have the sense that they were more likely to give those few available jobs to their buddy Joe instead of to Joanne. I don't really have any statistics to back this up, just the fact that there seemed to be almost no women artists drawing comics after the code came into existence. Ramona Fradon and Marie Severin were outliers. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 31, 2020 13:13:51 GMT -5
How did the code drive women artists out? So, this is mostly speculation on my part here from what I've read, but it feels like the drastic shrinking of the comics industry left a lot of women artists in particular out in the cold. A great many artists, period, had to leave the industry because there was just a lot less work available. But some of the publishing houses that were particularly welcoming to women artists shut down entirely, like Fiction House. And with comics in general being a bit of a boys club, with so many artists looking for work, I have the sense that they were more likely to give those few available jobs to their buddy Joe instead of to Joanne. I don't really have any statistics to back this up, just the fact that there seemed to be almost no women artists drawing comics after the code came into existence. Ramona Fradon and Marie Severin were outliers. That makes a lot of sense. If Atlas/Marvel couldn't even keep Joe Maneely times were pretty harsh for all artists! |
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 31, 2020 15:16:50 GMT -5
How did the code drive women artists out? So, this is mostly speculation on my part here from what I've read, but it feels like the drastic shrinking of the comics industry left a lot of women artists in particular out in the cold. A great many artists, period, had to leave the industry because there was just a lot less work available. But some of the publishing houses that were particularly welcoming to women artists shut down entirely, like Fiction House. And with comics in general being a bit of a boys club, with so many artists looking for work, I have the sense that they were more likely to give those few available jobs to their buddy Joe instead of to Joanne. I don't really have any statistics to back this up, just the fact that there seemed to be almost no women artists drawing comics after the code came into existence. Ramona Fradon and Marie Severin were outliers. There definitely were some women working in comics during the Silver Age that were’t Fradon and Severin, and not just in the lesser mainstream underground comix scene either. It perhaps wasn’t helped not just by the code, but also by this sort of expected image of women being the pregnant housewives during the post-World War II baby boom generation of 1945-1970, as if they should be more so passive housewives caring for their babies at home than active workers, even though there were had been many active women working in World War II. In any case, I feel that I might as well mention the women listed under the “Silver Age” section on the WIC wiki while on the subject:   |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 31, 2020 15:47:08 GMT -5
The Ten cent Plague has an interview with at least one female artist of the period and describes how bad the heat was, which cut down the number of places to work and with fewer places, the guys were in a better position to compete for the jobs available. A lot of the women moved into other art fields, such as book illustration and commercial art for educational companies and the like.
By the way, I don't think you can consider Ramona Fradon, Marie Severin and Dale Messick "unsung". Messick was a big name in the newspaper strip worl, with Brenda Starr, right up to her death. She was featured on talk shows, news pieces and more for decades. Fradon was well known in the Silver and Bronze Ages and took over art on Brenda Starr, in newspapers. Severin was always well known t comics fandom, from the 60s on and was a regular presence at conventions.
Tarpe Mills was known in her day, but less well known later. However, Dale Messick is probably as well known as Lynne Johnston and Cathy Guisewite, in the comic strip world. One of Mike Grell's first professional comic jobs was working as an assistant to Messick, on Brenda Starr, before coming to DC.
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 31, 2020 16:58:55 GMT -5
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 1, 2020 10:09:26 GMT -5
One of the best female cover artists of her day would definitely have to be Ade Bethune. I know that religious art isn’t usually the sort of genre that comes up when discussing great comic covers, though the colorful, stylized approach Bethune used still comes across to me as rather striking:    I've bought several issues of Treasure Chest exactly for this reason. Thanks for bringing it up! |
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Post by MDG on Apr 1, 2020 11:07:36 GMT -5
One of the best female cover artists of her day would definitely have to be Ade Bethune. I know that religious art isn’t usually the sort of genre that comes up when discussing great comic covers, though the colorful, stylized approach Bethune used still comes across to me as rather striking: I've bought several issues of Treasure Chest exactly for this reason. Thanks for bringing it up! I like how Treasure Chest would alternate explicitly religious covers with adventure, history, cartoon, etc. |
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Post by shaxper on Apr 1, 2020 12:23:23 GMT -5
I've bought several issues of Treasure Chest exactly for this reason. Thanks for bringing it up! I like how Treasure Chest would alternate explicitly religious covers with adventure, history, cartoon, etc. And yet I am always disappointed that the covers never correlate to the interior works. Still, these things are always popping up in antique shops, and I love them. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Apr 1, 2020 12:29:37 GMT -5
That one seems to show the Norse rainbow bridge. Sort of a woodcut style to the inking too. Marie Severin in that one old photo sure looks like Joanie from the Happy Days tv show!  |
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Post by electricmastro on Apr 1, 2020 12:52:54 GMT -5
Was wondering what was the first time art done by a woman appeared in a comic book, and after researching, the comic book seems to be Famous Funnies #10 (May 1935, Eastern Color Printing), as the Sonnysayings story was done by Fanny Cory. She was about 60 years old by the time it appeared here, having been quite successful with comic illustration before and after this:  |
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Post by electricmastro on May 21, 2020 22:51:29 GMT -5
1979 - Ramona Fradon co-creates Beatriz da Costa for Super Friends #25, who would later become Fire.   |
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Post by DubipR on May 22, 2020 9:19:17 GMT -5
No mention of Shelly Bond yet; her contributions to the Vertigo line in the 80s/90s is huge. Going international, I love the work of Sana Takeda. Her work on Montress from Image is stunning!  Writer/Artist Ai Yazawa, who's manga are engaging shojo dramas (Paradise Kiss, Neighborhood Girl, Nana, Princess Ai) are all worth reading.  |
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Post by electricmastro on May 25, 2020 14:29:40 GMT -5
1969 cover art by Joan Bacchus, the earliest black female comic book artist that I know of.  |
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