Friday, April 12, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Ramona Fradon
Ramona Fradon was born Ramona Dom on October 2, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois, according to the Cook County, Illinois Birth Index at Ancestry.com. Her parents were Peter Domboorajian (not Dombrezian*) and Irma Haefeli who married on July 12, 1923 in Chicago. Articles and photographs of her paternal grandparents are at the Ann Arbor District Library.
The 1930 United States Census counted Ramona, her parents and older brother, Jay, in Chicago at 431 Oakdale Avenue. Her father was an artist working in advertising.
In 1932 Ramona’s father moved to New York City. The New York Sun, October 5, 1932, said
... E. R. Munn & Co., Inc., leased apartments in the Gilford, 140 East Forty-sixth street, to ... Peter Dom ...
The next year, the Doms moved to Larchmont, New York, where Ramona attended Murray Avenue School. The New York Evening Post, September 15, 1933, said
The Houghton Company leased for Clement J. Todd his house at 39 Valley Road, in the Larchmont Woods section of Larchmont, to Peter Dom.
The Larchmont Times, June 27, 1935, reported on the school’s assembly where third-grader Ramona received a track award. The Times, June 17, 1937, covered the honor assembly at Murray Avenue School. Fifth-grader Ramona was presented the Humane Society poster award. She was also elected to the National Honor Society. According to the Times, June 30, 1938, Ramona, in the sixth grade, made the honor roll. Track meet honors were awarded to her and teammates in the Junior girls relay. Again, the Humane Society first prize was given to Ramona for her poster.
In the 1940 census, Ramona’s mother was divorced. Ramona, her mother and brother were residents of Bronxville, New York at 1 Cedar Street. The whereabouts of her father is not known.
Ramona graduated from Bronxville High School in 1944.
Ramona was interviewed by Jim Amash in Alter Ego #69, June 2007. She said
I didn’t take high school seriously, and by the time I graduated, I doubt if I could have gotten into a college. I started at Parsons School of Design in New York City. I went there for a year, but I found it to be superficial in terms of learning how to draw. We had life drawing once or twice a week, and the rest was all about technique and an overview of the different commercial fields. I felt I wasn’t learning anything that I needed to learn, so I switched to the New York Art Students League. I could never have been an interior decorator or a fashion artist anyway. I was drawn to the League because it was totally unstructured. You had to provide your own motivation. There were no tests, no grades, no diploma, no nothing. You just went there, and if you wanted to learn, you could learn, and that appealed to me. And we drew from a model every single day. …… I studied Fine Art at the Art Students League and wasn’t very good at it. I had absolutely no ambition, but I found myself doing it anyway. And then I met Dana Fradon there [around 1946], who was an aspiring cartoonist. His goal was to get into The New Yorker, and he encouraged me to try cartooning, which I thought was a total fall into degradation. People are very snotty in art school, so it just seemed like the most degrading thing in the world. But I had a talent for it. We were broke when we got married, so Dana and a friend of ours encouraged me to make some comic book samples. I did and that’s how it started. …
On September 16, 1948, Ramona and Arthur D. Fradon obtained, in Manhattan, marriage license number 29830. They married on September 20.
In the interview, Ramona answered a question about her father.
He … was a freelance lettering man. He designed among other things, the Elizabeth Arden, Camel, and Lord and Taylor logos—ones you still see around. And what else did he do? He designed type faces: the Dom Casual font, among others.
In Comic Book Creator #13, Fall 2016, Ramona said
My father was a commercial lettering man. He designed the Elizabeth Arden and Camel logos—some of the things that you still see around. I think Elizabeth Arden has a new one now, but they used my father’s version for years. He also lettered the Lord & Taylor logo ... lettering men like my father began to design fonts that were made into typefaces. So, instead of hiring a lettering man, they’d use these fonts, as they do today. My father designed the Dom Casual and other typefaces and everybody told him not to do it because it would put them all out of business. And it did.
According to the 1950 census, the cartoonist couple lived in Manhattan at 324 East 14th Street, third floor rear.
The Daily Argus (Mount Vernon, New York), July 1, 1952, said
Mrs. Irma H. Dom, of 51 Parkway Road, Bronxville, died today in Lawrence Hospital after a short illness at the age of fifty-three.Born in Chicago, daughter of Louise Tute Haefeli and the late John Haefeli, Mrs. Dom had resided in Bronxville for 14 years.In addition to her mother, she leaves a son, Jay R. Dom of Bronxville and a daughter, Mrs. Ramona Fradon of New York City.
In her interview, Ramona said artist and letterer, George Ward, encouraged her to try comic books. Many of her credits are at the Grand Comics Database and Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999.
Ramona’s father passed away on April 19, 1962 in Los Angeles.
Newtown, Connecticut city directories, for 1963 and 1978, listed Ramona and her husband on Brushy Hill Road. Who’s Who in American Art (1976) said their mailing address was RFD 2 Brushy Hill Road, Newton, Connecticut 06470.
10/15/1980, courtesy of Heritage Auctions
American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Dale Messick’s comic strip, Brenda Starr, debuted on June 30, 1940. Ramona drew the strip from October 6, 1980 to November 5, 1995. In her interview, Ramona explained how she got the assignment.
Yes, he [Gill Fox] called me up one day out of the blue and asked me if I wanted to draw it. He told me what they were offering, which was more than I was making in comics, but I didn’t tell him right away that I wanted to do it. I wanted to think about it, because I never liked Brenda Starr very much, and yet it seemed like an opportunity to me.Friends of mine who did strips warned me prophetically, that I would be on a treadmill, and I’d never get off of it, and that it was a grind. But I decided I’d give it a try. By the way, Gill had been looking—they’d been beating the bushes, trying to find somebody for about a year, because they wanted a woman to do it, and they finally bumped into me ...
In 1986 Ramona’s husband divorced her in Newtown according to the Connecticut Divorce Index at Ancestry.com. Later they lived together in their daughter’s house. He died on October 3, 2019. Ramona’s brother died on October 4, 1997.
Ramona passed away on February 24, 2024.
* The surname Domboorajian was found on passenger lists, census and death records at Ancestry.com. Ramona’s paternal grandfather was Rev. Mihran Domboorajian who was a bible worker in Persia. The misspelled surname, Dombrezian, appeared as early as 1990 in The LaserJet Font Book.
Further Reading and Viewing
Alter Ego #69, June 2007
Comic Book Creator #13, Fall 2016
The Beat, The Greatness of Ramona Fradon and Pioneering comic artist Ramona Fradon passes away at 97
Bleeding Cool, Comic Book Creator Ramona Fradon Has Died, Aged 97
Comic Book Resources, Ramona Fradon, Iconic Comic Artist and Metamorpho Co-Creator, Passes Away at 97
The Comics Journal, Ramona Fradon, 1926–2024
Daily Cartoonist, Ramona Fradon – RIP
ICv2, RIP Ramona Fradon
Multiversity Comics, Ramona Fradon, Classic Aquaman Artist and Co-Creator of Metamorpho, Dead at 97
The New York Times, Ramona Fradon, Longtime Force in the World of Comic Books, Dies at 97
News from ME, Ramona Fradon, R.I.P. and Two Ramona Fradon Stories…
Sequential Tart, The Real Ramona
Heritage Auctions, Brenda Starr by Ramona Fradon
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Comments:
I met Ramona in Baltimore years back at a convention. She had a stack of "Brenda Starr" originals with her and let me browse through it. Had lots of fun stories!
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