Audrey Anthony Blum (c. January 12, 1918 Note: The

Social Security Death Index The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been via the Limit ...

lists no Toni Blum, Audrey Blum, or Audrey Bossert born 1918. – 1972 Bails, Jerry and Hames Ware, eds
"Blum, Toni"
at ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999'' or 1973) was an American

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 of ...

writer active during the 1930s and 1940s " Golden Age of Comic Books", known for her work with

Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company which operated from 1937 to 1956 and was a creative, influential force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Notable, long-running titles published by Qualit ...

and other publishers and as one of the first female comics professionals in what was then an almost entirely male industry. Known professionally as Toni Blum, she was the daughter of comics artist

Alex Blum Alexander Anthony Blum (February 7, 1889 – September 1969) was a Hungarian-American comic book artist best remembered for his contributions in the 1940s and 1950s to the long-running comic book series ''Classics Illustrated''. Biography Born ...

and the wife of comics artist Bill Bossert. She was also known as Audrey Anthony Blossert.

Biography

Early life and career

Toni Blum was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

,Bill Bossert interview, p. 45 the daughter of Jewish artists Alexander Anthony "Alex" Blum and Helen Blum.Bill Bossert interview, p. 47 Together with her younger brother, the family lived in the

Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to: Places Australia * Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region United States * Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County * Ge ...

section of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. During the Great Depression, Alex Blum's career as a portrait painter evaporated, leading the family to move to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York, seeking work. In 1938, she became a staff writer at the

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 ...

studio

Eisner & Iger Eisner & Iger was a comic book "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the late-1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Many of comic books' most significant c ...

, Robbins, Trina, and Catherine Yronwode. ''Women and the Comics'' ( Eclipse Books, 1985), , p. 52 one of the era's comics "packagers" that would supply comic-book content on demand to publishers testing the emerging medium. She lived at the time with her family on 91st or 92nd Street near

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...

.Bill Bossert interview, pp. 42, 44 Her father also worked at Eisner & Iger, joining the studio either before or after her.Bill Bossert interview, pp. 46-47 There, sometimes in collaboration with him, she wrote stories under a variety of

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

s, among them Tony Boone, Anthony Bloom, and Tony Blum, as well as Toni Boone, Toni Boon, Toni Adams and possibly Bob Anthony, and Tony Adams, Anthony Lamb, Anthony Brooks, and possibly Jack Anthony, A. L. Allen, Tom Alexander, Tom Russell, and Bjorn Tagens.Toni Blum
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 became best known, however, as Toni Blum, and was called that by her co-workers. Aside from comics writer-artist and company principal

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

, Blum was the shop's only writer.Bill Bossert interview, p. 46 Her future husband, Eisner & Iger artist Bill Bossert, recalled of her working method, Owing to her collection of pen names, historians are uncertain of her earliest comic-book scripts. ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999'' lists her as writer, from 1936 to 1937, of the two-page feature "The Vikings", which ran in issues #1-19 (

cover-dated The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unus ...

Dec. 1935 - Dec. 1937) of one of the earliest comic books,

National Allied Publications National Comics Publications, Inc. (also known as NCP or simply National) was an American comic book publishing company, and the direct predecessor of modern-day DC Comics. History The corporation was originally two companies: National Allied P ...

' ''

New Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), m ...

'' (renamed ''New Adventure Comics'' with issue #7). Blum is also tentatively identified as the author of the two-page text fillers "Treasure Hunt" Parts 1 & 2 in ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/ magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics Publications ...

'' #15-16 (Aug.-Sept. 1939), bylined "Jack Anthony". That title's publisher, Detective Comics Inc., one of the firms that would coalesce to become

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, was not known to use comics packagers for its content, however. Following a handful of other tentative credits, Blum's first confirmed work, bylined "Anthony Brooks", is the six-page "Vladim the Voodoo Master", starring Yarko the Great, Master Magician, in Fox Comics' ''

Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...

'' #1 (Winter 1939-40).

Pioneering female comics creator

Blum co-created numerous features for Eisner & Iger clients. In

' ''National Comics'' #1 (July 1940) alone, she introduced the aviation strip "Prop Powers", with the possibly pseudonymous artist Clark Williams; "Sally O'Neil, Policewoman", with artist Chuck Mazoujian; and "

Wonder Boy The series, also known as the series, is a franchise of video games published by Sega and developed by Westone Bit Entertainment (formerly Escape). Beginning with the original '' Wonder Boy'' arcade game released in April 21, 1986, the game has ...

