''Friday Foster'' is an American newspaper comic strip, created and written by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Jorge Longarón. It ran from January 18, 1970, to February 17, 1974 and was notable for featuring one of the first African-American women as the title character in a comic strip.

Jackie Ormes Jackie Ormes (August 1, 1911 – December 26, 1985) was an American cartoonist. She is known as the first African-American woman cartoonist and creator of the ''Torchy Brown'' comic strip and the ''Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger'' panel. Early life and c ...

' ''Torchy Brown'' predated it, although it saw a more limited release in the Afro-American newspaper ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the mo ...

''.

History

Jim Lawrence had been the writer of the London '' Daily Express'' comic strip, James Bond, when he became interested in creating a comic about a black character. Spanish cartoonist Jorge Longarón was chosen as the illustrator, and the strip was syndicated by the

Chicago Tribune Syndicate Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media S ...

. The comic focused on the glamorous life of its title character, a former fashion model who became an assistant to a top fashion photographer, as described by comics historian Dave Karlen: A 1970 issue of ''

Jet Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to: Aerospace * Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines ** Jet airliner ** Jet engine ** Jet fuel * Jet Airways, an Indian airline * Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline * Journey to Enceladus a ...

'' reported on the debut of Friday Foster. The magazine stated that writer Lawrence lived in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Stat ...

and illustrator Langron lived in Spain. The two communicated via postal mail and telephone calls.Journalism - Black Career Girl Comic Strip Debuts in Cleveland, ''Jet'', page 19, February 12, 1970 Artist

Frank Springer Frank Springer (December 6, 1929 – April 2, 2009) was an American comics artist best known for Marvel Comics' '' Dazzler'' and '' Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. As well, in collaboration with writer Michael O'Donoghue, Springer created one ...

did a small amount of uncredited work on the strip, recalling in the mid-2000s, "I knew the writer, who lived here in New Jersey, ... ndI got a call a couple of times from Lawrence who said they hadn't gotten the material through from Spain" and asked Springer to fill in. "I guess over the years I did two Sunday pages, maybe three."Springer in

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...

published a single issue of a ''Friday Foster'' comic book (October 1972), written by

Joe Gill Joseph P. Gill (July 13, 1919 – December 17, 2006) Goodman">/nowiki>Martin/nowiki> Goodman – who wnedMarvel later – into comics, and did the first omicsin my brother's office". Gill is reportedly among the writers who scripted Captain Ame ...

and illustrated by

Jack Sparling John Edmond Sparling (June 21, 1916 – February 15, 1997), was a Canadian comics artist. Biography Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sparling moved to the United States as a child. He received his early arts training at the Arts and Crafts Club in New ...

. In 1975, ''Friday Foster'' was adapted into a

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president ...

feature film of the same name, starring

Pam Grier Pamela Suzette Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star (although, there are some who dispute that claim and believe Cheng Pei-pei actually holds that distinc ...

. In September 2019, the Friday Foster character appeared in a ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (character), Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''De ...

'' story drawn by

Andrew Pepoy Andrew Pepoy (born 1969) is an American comic book writer and artist. Career Pepoy began working as a professional artist while still in college at Loyola University Chicago. He has worked on a large variety of comics, including '' Superman'', '' ...

References

Foster, Friday American comic strips Drama comics Adventure comics 1970 comics debuts 1974 comics endings Comics about women Foster, Friday American comics adapted into films Foster, Friday Foster, Friday Foster, Friday Foster, Friday Comic strips formerly syndicated by Tribune Content Agency {{comic-strip-stub

History

Further reading

See also

References