WE'VE LOST ANOTHER OF THE COMIC BOOK GREATS.
Making most of her mark at DC Comics in the Silver Age, Ramona Fradon was always a favourite of mine as well as being one of the few female comic book artists at the time working on 'superhero' comix such as her storied run on AQUAMAN (on which she co-created Aqualad),
the whimsical PLASTIC MAN comic in the mid-1970s,
the Saturday Morning staple comic book version of the SUPER-FRIENDS
and as co-creator of METAMORPHO THE ELEMENT MAN.
Fradon's pencils were delightfully whimsical and were a perfect fit for lighter titles like SUPER FRIENDS and PLASTIC MAN but were also splendidly quirky which made interesting art on AQUAMAN, FREEDOM FIGHTERS and METAMORPHO.
On hearing of her death a few days ago at the age of 97, I went and watched the documentary SHE MAKES COMICS (2014) about female comix creators through the years and Fradon gets a good chunk of screen time.
As she says in the documentary, her first job at DC Comics was the SHINING KNIGHT (continuing after the departure of legendary artist Frank Frazetta!!!) but she also drew the Sunday funnies staple BRENDA STARR, REPORTER -- another bastion of the independent female. She also happens to be the artist who first drew a Batman team-up story in the pages of THE BRAVE & THE BOLD: the 59th issue featuring Batman & Green Lantern.
Ramona Fradon was a trailblazer merely because she was a phenomenally good artist who just happened to be a woman and she made it in the male-dominated world of super-hero comix on her own terms.
1 comment:
She was for sure one of the best artist of the silver age without adding the word "female" in there. She was just one of the best period. And shamefully, I didn't know I knew as much of her work as I did. May she rest well.
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