Ramona Fradon 1926 - 2024

Ramona Fradon, whose decades-long career in comic books and comic strips spanned generations, has passed away. She was 97 years old. 

From CBR:

"Fradon was born Ramona Dom in Chicago, but grew up in Westchester County in New York. Her father was a commercial letterer. He encouraged her to go to art school. Soon after graduating from the Parsons School of Design, she married the New Yorker cartoonist, Dana Fradon. He encouraged her to work in comics. A friend of his was working as a comic book letterer, and he got Fradon a shot working for DC. She was hired for the Shining Knight feature in Adventure Comics...

 

"In Adventure Comics #167, Fradon took over the Aquaman feature...

 

"Fradon would remain on the series for the next DECADE, over 100 issues of Adventure Comics (and continuing the feature in World's Finest Comics for a little bit, as well). She co-created Aqualad, and in Adventure Comics #260, she and writer Robert Bernstein revamped Aquaman for the Silver Age, introducing his Atlantis origin story for the first time."

Ramona worked as the illustrator for the long-running Brenda Starr newspaper comic strip. Taking over after creator Dale Messick, she worked on the strip for fifteen years from 1980 to 1995. 

Mary Schmich, who took over the Brenda Starr writing chores, reminicsed on her Facebook page yeaterday:

"Ramona Fradon died yesterday at the age of 97.

"You may not recognize her name but there's a good chance that if you're of a certain age, you ran across her art. She was a pioneer in comics, in a time when women were rarely admitted to that elite club.

"I met her in 1985 when I was recruited to write the old Brenda Starr comic strip, which Ramona was drawing at the time.

"Brenda--as we called her--was created by Dale Messick, who both wrote and drew it for decades. But in the 1980s, Ramona took over the drawing. Eventually another writer was brought in, too, but she didn't last long.

"And then my turn came. I wrote Brenda for 25 years, always while juggling a newspaper job; looking back I'm sure that my newspaper-deadline approach to writing a comic strip script drove Ramona crazy.

"I'd write a week or two at a time then fax or FedEx the script to her from wherever I was. (This was pre-Internet). I scrawled, on a yellow legal pad, several weeks of script while sitting on the floor of the Charlotte, N.C., courthouse, on breaks in the Jim Bakker trial. Once on assignment for the Tribune, I drove around rural Mississippi desperately in search of a fax; when I didn't find one, I called Ramona and she patiently took dictation.

"I honestly don't know how she put up with me, but she did. And she cranked the clever art out week after week, year after year, until she left the comic strip biz in 1995. The great comics artist June Brigman replaced her, and it was June who wrote yesterday to tell me Ramona was gone, and to say how much Ramona meant to her.

"It's tempting when you work with people to take their talents for granted. Or to take for granted that you get to work with someone who's so freaking good.

"Ramona was one of the greats, and a few years ago I wrote her to make sure she knew that I knew. She was also very kind to me, in addition to tolerant.

"As for the strips I've posted here, they're just what I randomly laid my hands on when I opened one of the drawers where I haphazardly stash the old strips."

On February 24th, Ramona’s agent Scott Kress of Catskill Comics made public her passing:

"It comes with great sadness to announce that Ramona Fradon has passed away just a few moments ago. Ramona was 97 and had a long career in the comic book industry and was still drawing just a few days ago. She was a remarkable person in so many ways. I will miss all the great conversations and laughs we had. I am blessed that I was able to work with her on a professional level, but also able to call her my friend."

 

The above via The Daily Cartoonist, which has copious links.