Ruth
Atkinson Ford, who often signed her work with a gender neutral ‘R.
Atkinson’, was a pioneer in the field of the American comic book.
The industry was essentially a ‘boys club’ in the Golden Age, but
her talent was strong enough for her to break into the fraternity in
the early 1940’s. In the first part of that decade, she was most
strongly associated with the publisher Fiction House. While there she
was elevated to the position of the company’s art director and used
her status to bring in other talented women cartoonists, like Fran
Hopper, Ann Brewster and Lilly Renee. As an artist at FH she did the
series “Skull Squad” for WINGS COMICS using the masculine
pseudonym ‘Ace Atkins’.
Her
first love was illustrating and although her editorial position was
more prestigious, it’s responsibilities left her little time to
actually draw. So she left the company and began a career as a
freelancer. At Timely she co-created with Stan Lee, a pair of the
company’s more long lasting characters. These were Millie The Model
and Patsy Walker.
As
the 40’s were ending and love comics took off, Ruth found work in
that genre. Here she illustrates “Too Many Dates Were My Downfall”.
While
her cartooning career made her a model example of what would later be
called a liberated woman, Atkinson made a very traditional choice in
the early 1950’s. After getting married, she retired from comics to
become a homemaker. Ruth succumbed to cancer in 1997.
Pat
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