'Mysta of the Moon' (Planet Comics #40).
Fran Hopper was one of the few female artists active during the Golden Age of American comic books in the 1940s. She mainly worked through the S. M. Iger Studio on Fiction House features. Besides her own features 'Gale Allen and the Girl Squadron' (1944) and 'Jane Martin' (1946-1947), Hopper also continued other artists' features like 'Patsy Walker', 'Mysta of the Moon' (1945-1947) and 'Camilla' (1945-1947).
Early life and career
Fran Hopper was born in 1922 as Frances R. Deitrick in the state of Maryland, but spent most of her childhood in New Jersey. In the early 1940s, Deitrick was one of several female comic book artists entering the American comic book industry. By 1942, the US had joined World War II, and many male authors were drafted. To fill their places, packager Jerry Iger and his editor Ruth Roche hired Deitrick and other women, such as Ruth Atkinson, Lily Renée and Marcia Snyder. Iger's studio produced full comic books for publishers like Fiction House. Initially working under her maiden name, she started signing her work Fran Hopper after marrying Dr. John B. Hopper II in 1944.
'Yank Aces of World War II - Lt. Kenneth A. Walsh' (Wings Comics #43).
Early comics
Hopper's first contributions to the comic industry were installments in the science fiction feature 'Norge Benson', published in Planet Comics issues #23 (March 1943) through #26 (September 1943). She moved on to draw the humor feature 'Private Elmer Pippin and the Colonel's Daughter' (1943-1944) and the adventure series 'Glory Forbes' (1945-1946), both in Ranger Comics. She also drew educational features like the biographical 'Yank Aces of World War II' (1944) in Wing Comics and 'African Wild Life' (1944-1945) and 'Jungle Facts' (1945) in Jungle Comics.
Female heroes
In the 1940s, Fiction House often assigned its female artists to draw features with female heroines, and Hopper stepped in with the science fiction adventure comic 'Gale Allen and the Girl Squadron' (1944) in Planet Comics. Subsequently, she gained more attention with the sci-fi feature 'Mysta of the Moon' (the "repository of the sum of all human knowledge") in Planet Comics, originally drawn by Joe Doolin, whom she succeeded from July 1945 to July 1947.
In Jungle Comics, Hopper assumed the art duties of the jungle adventure feature 'Camilla' from October 1945 until August 1947. Yet another jungle princess character inspired by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger's 'Sheena, Queen of the Jungle' (1937), the 'Camilla' character was originally created by Charles A. Winter in 1940 and since then drawn by several of Iger's crew. Hopper's final Fiction House feature was the espionage series 'Jane Martin' for Wings Comics, which ran from March 1946 until August 1947. In the mid-1940s, Fran Hopper additionally worked with former Iger colleague Ruth Atkinson for Timely Comics on some of the early installments of the teen humor feature 'Patsy Walker'.
'Jane Martin' (Wings Comics #73).
Post-comics life and death
After World War II, most of the female comic artists gradually left the American comic industry. Hopper retired in mid-1947. By the 1950s, the only women working actively on mainstream comic books were Ramona Fradon and Marie Severin. In the following decades, the Hopper family lived in the New Jersey towns of Mendham and Chester, where they raised and showed Arabian horses. In 1974, they moved to Thornton, New Hampshire, and then in 2006 to a retirement home in Whiting, New Jersey.
Legacy
Comic artist and historian Trina Robbins tracked down Fran Hopper and visited her in her retirement home. This led to a revival in interest in Hopper's career. Hopper was one of the Golden Age women featured in Robbins' anthology 'Babes In Arms: Women in the Comics During World War Two' (2017), along with Barbara Hall, Jill Elgin and Lily Renée. Fran Hopper passed away in New Jersey on 29 November 2017, at the age of 95.
'Camilla' (Jungle Comics #81, September 1946).