Ruth Atkinson

Ruth Atkinson Ford, née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson (June 2, 1918 – June 1, 1997), was an American cartoonist and pioneering female comic book writer-artist who created the long-running Marvel Comics character Millie the Model and co-created Patsy Walker.

Biography Her creation Patsy Walker would become the superheroine Hellcat in 1976, but Ruth Atkinson was drawing Hellcats long before then. From Wings Comics #45 (Nov. 1944). Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ruth Atkinson as an infant moved with her family to upstate New York. or, as noted by the Connecticut Historical Society, through the Iger Studio, a comic book packager that produced comics for publishers on an outsource basis. Fellow female artists Fran Hopper, Lily Renée, and Marcia Snyder also worked for Iger, where one of the business partners was a woman, Ruth Roche. Atkinson's first confirmed, signed work is the single-page "Wing Tips" featurette in Wings Comics #42 (Feb. 1944). She would draw that humor/romance feature for two years, as well write and draw the premiere issue of the long-running series Millie the Model.

Atkinson later drew true-life adventures for Eastern Color Printing's Heroic Comics, as well for some of the first romance comics, including Lev Gleason Publications' Boy Meets Girl and Boy Loves Girl, through the early 1950s.

Atkinson retired from comics sometime after her marriage. She was living in Pacifica, California, at the time of her death from cancer.