Toni Blum

Audrey Anthony Blum (c. January 12, 1918 Note: The Social Security Death Index lists no Toni Blum, Audrey Blum, or Audrey Bossert born 1918. – 1972 Bails, Jerry and Hames Ware, eds
"Blum, Toni"
at ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999'' or 1973) was an American comic book writer active during the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age of Comic Books", known for her work with Quality Comics and other publishers and as one of the first female comics professionals in what was then an almost entirely male industry.

Known professionally as Toni Blum, she was the daughter of comics artist Alex Blum and the wife of comics artist Bill Bossert. She was also known as Audrey Anthony Blossert.

Biography

Early life and career

Toni Blum was born in Pennsylvania,Bill Bossert interview, p. 45 the daughter of Jewish artists Alexander Anthony "Alex" Blum and Helen Blum.Bill Bossert interview, p. 47 Together with her younger brother, the family lived in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. During the Great Depression, Alex Blum's career as a portrait painter evaporated, leading the family to move to New York City, New York, seeking work. In 1938, she became a staff writer at the Manhattan studio Eisner & Iger, Robbins, Trina, and Catherine Yronwode. ''Women and the Comics'' (Eclipse Books, 1985), , p. 52 one of the era's comics packagers that would supply comic-book content on demand to publishers testing the emerging medium. She lived at the time with her family on 91st or 92nd Street near Park Avenue in Manhattan.Bill Bossert interview, pp. 42, 44

Her father also worked at Eisner & Iger, joining the studio either before or after her.Bill Bossert interview, pp. 46-47 There, sometimes in collaboration with him, she wrote stories under a variety of pseudonyms, among them Tony Boone, Anthony Bloom, and Tony Blum, as well as Toni Boone, Toni Boon, Toni Adams and possibly Bob Anthony, and Tony Adams, Anthony Lamb, Anthony Brooks, and possibly Jack Anthony, A. L. Allen, Tom Alexander, Tom Russell, and Bjorn Tagens.Toni Blum
at the Grand Comics Database She became best known, however, as Toni Blum, and was called that by her co-workers. Aside from comics writer-artist and company principal Will Eisner, Blum was the shop's only writer.Bill Bossert interview, p. 46 Her future husband, Eisner & Iger artist Bill Bossert, recalled of her working method,

Owing to her collection of pen names, historians are uncertain of her earliest comic-book scripts. ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999'' lists her as writer, from 1936 to 1937, of the two-page feature "The Vikings", which ran in issues #1-19 (cover-dated Dec. 1935 - Dec. 1937) of one of the earliest comic books, National Allied Publications' ''New Comics'' (renamed ''New Adventure Comics'' with issue #7). Blum is also tentatively identified as the author of the two-page text fillers "Treasure Hunt" Parts 1 & 2 in ''Action Comics'' #15-16 (Aug.-Sept. 1939), bylined "Jack Anthony". That title's publisher, Detective Comics Inc., one of the firms that would coalesce to become DC Comics, was not known to use comics packagers for its content, however. Following a handful of other tentative credits, Blum's first confirmed work, bylined "Anthony Brooks", is the six-page "Vladim the Voodoo Master", starring Yarko the Great, Master Magician, in Fox Comics' ''Blue Beetle'' #1 (Winter 1939–40).

Pioneering female comics creator

Blum co-created numerous features for Eisner & Iger clients. In Quality Comics' ''National Comics'' #1 (July 1940) alone, she introduced the aviation strip "Prop Powers", with the possibly pseudonymous artist Clark Williams; "Sally O'Neil, Policewoman", with artist Chuck Mazoujian; and "Wonder Boy", with artist John Celardo. Through 1943, she scripted a large number of Quality Comics features at various times, including "Black Condor", " Dollman", "Kid Patrol", "Lion Boy", " The Ray", " The Red Bee", "Stormy Foster", and "Uncle Sam" She also wrote numerous text fillers both for Quality and for Fiction House, many of the latter bylined "Tom Alexander".

The only female employee of the shop, the "young, attractive, intelligent" aspiring playwright Blum briefly dated Eisner, who depicted their relationship in his semiautobiographical graphic novel ''The Dreamer'', with Blum renamed Andrea Budd.Schumacher, Michael. ''Will Eisner: A Dreamer's Life in Comics'' (Bloomsbury USA, 2010), , p. 49 Kitchen, Dennis, "Annotations to ''The Dreamer'' in Eisner, Will. ''The Dreamer'' ( W. W. Norton & Company; reprint edition, 2008), , p. 52 She was treated respectfully in the otherwise all-male studio, save for one encounter involving artist George Tuska over a remark the latter made regarding Blum. As publisher and historian Denis Kitchen wrote, "Tuska, like Eisner, had a crush on office mate Toni Blum but was too shy to make his move. The actual provocation that inflamed Tuska, Eisner privately said, was Powell's loud assertion that he 'could fuck oni Blumanytime' he wanted. After decking Powell, Tuska stood over his prostrate coworker and in a voice Eisner described as Lon Chaney Jr. in ''Of Mice and Men'' said, 'You shouldn't ought to have said that, Bob.'"

Blum fell in love with another of the staff artists, Bill Bossert,Bill Bossert interview, p. 38 marrying him sometime during World War II,Bill Bossert interview, p. 43 and together eventually having three children.Bill Bossert interview, p. 42

Following Eisner's departure from Eisner & Iger to launch his Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert, " The Spirit Section", in 1940, Blum became ghost writer of its title feature "The Spirit" for a time in 1942, while Eisner did World War II U.S. military service. One source also lists her as a writer for a companion feature, "Lady Luck", in 1940. A different source includes her among the post-Eisner S. M. Iger Studio personnel in the 1940s who adapted literary novels and stories for ''Classics Illustrated'' comics, for which her father Alex Blum drew many issues.

Later life

After Bill Bossert's July 1945 return from the U.S. Army, where he had been a captain and a paratrooper during World War II,Bill Bossert interview, p. 44 Bossert and Blum had a son, Tom, and a daughter, Jill, and moved to Pleasantville, New York, where Blum became a housewife and Bossert a graphic designer.Bill Bossert interview, p. 48 They later had a second son, Robin.Bill Bossert interview, p. 49 Blum developed breast cancer, surviving for five years and undergoing chemotherapy, and died in 1973, according to Bossert in an interview conducted in the late 2000s, or 1972, per ''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928-1999''.

Legacy

While a handful of women artists worked in comics during the 1930s and 1940s era collectors and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books, Blum is among the only female comics writers of that era, along with Ruth Roche and writer-artist Tarpé Mills.

Awards

Toni Blum was a posthumous recipient of the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing in 2021.

See also

*List of women in comics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, Toni
1918 births
1970s deaths
Year of death uncertain
American comics writers
American female comics writers
Bill Finger Award winners
Golden Age comics creators
People from Pleasantville, New York
20th-century American women writers