Ruth Atkinson

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Not to be confused with New Zealand author Ruth Atkinson.

Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson (June 2, 1918 - May 31, June 1, or June 15, 1997[1]) was a pioneering female cartoonist and comic book artist who helped create the long-running Marvel Comics characters Millie the Model and Patsy Walker.

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[edit] Biography

Her creation Patsy Walker would become the superheroine Hellcat in 1976, but Ruth Atkinson was drawing Hellcats long before then. From Wings Comics #45 (Nov. 1944).
Her creation Patsy Walker would become the superheroine Hellcat in 1976, but Ruth Atkinson was drawing Hellcats long before then. From Wings Comics #45 (Nov. 1944).

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ruth Atkinson as an infant moved with her family to upstate New York.

She entered the comics field doing work for the publisher Fiction House beginning either 1942 or 1943, and either on staff or, as noted by the Connectituct Historical Society, through the Iger Studio, a comic-book "packager" that produced comics for publishers on an outsource basis. Fellow female artists Fran Hopper, Lily Renée, and Marcia Snyder also worked for Iger, where one of the business partners was a woman, Ruth Roche. Atkinson's first confirmed, signed work is the single-page "Wing Tips" featurette in Wings Comics #42 (Feb. 1944).

Atkinson continued to pencil and ink that airplane-profile featurette, as well such Fiction House features as "Clipper Kirk" and "Suicide Smith" in Wings Comics, "Tabu" in Jungle Comics, and "Sea Devil" in Rangers Comics. At some point, she became the Fiction House art director, but left the position to freelance after finding that the managerial position left little time for her art.

She went on to launch the feature "Patsy Walker", for Marvel Comics predecessor Timely Comics in Miss America #2 (Nov. 1944). She would draw that humor/romance feature for two years, as well draw the premiere issue of the long-running series Millie the Model. Some sources credit her with creating both characters, while others list them as co-creations with writer and Timely editor-in-chief Stan Lee.

Atkinson later drew true-life adventures for Eastern Color Comics' Heroic Comics, as well for some of the first romance comics comics, including Lev Gleason Publications' Boy Meets Girl, through the early 1950s.

Atkinson retired from comics sometime after her marriage. She was living in Pacifica, California at the time of her death from cancer.

[edit] Personal

Her brother, horse-racing Hall of Fame jockey Ted Atkinson, died in 2005.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ June 15 per Social Security Death Index, which states verification per family member or someone acting on behalf of a family member, rather than an observed death certificate. Family members sometimes inadvertently submit filing dates or burial dates. The Lambiek Comiclopedia entry for Ruth Atkinson and The Comics Journal article Newswatch - "Atkinson Ford Dead at 79" (issue #198, Aug. 1997, p. 31) both give death date as May 31, 1997. The MSNBC "Ink Blots" column by Ed Mcgeean (Oct. 3, 1997) and the *CBGXtra article "1997: The Year in Comics", by John Jackson Miller, both give death date as June 1, 1997.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

  • Bails, Jerry, and Hames Ware, The Who's Who of American Comic Books (Detroit, Mich.: J. Bails, 1973-1976), entries, pp. 6 & 93
  • Trina Robbins, and Catherine Yronwode Women and the Comics (Eclipse Books, 1985), index entries, pp. 52, 55, 56, 64, 66
  • Robbins, Trina. A Century of Women Cartoonists (Kitchen Sink Press, 1993), index entries, pp. 83, 101-102, 104, 109, 111, 121
  • Robbins, Trina. The Great Women Superheroes (Kitchen Sink Press, 1996), index entry, p. 86
  • Duin, Steve, and Mike Richardson. Comics Between the Panels (Dark Horse Comics, 1998), entry, p. 30
  • Robbins, Trina. From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Comics from Teens to Zines (Chronicle Books, 1999), index entries, pp. 26, 35, 61, 67