Toni Blum
Encyclopedia
Audrey Anthony "Toni" Blum (c. January 12, 1918 - 1972 or 1973) 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.
, the daughter of artists Alexander Anthony "Alex" Blum
and Helen Blum. Together with her younger brother, the family lived in the Germantown
section of Philadelphia. During the Great Depression
, Alex Blum's career as a portrait painter evaporated, leading the family to movie to New York City
, New York
, seeking work. In 1938, she became a staff writer at the Manhattan
studio Eisner & Iger
, 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
in Manhattan
.
Her father also worked at Eisner & Iger, joining the studio either before or after her. There, sometimes in collaboration with him, she wrote stories under a variety of pseudonym
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. 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
, Blum was the shop's only writer. 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 Dec. 1935 - Dec. 1937) of one of the earliest comic books, National Allied Publications
' New Comics
(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
#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
, 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
#1 (Winter 1939-40).
' 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
", 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 Red Bee
", "Stormy Foster", and "Uncle Sam
" She also wrote numerous text fillers both for Quality and for Fiction House
, 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
The Dreamer, with Blum renamed Andrea Budd. 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.'"
Blum fell in love with another of the staff artists, Bill Bossert, marrying him sometime during World War II
, and together eventually having three children.
Following Eisner's departure from Eisner & Iger to launch his Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, "The Spirit Section", in 1940, Blum became ghost writer of its title feature "The Spirit" for a time in 1942, while Eisner did World War II
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
personnel in the 1940s who adapted literary novels and stories for Classics Illustrated
comics, for which her father Alex Blum drew many issues.
during World War II, 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
. They later had a second son, Robin. 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, or 1972, per Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999.
, Blum is among the only female comics writers of that era, along with Ruth Roche
and writer-artist Tarpé Mills
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer active during the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age of Comic Books
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
", known for her work with Quality Comics
Quality Comics
Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....
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
Alex Blum
Alexander Anthony Blum was a comic book artist best remembered for his contributions to the long-running comic book series Classics Illustrated . Born in Hungary, Blum studied at the National Academy of Design in New York before signing-on with the Eisner & Iger shop...
and the wife of comics artist Bill Bossert. She was also known as Audrey Anthony Blossert.
Early life and career
Toni Blum was born in PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, the daughter of artists Alexander Anthony "Alex" Blum
Alex Blum
Alexander Anthony Blum was a comic book artist best remembered for his contributions to the long-running comic book series Classics Illustrated . Born in Hungary, Blum studied at the National Academy of Design in New York before signing-on with the Eisner & Iger shop...
and Helen Blum. Together with her younger brother, the family lived in the Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
section of Philadelphia. During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Alex Blum's career as a portrait painter evaporated, leading the family to movie to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, seeking work. In 1938, she became a staff writer at the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
studio Eisner & Iger
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...
, 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 (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Her father also worked at Eisner & Iger, joining the studio either before or after her. There, sometimes in collaboration with him, she wrote stories under a variety of pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
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. 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
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, Blum was the shop's only writer. 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 Dec. 1935 - Dec. 1937) of one of the earliest comic books, National Allied Publications
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' New Comics
Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
(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
Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#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
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, 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
Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes that appear in American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939.-Publication history:...
#1 (Winter 1939-40).
Pioneering female comics creator
Blum co-created numerous features for Eisner & Iger clients. In Quality ComicsQuality Comics
Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....
' 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
Wonder Boy (comics)
Wonder Boy is the name of two fictional characters who have appeared as superheroes in comics published by Quality Comics and DC Comics. The original was an alien who appeared in National Comics...
", with artist John Celardo
John Celardo
John Celardo is a comic strip artist.After studying at the Art Students League of New York and the New York School of Industrial Arts he began his professional contributing sports cartoons to Street & Smith.-Comic books:He then drifted into comic books, working among other places at the...
. Through 1943, she scripted a large number of Quality Comics features at various times, including "Black Condor
Black Condor
Black Condor is the name of three fictional characters, DC Comics superheroes who have all been members of the Freedom Fighters. The first Black Condor, Richard Grey Jr., was originally a Quality Comics character.-Quality Comics:...
