Encyclopedia of Women in Comics

Rahir, Jeanine (1956 - )

Belgium comic book author

Rahir has worked as a prominent scripter and self taught illustrator in the Franco-Belgium comic book industry since the early 1980s with her twin sister, a fellow artist, Renée Rahir. From the late 1980s, She almost worked exclusively for the publisher Éditions Glénat.

Between 1985 and 1989, Jeanine and Renée Rahir created numerous short stories for the magazine Tintin and its Dutch equivalent, Kuifje.

In 1989, Jeanine scripted Les Voyages de M. Victor, with art by Marie-José Sacré, published by Éditions Glénat. This album won an award at the Sierre Comics Festival.

In 1991, the sisters made the adventure trilogy Barry Lan together in the "Grafica" collection, also published by Glénat. She released Vous veillez sur mon sommeil in 1992. The following year, she published Partout l'éternité , which earned her an award at the Durbuy Comics Festival that same year. It was in 1994 that the volume L'Irbis concluded this saga.

Jeanine went solo with the heroic fantasy series Chevalier Walder, published between 1997 and 2003 about the religious order of the Teutonic Knights. The series comprises seven volumes in theVécu collection from the same publisher, Glénat.

Rambo, Pamela (1968 - )

American comic book colorist

Rambo has worked in the comics industry since 1993 starting with Dark Horse comics on their title Aliens: Colonial Marines. She is also perhaps best known for her work on Dark Horse comics' Star Wars series. As well as work on Hellboy, the Mask, and Predator: Race War.

She started working as a freelancer for DC comics in 1995 in the title Shadow of the Bat. She continued on work for their other titles Green Lantern and Wonder Woman.

Additionally, she has worked for DC Comics's Vertigo imprint on such titles as Preacher and Y: The Last Man. After filling in for issue 13 of Preacher (April 1996), Rambo eventually took over coloring duties from Matt Hollingsworth from issue 31 (November 1997).

Reed, Phyllis (1918-2005)

American comic book editor

Phyllis Macdonald had worked as an editor on National/DC romance titles from 1959-1963. It is assumed that she started out as an assistant and made editor after the departure of Ruth Bryant.

Reeder, Amy (1980 - )

American comic book artist and writer

Reeder is best known for her work on such titles as Madame Xanadu, Batwoman, and Supergirl and as the co-creator of Rocket Girl for Image Comics and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur for Marvel comics, both with writer Brandon Montclaire.

Amy Reeder was first discovered through the fourth of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga competitions and later wrote and illustrated the OEL manga Fool's Gold.

Reeder became the lead artist on the Madame Xanadu series from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, with writer Matt Wagner. In a 2007 interview, she credited editor Brandon Montclare with helping her get her start in the comics industry. In 2010, DC announced that she would take over alternate art duties for the Batwoman series with J. H. Williams III, in addition to providing variant covers to that title and Supergirl, the latter of which she began with issue 55. She wrote and drew a six-issue Amethyst limited series in 2020.

Renée, Lily (1921-2022)

Austrian-born American artist, comic book inker/penciller

Lily Renée Phillips was best known as one of the earliest women in the comic-book industry, beginning in the 1940s period known as the Golden Age of Comics. While with the comics publisher Fiction House, Renee worked on such features as Jane Martin (Wings Comics #31-48 3/43-8/44), The Werewolf Hunter (Ranger Comics #14-38, 40 12/43-4/48), The Lost World (Planet Comics #32-49 (9/44-7/47) and Señorita Rio (Fight Comics #34-44, 47-51 10/44-8/47).

In 2007, Renée attended Comic-Con International in San Diego, where The Friends of Lulu nominated her to its Hall of Fame.

Richardson, Afua Njoki (1980 - )

American comic book writer/illustrator and musician

Richardson is possibly best known for her covers for five issues of Marvel's Eisner-award winning series Black Panther: World of Wakanda and art for a short story backup in the first issue. Her comic, Genius, with writers Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman won Top Cow's 2008 Pilot Season.

Richardson has also illustrated a Langston Hughes poem in 2014 for NPR's Black History Month, and did variant covers for several comic book titles including All-Star Batman for DC comics, Attack on Titan for Kodansha, Mad Max for Vertigo, as well as covers/variant covers for X-Men '92, Totally Awesome Hulk, Shuri, and Captain America and the Mighty Avengers at Marvel Comics.

She was a member of the now defunct Ormes Society, which promoted African-American women in the comics industry.

