Comic artist Ramona Fradon announced that she is retiring from doing commission work. Fradon, who turned 97 years old in October 2023, will still draw and may sell the artwork online.

As a Silver Age comic strip and comic book artist, Ramona Fradon worked on DC’s Aquaman in the 1950s and ’60s and she contributed to Metamorpho stories in the 1960s.

Fradon didn’t dream of working in comics as a little girl. Instead, it was something she sort of drifted into as a young newlywed. A friend of her husband’s, George Ward, worked in comic book lettering, and convinced her to give him samples of her artwork to pitch for job openings. She landed her first gig on a small feature called Shining Knight, with Ward’s help.

Fradon is best known for co-creating Aqualad. Upon seeing a script for the brand new character slated to be written into the Aquaman series, she showed marked initiative by designing the appearance of the character! DC went with Fradon’s design and the character still largely resembles Fradon’s interpretation.

Following her time with Aquaman, Fradon only signed on for four issues of Metamorpho. After leaving, she returned briefly to design a few covers for the title.

Her other work includes Marvel’s The Cat and Fantastic Four; DC’s Plastic Man, Freedom Fighters, and Super Friends; and the comic strip, Brenda Starr (which Fradon took on after creator Dale Messick decided not to continue drawing the strip).