The Gleeful Camp of Comic Book Royalty: Ramona Fradon

She drew Aquaman playing in a band with an octopus. Such was her way. While many modern Aquaman stories attempt to be ‘cool’, Ramona Fradon’s Aquaman exudes a gleeful camp vibe that is nothing if not infectious. She holds the savvy of a woman who has survived some of the most tumultuous periods in America’s history, as well as the strains of an all-male industry, on her own. She is someone who enjoys what she does. It’s what took her through those hard times to become comic book royalty.

Born on October 2^nd 1926, Ramona has had a passion for drawing since she was a child. “I feel like I was born with a pencil in my hand,” she once said. She had no intention of becoming an artist, but her father urged her to enrol in art school.

He hoped she would become a fashion artist, but she exhibited an interest in cartooning. This dismayed her father. But this did not deter Ramona. She got her start in comics in 1950 working on a comic named ‘Shining Knight’. She often felt out of place in a male-dominated field. Part of it was her stylistic decisions. Her work was more open and less shaded than those of her male peers. She said in 1988:

“When I read that this appeared to be a characteristic of female cartoonists, it made me feel a little better about it.”

It also made her a rebel. She rejected the ‘traditional’ comic approach made famous by decades of male comic book artists. Instead, she forged her own artistic path and she did it with Aquaman.

Adventure, Awaits!

Ramona started working in comics in 1950, which was rare for a woman at the time. She soon landed a job as an artist at Adventure Comics, where she worked on the butt of all sea-based comic book jokes: Aquaman.

Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris conceived Arthur Curry, AKA Aquaman, in 1941 during the Golden Age of comic books. But it wasn’t until Ramona joined Adventure Comics that the character came into his own.

She began drawing the character in 1951, and the years that followed were among the character’s best. Over a decade, Ramona helped define the character we know today. She established several elements of Aquaman’s story. Including Atlantis and Aqualad. She worked with authors such as Jack Miller and Robert Bernstein.

She was responsible for a great deal of the symbolism around this character.

Painting Aquaman posed a unique set of obstacles for Ramona, including the ability to render aquatic settings (for example, depicting liquid in the waves, bubbles, and sea currents), the fluid motion of the human body when swimming, and a distinct plethora of odd underwater characters.

Ramona was particularly skilled at the latter, adding scaly or slick textures to undersea characters, imbuing them with personality. Let’s not forget, she drew Aquaman’s sidekick, Topo the Octopus.

Her most notable contribution is co-creating Metamorpho with the most brilliant Silver Age writer of all: Bob Haney. Ramona later recalled:

“It was like our minds were in perfect sync.”

It was one of those wonderful collaborations that don’t happen very often. Bob’s bizarre narratives offered Ramona the rare opportunity to go wild. She utilised Metamorpho’s shape-shifting abilities in novel and innovative ways.

It was one of the Silver Age’s greatest comics.

Ramona’s tenure on the comic did not last long. Despite this, she was an excellent fit for Metamorpho’s changing visual style, keeping up with the bizarre narratives that Bob threw at her.

Stories such as Aquaman and Metamorpho demonstrated the originality of comic books, something their cinematic counterparts lack.

The weird and wonderful came to define her. Take a look at Plastic Man, another wonderful weird shapeshifter. Ramona worked on a popular 10-issue run with the character from 1976 to 1977. Ramona even got the opportunity to depict the larger DC Universe in the Super Friends tie-in books.

She later worked on ‘Brenda Starr, Reporter’ in 1980, succeeding Dale Messick, another famed female comic strip artist who launched the comic in 1940. She remained the comic book’s illustrator until her retirement in 1995.

This small collection of strange characters came to define not only Ramona but the characters themselves. It cemented her legacy as the comic book artist for the weird side of comic books that we all know and love.

Even after ‘retiring’, Ramona continued to create cartoons. She contributed to the SpongeBob Comics’ Mermaidman story as a result of her work on Aquaman. She also contributed to three graphic novels: ‘The Adventures of Unemployed Man’ (2010), ‘The Dinosaur That Got Tired of Being Extinct’ (2012), and ‘The Art of Ramona Fradon’.

She announced that she would definitely retire in 2024. Although she’s said that before. That’s because she’s still going strong, still drawing to this day.

At the age of 96, no less. She once said:

“I loved it. The goofier the better.”

The Gleeful Camp of Comic Book Royalty

There’s only one woman in comic book history who would think to draw Aquaman playing in a band with Toto the Octopus, the incomparable Ramona Fradon.

She is best known for her illustrations of Aquaman and Brenda Starr, as well as co-creating the superhero Metamorpho. Her career began in 1950 when it was rare for women to illustrate superhero comics.

Her creative approach left a profound impact on a generation of Aquaman fans. Yet she made her name with Metamorpho, an incredible character who will make his big screen debut in 2025’s Superman: Legacy.

Ramona displayed the ability to work in many genres, all weird, while maintaining her unique comic book flare, as we see in Plastic Man and Super Friends. She worked primarily outside of DC Comics, sculpting her cavalcade of strange and silly characters. Many artists avoid these characters. No, no. I’m a serious artist, I do serious work. But not Ramona. She loved the weird. She embraced it. And that’s wonderful.

Because that’s what comic books are meant to be.

Ramona was not about a moody Batman or a sullen Flash. She drew guitars with laser beams shooting out of them and had Aquaman meet Noah. It was just another day in the life of Ramona Fradon. Yet none of it was stupid or pointless. None of it required a knowing wink to the audience. Everyone knew it was dumb. And that was the beauty of it.

She embraced who she was. She owned the inherent silliness of superhero comics. In a time when a woman in the comic book industry was rare, Ramona kept up with the best of the male artists.

She enjoyed her work. What she accomplished exudes a distinct playful vitality, her style colourful, friendly and warm, defining her career. Her work is a comforting smile, the ultimate comic book superstar who reminds each one of us why we love comic books so much.

Author Howard Chaykin once said of Ramona:

“Ramona Fradon was one of the most prolific and high profile female cartoonists at a time when the comic book field was dominated by men.”

Toodle-Pip :}{:

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