Comic book and comic strip artist Ramona Fradon has passed away.
Ramona Dom (née Domboorajian) Fradon
October 2, 1926 – February 24, 2024
Yesterday 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.
Ramona had a long off and on career in comic books mostly with DC Comics from 1950 to 1980.
Others have far better handle on the beloved artist’s career than I so I turn her obituary over to
Comic Book Resources, Multiversity Comics, and Bleeding Cool News with more surely to follow,
Her return to comic books in the mid-1970s was put on hold when she was chosen to succeed Brenda Starr creator Dale Messick as the artist of that comic strip in 1980, a chore she fulfilled for fifteen years until 1995.
above: Ramona’s first Brenda Starr with Messick layouts from October 6, 1980
below: Ramona’s last Brenda Starr dated November 5, 1995
further reading:
Brenda Starr writer Mary Schmich remembers Ramona
Sequential Tart interviews “The Real Ramona”
Heidi McDonald on “The Greatness of Ramona Fradon”
Comic Art Fans showcases a gallery of Ramona’s specialty and original art
Mark Evanier tells of when a score of comic artists inked a week of Ramona’s Brenda strips
above: page 1 of a 2 page jam July 31, 1994 Chicago Tribune Magazine exclusive – via The Art of Ramona Fradon
I’m sad to hear she died, but OI’m delighted to know that she didn’t go without knowing how fully comic-book and comic-strip fandom loved her. You can see full evidence online with dozens of her commissions popping up on social media because you don’t pay for something you don’t want to show off to everyone. I’ve loved her art since I first saw it in 1959, and I’m still mad that there was a decade between METAMORPHO installments by her (’66-’75) because she wasn’t appreciated by the comics boys club of the ’60s.
What a time for the Daily Cartoonist e-mails to be interrupted! (I re-subscribed and they resumed this morning.) My Facebook post about her was delayed for a full day because of it, something my former status as a news reporter makes it difficult to shrug off.
I had read that she took a break from comics from 1965-72 to raise her daughter. Can’t get too mad about that.
I worked with Ramona Fradon and creator Dale Messick in the mid-1990s until Ramona left Brenda Starr in 1996. Ramona brought classic comic book style to the strip, one of many comic properties she brought to life in her nine decades. I introduced Chicago Tribune reporter and columnist Mary Schmich who later worked with artist June Brigman. Mary brought a hard news edge to the strip for 25 years or so to the end. One of my most fun jobs as comics editor and editor of international syndication at Tribune, then called Tribune Media Services, 1994-99. 32 daily strips, 12 editorial cartoons, among 200 features.