In 2011, Richardson received the Nina Simone Award for Artistic Achievement as one of the few African-American women comic book artists to work for the leading publishers in the field.

If you want to know more about the talented and amazing Afua Richardson, please follow this link https://www.afuarichardson.com to her official website.

Robbins, Trina (1938-2024)

American Comic book writer, artist, editor, and herstorian

One of the first women in the Underground Comix movement of the 1970s. During which time she co-produced (with Barbara Mendes) It Ain't me, Babe (1970), which was the first comic book created entirely by women. She also co-founded Wimmen's Comix (1972-1992) an all-female underground comic anthology which provided a platform for women artists to explore taboo topics, created a supportive community for creators, and helped pioneer the graphic memoir genre.

Robbins was a great force in the research of women in cartooning and comics with such notable works as Women and the Comics (1985), A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), The Great Women Superheroes (1996), From Girls to Grrrlz (1999), Pretty in ink (2013) and Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age (2020).

In 1994, Robbins co-founded the non-profit, charitable organization, the Friends of Lulu (1994-2011) with Heidi MacDonald, Deni Loubert, Anita Bennett, Liz Schiller, and Jackie Estrada, designed to promote readership of comic books by women and participation of women in the comic book industry. The organization also sponsored the Lulu awards and Administered the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.

Robbins was also the first woman to draw Wonder Woman beginning in 1986 in The Legend of Wonder Woman, a four issue limited series that was written by Kurt Busiek.

Robbins also was the co-creator of Warren Publishing's Vampirella in Vampirella #1 (1969) with writer Forrest J. Ackerman. As the comic book artist responsible for the look, she created the character's iconic red costume and hairstyle.

Roché, A. Angélique

American journalist, producer, author, and professional host

Angélique's work sits at the crossroads of history, current events, and its impact on pop culture. She has been seen/heard on various outlets and platforms, including Harper’s Bazaar, NBC News, NBCBLK, MSNBC, AMC/BBC, SyfyWire, Disney, Marvel Studios, ESPN, and Paramount+.

Angelique has hosted and produced multiple non-scripted series, including Brave New Pod, Geeksplain, Roles Ranked, SyFy Wire Rewind, and New York Public Radio’s (WNYC) Very Biggest Questions. Her first graphic novel, Trinity City #1, debuted in 2023. She is the co-author of Marvel Entertainment and Simon & Schuster Gallery Books’ My Super Hero is Black (2025).

To learn more about Angélique's work and professional career, please follow this link https://www.angeliqueroche.com/ to her website.

Roche, Ruth Ann (1917-1983)

American comic book writer and editor

Roche was the business partner of Jerry Iger of the Roche-Iger studio beginning in 1945, which acted as a non-fiction packager for Fiction House (where as before, it was the Eisner-Iger shop from 1936-1939, until Will Eisner's departure in 1939)

She originally started work for the shop in 1940. During that time she wrote for features Phantom Lady, La Senorita, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Kaanga, and Camilla. She also created Kismet, Man of Fate, the first Muslim superhero (Bomber Comics, 1944 by Elliot Publishing Company). She soon became Iger's associate editor and, in 1945, became partners, where she remained until it ceased operations in 1961.

Trina Robbins and Catherine Yronwode dedicated their 1985 book Women and the Comics to Ruth Roche.

Roy, Adrienne (1953-2010)

American comic book artist

Roy worked mostly for DC Comics and was largely responsible for coloring the Batman line (Batman and Detective Comics) throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

Adrienne applied for an open DC Comics color artist position and was trained by Jack Adler, DC's Production Supervisor. Roy began her comic book coloring career in 1977, and quickly became DC Comics' most popular interior colorist. During the next two decades, Roy colored nearly 200 issues each of Batman and Detective Comics, and also had long runs on The Brave and the Bold, Batman and the Outsiders, Batman: Shadow of the Bat and Robin.

Roy also colored the Batman and World's Greatest Super-Heroes Sunday strips. Adrienne was also the original colorist for New Teen Titans (working with Marv Wolfman and George Pérez), and colored more than 150 issues of the hugely-popular series. She also had long runs on Mike Grell's Warlord and Superman, and colored "I, Vampire" in House of Mystery and Paul Gulacy's Slash Maraud miniseries.

When computerized colors arrived in comics, the assignments to classic colorists substantially decreased. By 2000, Roy was largely out of work, despite training herself on the computer.