Lily Renée Phillips
(''
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Willheim; May 12, 1921 – August 24, 2022), often credited as L. Renée, Lily Renée, or Reney, was an Austrian-born American artist best known as one of the earliest women in the
comic-book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...
industry, beginning in the 1940s period known as the
Golden Age of Comics
The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known chara ...
. She escaped from
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
-occupied Vienna to England and later
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, whereupon she found work as a
penciller
A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...
and
inker
The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production.
The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a pencil ...
at the comics publisher
Fiction House
Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister.Saunders, David"JACK BYRNE (1902-1972),"Field Guide to Wild American ...
, working on such features as "Jane Martin", "The Werewolf Hunter", "The Lost World" and "Señorita Rio".
Early life
Willheim was raised by well-to-do
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
parents in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Austria, in the 1930s.
Her father, Rudolf Willheim, worked as a manager at the
Holland America
Holland America Line is an American-owned cruise line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States.
Holland America Line was founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and from 1873 to 1989, it operated ...
line, a transatlantic steamship company.
[ As a child, she frequented art museums and often drew as a hobby.]
In 1939[ or 1938 at age 14,] Willheim boarded the Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
, leaving her parents behind in Nazi-occupied Austria. She arrived in Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, England, and lived there for two years, working as a servant, nanny, and candy striper
Hospital volunteers, also known as candy stripers in the United States, work without regular pay in a variety of health care settings, usually under the direct supervision of nurses.
The term candy striper is derived from the red-and-white st ...
while waiting for her parents' escape.[ When Willheim was 16, she received a letter from her parents saying they had emigrated to the United States.][ After joining them, living in a rooming house on ]West 72nd Street
72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in New York City's borough of Manhattan. The street primarily runs through the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods. It is one of the few streets to go through Cen ...
on Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
, she took up art again. In a 2006 interview, she explained,
At some point, she studied at the Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.
Although artists may stu ...
and the School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
History
This school was started by ...
.
Career
At Fiction House, which had sought women to replace its male artists who had been drafted into World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, she worked as a penciler
A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...
and inker
The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production.
The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a pencil ...
alongside other female comic illustrators and writers including Nina Albright and Fran Hopper
Fran Hopper (July 13, 1922 – November 29, 2017), née Frances R. Deitrick, was an American comic-book artist active during the 1930s–1940s period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. One of the earliest women in the field, she drew primari ...
.
By late 1942 or early 1943, by now using her first and middle names as a pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
, Renée was assigned the Fiction House
Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister.Saunders, David"JACK BYRNE (1902-1972),"Field Guide to Wild American ...
feature "Jane Martin", starring a female pilot working in the male-dominated aviation industry. Her work on the feature, whose scripts are credited to the possibly pseudonymous "F.E. Lincoln", ran in ''Wings Comics
''Wings Comics'' was an aviation-themed anthology comic book published by Fiction House from 1940–1954. ''Wings Comics'' was one of Fiction House's "Big 6" comics titles (which also included ''Jumbo Comics'', ''Jungle Comics'', ''Planet Comics' ...
'' #31-48 (March 1943 - Aug. 1944).[Lily Renée]
at the Grand Comics Database
The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...
.
She also illustrated the feature "The Werewolf Hunter", with scripts credited to "Armand Weygand" and "Armand Broussard", in ''Rangers Comics'' #14-38, 40 (Dec. 1943 - April 1948). She said in 2011 she had worked with the feature's writer to steer it from lycanthropy
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...
toward more general gothic horror
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
, concerned that she could not properly draw wolves. Her other work included the science-fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...
feature "The Lost World", with scripts credited to "Thornecliffe Herrick", in ''Planet Comics
''Planet Comics'' was a science fiction comic book title published by Fiction House from January 1940 to Winter 1953. It was the first comic book dedicated wholly to science fiction.Benton, Mike. ''Science Fiction Comics: The Illustrated History'' ...
'' #32-49 (Sept. 1944 - July 1947); and "Señorita Rio", about a South-of-the-border adventuress doing wartime espionage for the U.S. government, with scripts credited to "Morgan Hawkins" and appearing in ''Fight Comics'' #34-44, 47-51 (Oct. 1944 - Aug. 1947). While Señorita Rio, a.k.a. actress Rita Farrar, was designed by artist Nick Cardy
Nicholas Viscardi (October 20, 1920 – November 3, 2013), known professionally as Nick Cardy and Nick Cardi, was an American comics artist best known for his DC Comics work on Aquaman, the Teen Titans and other major characters. Cardy was induct ...
in 1942, "Renée," writes historian Don Markstein
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonop ...
, "was probably the one who became most strongly associated with the character."[Señiorita Rio]
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...
Archived
from the original on September 29, 2015.
In 1948, after Fiction House moved out of New York, Renée and her artist husband, Eric Peters, began working at St. John Publications
St. John Publications was an American publisher of magazines and comic books. During the 1947-1958 existence of its comic-book division, St. John established several industry firsts. Founded by Archer St. John, the firm was located in Manhattan a ...
. They shared penciling and inking duties on '' Abbott & Costello Comics'', illustrating the majority of issues from #2-34 (April 1948 - Dec. 1955), and Renée additionally drew romance stories in issues of St. John's ''Teen-Age Diary Secrets'' and ''Teen-Age Romances''. The two also drew comic books for the dairy company Borden, starring mascot Elsie the Cow
Elsie the Cow is a cartoon cow developed as a mascot for the Borden Dairy Company in 1936 to symbolize the "perfect dairy product". Since the demise of Borden in the mid-1990s, the character has continued to be used in the same capacity for the c ...
.
After she left comics, Renée said she "did some children's books and I also wrote some plays", with at least one, the black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
''Superman in Sleep's Embrace'', produced at Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
in Manhattan. She designed textiles for Lanz of California, and jewelry for Willy Woo.
In 2007, Renée attended Comic-Con International
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is c ...
in San Diego, where Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu was a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, which operated from 1994–2011 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry.
Membership was o ...
nominated her to its Hall of Fame.[
]
Personal life and death
Renée had an early first marriage that was annulled
Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost ...
. She later married Eric Peters, another Viennese refugee and a cartoonist whose work appeared in such glossy magazines as ''Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
'' and ''The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
''. That marriage ended, and, she said in 2006, "My only real marriage was to Randolph Phillips," a politically active financial consultant who in the 1940s directed the American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
's national committee for conscientious objectors, and in 1972 chaired the National Committee for Impeachment. The couple had a daughter, Nina, and a son, Rick. As of 2010, Renée had lived 40 years in an apartment on Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.[ She celebrated her 100th birthday in May 2021, and died in New York City on August 24, 2022, at the age of 101.]
References
Further reading
*
External links
Lily Renée
at the Lambiek Comiclopedia
Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...
*
*Robbins, Trina, in
LILY, a documentary short.
A documentary film about the life of Lily Renée.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Renée, Lily
1921 births
2022 deaths
American female comics artists
Austrian Jews
American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
Golden Age comics creators
Jewish American artists
Austrian centenarians
American centenarians
Women centenarians
Austrian emigrants to the United States