Barbara Hall

After attending art school with aspirations of being a painter, Barbara Fiske Calhoun moved to New York in 1940. It was there that, unable to find much success as a painter, she happened to show her work to the editors of Harvey Comics. They immediately saw potential and, given the fact that the industry’s artists were all being shipped overseas to fight in the war, quickly hired her on as an artist in 1941. Being that she was a female artist, she was asked to use the name “B. Hall” when signing her work – which subsequently appeared in the Black Cat title as well as Girl Commandos.

She left comics in 1946 to found the Quarry Hill Creative Center in Vermont with her husband.

Barbara Hall (Isabelle Daniel Hall – September 9, 1919 – April 28, 2014)