Nina Albright

What does Black Venus, Miss Victory, and Dr. Doom (not that Dr. Doom Marvelites!) have in common?

Answer: They were all drawn by artist Nina Albricht.

Ms. Albricht was born in 1907 and spent nine years illustrating comics. Even so, her body of work, as well as the quality, is so impressive that it’s a wonder more people don’t know about her.

By the time she was 16 years old, she had already won awards for her artistic skills. This gave her the confidence to enroll in the School of Art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. From there, she answered a classified ad, which led to her working for various comic book publishers in the 1940s, working on titles such as Dr. Doom, The Cadet, and Target Comics.

When America entered World War II, many of the young men in the industry went off to war. As a result, she found herself with plenty of work in a job that typically catered to men (unfortunately, not much has changed). During her stint with Holyoke Publications, she brought Miss Victory to life. She did the same for the heroine Black Venus at Aviation Press.

After the war was over, Ms. Albricht continued to work in comics, but by the 1950s, she had moved on. She never stopped illustrating, though – as is evidenced by the below book cover for the Signal Books Publishing Company in 1960.

Nina Dorothy Albright (February 15, 1907 – February 7, 1997)