Toni Blum

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Toni Blum
BornAudrey Anthony Blum
c. (1918-01-12)January 12, 1918
Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died1972 or 1973
Pleasantville, New York, U.S.
Area(s)Writer
Pseudonym(s)Audrey Anthony Blossert
Tony Boone
Anthony Bloom
Tony Blum
Toni Boone
Toni Boon
Toni Adams
Bob Anthony
Tony Adams
Anthony Lamb
Anthony Brooks
Jack Anthony
A. L. Allen
Tom Alexander
Tom Russell
Bjorn Tagens

Audrey Anthony Blum[1] (c. January 12, 1918[2] – 1972[1] or 1973)[2] was an American comic book writer active during the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age of Comic Books", known for her work with Quality Comics 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 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

Park Avenue in Manhattan.[7]

Her father also worked at Eisner & Iger, joining the studio either before[8] or after her.[9] There, sometimes in collaboration with him, she wrote stories under a variety of pseudonyms, among them Tony Boone, Anthony Bloom, and Tony Blum,[6] as well as Toni Boone, Toni Boon, Toni Adams and possibly Bob Anthony,[1] and Tony Adams, Anthony Lamb, Anthony Brooks, and possibly Jack Anthony, A. L. Allen, Tom Alexander, Tom Russell, and Bjorn Tagens.[10] She became best known, however, as Toni Blum, and was called that by her co-workers.[6] Aside from comics writer-artist and company principal Will Eisner, Blum was the shop's only writer.[11] Her future husband, Eisner & Iger artist Bill Bossert, recalled of her working method,

She'd write an outline, and she'd help [the artist] break it down page-by-page. Then she would get the pages back, and she would pencil in the actual dialogue on the page. Then the lettering man would letter the dialogue. ... [Y]ou'd be amazed at some of the guys who didn't have a clue what the storyline was supposed to be, even though she gave them a couple of paragraphs, and would give names of the good guy and the bad guy, and the police and the undercover agent, or whatever the story was. ... They would start out, and then she'd have to keep rewriting the whole thing because they made such a mess. She'd say, 'This is supposed to be on the fifth page and you have it on the second page. You're giving away the whole story in the beginning.' So she had to re-do the whole story as it went along.[2]

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 (

Fox Comics' Blue Beetle #1 (Winter 1939–40).[10]

Pioneering female comics creator

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

The Red Bee", "Stormy Foster", and "Uncle Sam"[1] She also wrote numerous text fillers both for Quality and for Fiction House, many of the latter bylined "Tom Alexander".[10]

The only female employee of the shop, the "young, attractive, intelligent"[13] aspiring playwright Blum briefly dated Eisner, who depicted their relationship in his semiautobiographical graphic novel The Dreamer, with Blum renamed Andrea Budd.[13][14] She was treated respectfully in the otherwise all-male studio, save for one encounter involving artist George Tuska punching fellow artist Bob Powell over a remark the latter made regarding Blum. As publisher and historian Denis Kitchen 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 [Toni Blum] anytime' he wanted. After decking Powell, Tuska stood over his prostrate coworker and in a voice Eisner described as Lon Chaney Jr. in Of Mice and Men said, 'You shouldn't ought to have said that, Bob.'"[14]

Blum fell in love with another of the staff artists, Bill Bossert,[15] marrying him sometime during World War II,[16] and together eventually having three children.[17]

Following Eisner's departure from Eisner & Iger to launch his Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, "

ghost writer of its title feature "The Spirit" for a time in 1942, while Eisner did World War II U.S. military service.[1][18] One source also lists her as a writer for a companion feature, "Lady Luck", in 1940.[1] A different source includes her among the post-Eisner S. M. Iger Studio personnel in the 1940s who adapted literary novels and stories for Classics Illustrated comics, for which her father Alex Blum drew many issues.[19]

Later life

After Bill Bossert's July 1945 return from the

U.S. Army, where he had been a captain and a paratrooper during World War II,[20] Bossert and Blum had a son, Tom, and a daughter, Jill, and moved to Pleasantville, New York, where Blum became a housewife and Bossert a graphic designer.[21] They later had a second son, Robin.[22] Blum developed breast cancer, surviving for five years and undergoing chemotherapy, and died in 1973, according to Bossert in an interview conducted in the late 2000s,[2] or 1972, per Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999.[1]

Legacy

While a handful of women artists worked in comics during the 1930s and 1940s era collectors and fans call the

Tarpé Mills.[24]

See also

  • List of women in comics

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bails, Jerry and Hames Ware, eds. "Blum, Toni" at Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999
  2. ^ a b c d Interview with husband Bill Bossert (January 2011). "'I Was Contemptuous, Basically of the Comics'". Alter Ego (99): 39. She died in '73 of breast cancer. ... I'm not sure [of her birth date], exactly. I think it was January 12th, 1918 Note: The Social Security Death Index lists no Toni Blum, Audrey Blum, or Audrey Bossert born 1918.
  3. ^ a b Bill Bossert interview, p. 45
  4. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 47
  5. ISBN 978-1-60549-037-3
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-913035-02-3
    , p. 52
  7. ^ Bill Bossert interview, pp. 42, 44
  8. ISBN 978-0-374-18767-5
    , p. 26
  9. ^ Bill Bossert interview, pp. 46-47
  10. ^ a b c d e Toni Blum at the Grand Comics Database
  11. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 46
  12. ^ Wonder Boy at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived October 25, 2011.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-1-60819-013-3
    , p. 49
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-393-32808-0
    , p. 52
  15. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 38
  16. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 43
  17. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 42
  18. ISBN 978-0-87805-758-0
    , p. 74
  19. ISBN 978-0-9544589-0-4
    , p. 129
  20. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 44
  21. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 48
  22. ^ Bill Bossert interview, p. 49
  23. ^ Ruth Roche at the Grand Comics Database
  24. ^ Tarpe Mills at the Grand Comics Database.
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