Women cartoonist: Fran Hopper (Frances R. Deitrick )

July 13, 1922 – November  29, 2017

Maryland, USA

Fran Hopper was one of the few female artists active during the Golden Age of American comic books, the 1940s. She has mainly worked through Robert Iger’s studio on Fiction House features starring heroines like ‘Gale Allen and the Girl Squadron’, ‘Mysta of the Moon’, ‘Jane Martin’ and ‘Camilla’.

She spent most of her childhood in New Jersey, however. Deitrick was one of several female comic book artists entering the field during the early 1940s. By 1942, the US had joined World War II, and many male authors were drafted. Packager Bob Iger and his editor Ruth Roche thus hired Deitrick and other females such as Ruth Atkinson, Lily Renée and Marcia Snyder to fill their places. Iger’s studio produced complete comic books for publishers like Fiction House. Deitrick’s first known contribution appeared in Planet Comics #23 of March 1943. She started signing her work Fran Hopper after marrying Dr. John B. Hopper II in 1944.

cont’d lambiek.net