Fran Hopper

Fran Hopper (July 13, 1922 – November 29, 2017), née Frances R. Deitrick, was an American comic-book artist active during the 1930s–1940s period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. One of the earliest women in the field, she drew primarily for the publisher Fiction House on features, including "Jane Martin", "Glory Forbes", "Camilla", "Mysta of the Moon", and "Gale Allen and Her All Girl Squadron".

Early life Hopper was born in Maryland as the second oldest of five children of Stapelton C. and Emily R. Dietrick, and by age 7 was living in Rutherford, New Jersey.

Career

Hopper entered the comic-book field in 1943 through the S. M. Iger Studio, one of the era's "packaging studios" that produced outsourced comics for publishers. For the same publisher, she went on to do the humor feature "Private Elmer Pippin and the Colonel's Daughter" and the adventure feature "Glory Forbes" in Rangers Comics; the biographical feature "Yank Aces of World War II" in Wings Comics; the science-fiction feature "Gale Allen and the Girl Squadron" in Planet Comics; drawing it from #37–40, 42, 48–49 (July 1945 — July 1947). In Jungle Comics, she drew the jungle-girl adventure feature "Camilla", created by an unknown writer and artist C.A. Winter in issue #1 (Jan. 1940), from issue #70-92 (Oct. 1945 – Aug. 1947). And in Wings Comics, she drew the espionage feature "Jane Martin", created by pseudonymous writer Fred Hawk and an unconfirmed artist in issue #1 (Sept. 1940), from #67–84 (March 1946 – August 1947). though the Grand Comics Database gives it as the "Jane Martin" story in Wings Comics #84 (Aug. 1947). The family lived in Mendham, New Jersey, until 1955, when they moved to Chester, New Jersey, where they raised and showed Arabian horses. They returned to Mendham in 1955, then moved to Thornton, New Hampshire, in 1974. In 2006, Hopper and her husband moved to the retirement home The Pines in the Whiting section of Manchester Township, New Jersey.

Accolades In 2000, Hopper was nominated to the Friends of Lulu Hall of Fame.