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| Ramona Fradon | |
Ramona Fradon, "who in a long career as a comic book artist added to the mythology of Aquaman and helped create the eccentric superhero Metamorpho," died February 24, the New York Times reported. She was 97. Fradon was most closely associated with the DC Comics undersea hero Aquaman, whose adventures she drew from 1951 to 1963 in more than 100 issues.
"She wasn't daunted by the all-male industry" because she was doing what she loved, said Amy Fradon, her daughter. "She drew right up to last week. I gave her agent her last seven drawings, and when I took them outside, she said, 'Those are the last, those are the last seven.' "
Fradon's version of Aquaman, a character who first appeared in 1941, "modernized him for new readers and gave him the chiseled good looks of a movie star," the Times noted. In a 2018 Vulture, interview she said, "When I was drawing him back in the '50s, he was nice and wholesome, with a nice haircut and pink cheeks. I had a crush on him."
She worked with many writers on Aquaman, whose stories were one of several features in the anthology series Adventure Comics. She also drew the cover for a special 2021 comic celebrating the 80th anniversary of Aquaman's first adventure.
Fradon was originally assigned to draw Aquaman by editor Murray Boltinoff after she had drawn two Adventure stories starring the character Shining Knight. "He said I had a simple style, which was good for children, and Aquaman was aimed at young readers," she recalled in an interview with Howard Chaykin for the 2014 book The Art of Ramona Fradon.
In 1964, Fradon worked with editor George Kashdan and writer Bob Haney to create Metamorpho, who made his debut in The Brave and the Bold No. 5, along with a supporting cast that included his love interest, Sapphire Stagg; her father, Simon Stagg; and his Neanderthal servant, Java, the Times wrote.
"The beautiful, willful and sexy Sapphire Stagg was Moi, or didn't I wish," Fradon said.
She also worked on Super Friends and Plastic Man. Fradon had been semiretired since 1995, but continued to sell occasional drawings and do work for fans on commission. On January 3, Catskill Comics, which represented her, announced her official retirement.