User:Mackenziebehm/sandbox

Ramona Fradon (born October 1, 1926) is an American comics artist known for her work illustrating Aquaman and Brenda Starr, and co-creating the superhero Metamorpho. Her career began in 1950.

Early life
Ramona Fradon was born in Chicago and moved to New York when she was five. She grew up on the outskirts of New York City in Rochester, New York. Her family also lived in Larchmont, Mamaroneck, and Bronxville. Her father, Peter Dom, was a renown commercial lettering man and designed logos for Elizabeth Arden, Camel, and Lord & Taylor. Fradon also had an older brother and uncle in the lettering business. Her brother worked as a technician for the Air corps and eventually died of alcoholism. Her mother fell ill and passed away in 1952.

She never read comic books growing up but she had a love for newspaper strips. Fradon's father was the one that encouraged her to go to art school.

Education & introduction to comics
Ramona Fradon entered cartooning just after graduating from the Parsons School of Design. Soon after she left art school she married her husband Dana Fradon, now a New Yorker cartoonist. As a cartoonist himself, he urged her to try cartooning. Soon after, comic-book letterer George Ward, a friend of her husband (New Yorker cartoonist Dana Fradon), asked her for samples of her artwork to pitch for job openings. She landed her first assignment on the DC Comics feature "Shining Knight". Her first regular assignment was illustrating an Adventure Comics backup feature starring Aquaman. She and writer Robert Bernstein co-created the sidekick Aqualad in Adventure Comics #269 (Feb. 1960).

Following her time with Aquaman, Fradon returned to co-create Metamorpho. She drew the character's two try-out appearances in The Brave and the Bold and the first four issues of the eponymous series and returned briefly to design a few covers for the title. She later commented, "I think [writer Bob Haney and I] both felt that Metamorpho was our baby. I never had an experience like I had working with Bob Haney on Metamorpho. It was like our minds were in perfect synch ... it was one of those wonderful collaborations that doesn't happen very often." Fradon drew The Brave and the Bold #59 (April–May 1965), a Batman/Green Lantern team-up, the first time that series featured Batman teaming with another DC superhero.

Family
From 1965 to 1972, Fradon left comics to raise her daughter. During that time she still did some work for Metomorpho, however, it became increasingly difficult because her daughter would cling to her knee and want attention while she worked. In 1972, she returned to DC where later in the decade she would draw Plastic Man, Freedom Fighters, and Super Friends which she penciled for almost its entire run. She also worked for Marvel Comics during this period, but left after only two assignments: a fill-in issue of Fantastic Four and the never-published fifth issue of The Cat.

In 1980, Dale Messick retired from drawing the newspaper strip Brenda Starr, Reporter, and Fradon became the artist for it until her own retirement in 1995. She went back to college in 1980 at NYU where she studied psychology and ancient religions.

Metamorpho and style
Based on an idea by DC editor George Kashdan and co-created by Bob Haney and Fradon, the character Metamorpho first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #57 and 58 in January and March 1965 before headlining a 17-issue run of the character's self-titled series from August 1965 through March 1968.

Kashdan's concept involved a character made up of four elements who could change into different chemical compounds. Haney fleshed out the idea with a "deliciously overdrawn" cast.

Kashdan, Haney, and Fradon worked together to create Metamorpho's look:

Fradon enjoyed her collaboration with Haney because “his goofy stories gave me ideas about how the characters should look and act, and my goofy pictures gave him new ideas.” Metamorpho allowed Fradon to use an exaggerated drawing style which suited her better than the traditional approach to superhero illustration. Feeling "like a fish out of water" in the male-dominated superhero field, she reflected on her style in a 1988 interview.

Retirement
Even in retirement, Fradon continued to do cartoon work. For the Spongebob Comics, Fradon contributed to the Mermaidman stories due to her work for Aquaman.

She contributed pencils to the 2010 graphic novel The Adventures of Unemployed Man, the 2012 graphic novel The Dinosaur That Got Tired of Being Extinct, and the collection The Art of Ramona Fradon.