", with artist John Celardo. Through 1943, she scripted a large number of Quality Comics features at various times, including " Black Condor", " Dollman", "Kid Patrol", "Lion Boy", "

The Ray The Ray is the name of four superheroes in the DC Comics Universe. All versions of the character have the superpower of manipulating visible light in some manner. The first Ray was Langford "Happy" Terrill, a Quality Comics character. When D ...

", " The Red Bee", "Stormy Foster", and "

Uncle Sam Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...

" She also wrote numerous text fillers both for Quality and for

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 P ...

, many of the latter bylined "Tom Alexander". The only female employee of the shop, the "young, attractive, intelligent" aspiring playwright Blum briefly dated Eisner, who depicted their relationship in his semiautobiographical

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

''The Dreamer'', with Blum renamed Andrea Budd.Schumacher, Michael. ''Will Eisner: A Dreamer's Life in Comics'' (Bloomsbury USA, 2010), , p. 49 Kitchen, Dennis, "Annotations to ''The Dreamer'' in Eisner, Will. ''The Dreamer'' ( W. W. Norton & Company; reprint edition, 2008), , p. 52 She was treated respectfully in the otherwise all-male studio, save for one encounter involving artist

George Tuska George Tuska (; April 26, 1916 – October 16, 2009),George Tuska
at the

punching fellow artist

Bob Powell Bob Powell (né Stanley Robert Pawlowski; While gives Stanislav Pavlowsky, and gives Stanislav Pavlowsky, Bails and Ware note: "family name corrected by his son, Seth R. Powell July 2006." October 2, 1916

over a remark the latter made regarding Blum. As publisher and historian

Denis Kitchen Denis Kitchen (born August 27, 1946) is an American underground cartoonist, publisher, author, agent, and the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Early life Kitchen grew up in Wisconsin, attending William Horlick High School, Racine, ...

wrote, "Tuska, like Eisner, had a crush on office mate Toni Blum but was too shy to make his move. The actual provocation that inflamed Tuska, Eisner privately said, was Powell's loud assertion that he 'could fuck oni Blumanytime' he wanted. After decking Powell, Tuska stood over his prostrate coworker and in a voice Eisner described as

Lon Chaney Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dra ...

in ''

Of Mice and Men ''Of Mice and Men'' is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job o ...

'' said, 'You shouldn't ought to have said that, Bob.'" Blum fell in love with another of the staff artists, Bill Bossert,Bill Bossert interview, p. 38 marrying him sometime during

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 opposing ...

,Bill Bossert interview, p. 43 and together eventually having three children.Bill Bossert interview, p. 42 Following Eisner's departure from Eisner & Iger to launch his Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, " The Spirit Section", in 1940, Blum became

ghost writer A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often ...

of its title feature "The Spirit" for a time in 1942, while Eisner did

U.S. military service. One source also lists her as a writer for a companion feature, " Lady Luck", in 1940. A different source includes her among the post-Eisner

S. M. Iger Studio Samuel Maxwell "Jerry" Iger (; August 22, 1903 – September 5, 1990) was an American cartoonist and art-studio entrepreneur. With business partner Will Eisner, he co-founded Eisner & Iger, a comic book packager that produced comics on deman ...

personnel in the 1940s who adapted literary novels and stories for ''

Classics Illustrated ''Classics Illustrated'' is an American comic book/magazine series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as ''Les Misérables'', '' Moby-Dick'', ''Hamlet'', and '' The Iliad''. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication ...

'' comics, for which her father Alex Blum drew many issues.

Later life

After Bill Bossert's July 1945 return from the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, where he had been a captain and a

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

during World War II,Bill Bossert interview, p. 44 Bossert and Blum had a son, Tom, and a daughter, Jill, and moved to

Pleasantville, New York Pleasantville is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located 30 miles north of Manhattan. The village population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. Pleasantville is home to the secondary campu ...

, where Blum became a housewife and Bossert a graphic designer.Bill Bossert interview, p. 48 They later had a second son, Robin.Bill Bossert interview, p. 49 Blum developed

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

, surviving for five years and undergoing

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

, and died in 1973, according to Bossert in an interview conducted in the late 2000s, or 1972, per ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999''.

Legacy

While a handful of women artists worked in comics during the 1930s and 1940s era collectors and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books, Blum is among the only female comics writers of that era, along with Ruth Roche and writer-artist Tarpé Mills.Tarpe Mills
at the

References