", "Dollman", "Kid Patrol", "Lion Boy", "The Ray
Ray (comics)
The Ray is the name of four fictional characters, all superheroes in the DC Comics universe.The first Ray was a Quality Comics character who was one of those purchased by DC Comics. He was later retconned as a member of the Freedom Fighters...
", "The Red Bee
Red Bee (comics)
The Red Bee is a fictional superhero from the Golden Age of Comics who first appeared in Hit Comics #1, published in July 1940 by Quality Comics. The character was obtained by DC Comics in 1956...
", "Stormy Foster", and "Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (comics)
Uncle Sam is a fictional character, a DC Comics superhero based on national personification of the United States, Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam first appeared in National Comics #1 and was created by Will Eisner.-Quality Comics:...
" She also wrote numerous text fillers both for Quality and for Fiction House
Fiction House
Fiction House is an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.-History:-Jumbo and Jack...
, many of the latter bylined "Tom Alexander".
The only female employee of the shop, the "young, attractive, intelligent" aspiring playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Blum briefly dated Eisner, who depicted their relationship in his semiautobiographical graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
The Dreamer, with Blum renamed Andrea Budd. She was treated respectfully in the otherwise all-male studio, save for one encounter involving artist George Tuska
George Tuska
George Tuska , who early in his career used a variety of pen names including Carl Larson, was an American comic book and newspaper comic strip artist best known for his 1940s work on various Captain Marvel titles and the crime fiction series Crime Does Not Pay, for and his 1960s work illustrating...
punching fellow artist Bob Powell
Bob Powell
Bob Powell né Stanislav Robert Pawlowski was an American comic book artist known for his work during the 1930-40s Golden Age of comic books, including on the features "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" and "Mr. Mystic". He received a belated credit in 1999 for co-writing the debut of the popular...
over a remark the latter made regarding Blum. As publisher and historian Denis Kitchen
Denis Kitchen
Denis Kitchen is an American underground cartoonist, publisher, author, and agent from Wisconsin, and the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.-Early life:...
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
Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
Of Mice and Men is a 1939 film based on the novella of the same title by American author John Steinbeck. It stars Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney, Jr., Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr...
said, 'You shouldn't ought to have said that, Bob.'"
Blum fell in love with another of the staff artists, Bill Bossert, marrying him sometime during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and together eventually having three children.
Following Eisner's departure from Eisner & Iger to launch his Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, "The Spirit Section", in 1940, Blum became ghost writer of its title feature "The Spirit" for a time in 1942, while Eisner did World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
U.S. military service. One source also lists her as a writer for a companion feature, "Lady Luck
Lady Luck (comics)
Lady Luck is a fictional, American comic-strip and comic book crime fighter and adventuress created and designed in 1940 by Will Eisner with artist Chuck Mazoujian . Through 1946, she starred in a namesake, four-page weekly feature published in a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert colloquially...
", in 1940. A different source includes her among the post-Eisner S. M. Iger Studio
Jerry Iger
Samuel Maxwell "Jerry" Iger was an American cartoonist. With business partner Will Eisner he co-founder of Eisner & Iger, a comic book packager that produced comics on demand for new publishers during the late-1930s and 1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic...
personnel in the 1940s who adapted literary novels and stories for Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
comics, for which her father Alex Blum drew many issues.
Later life
After Bill Bossert's July 1945 return from the U.S. Army, where he had been a captain and a paratrooperParatrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
during World War II, Bossert and Blum had a son, Tom, and a daughter, Jill, and moved to Pleasantville, New York
Pleasantville, New York
Pleasantville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Mount Pleasant. Pleasantville is home to a campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center...
, where Blum became a housewife and Bossert a graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
. They later had a second son, Robin. Blum developed breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, surviving for five years and undergoing chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
, 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 BooksGolden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
, Blum is among the only female comics writers of that era, along with Ruth Roche
Ruth Roche (comics)
Ruth Ann Roche , also credited as R. A. Roche and Rod Roche, was a writer and editor in the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was also the business partner of Jerry Iger.-Life and Career:...
and writer-artist Tarpé Mills
Tarpe Mills
Tarpé Mills was the pseudonym of comic book creator June Mills, one of the first major female comics artists. She is best known for her action comic strip, Miss Fury, the first female action hero created by a woman....
.