Ray Hermann

There weren’t many women working in comics in the early forties. Those who were often had to write under a male pseudonym as it was felt readers wouldn’t accept a comic either written or illustrated by a woman. 

In 1938 Audrey “Toni” Blum walked into Eisner & Iger’s Manhattan offices and was hired as a writer – the only other writer employed at the company other than Eisner himself.  

One of Blum’s first assignments was to write s story for Blue Beetle #1 that went on sale in January 1940. The six-page story was titled “Vladim the Voodoo Master” and credited to “Anthony Brooks.” She then went on to create the characters Prop Powers in the story “Death Rides the Airways” and Wonder Boy in “The Boy from the Meteor” for National Comics #1 (again under pseudonyms). She wrote many more, but her contributions are often lost to time because of the unfortunate use of pen-names to disguise her gender and identity. 

When Eisner had to vacate his writing chair during World War II, Blum stepped in to ghostwrite the scripts for The Spirit in 1942.

Audrey “Toni” Blum (Jan. 12, 1918 – 1972(3))