Ruth Roche (comics)


Ruth Ann Roche was a writer and editor in the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was also the business partner of Jerry Iger.

Life and career

Roche started as a writer at the Eisner-Iger Studio, a packager for Fiction House, in 1940. She wrote such features as "Phantom Lady", "Senorita Rio", "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle", "Kaanga", and "Camilla". She also wrote the female-led adventure newspaper strip Flamingo, drawn by Matt Baker and syndicated by Iger's Universal Phoenix Features Syndicate. In 1944, she created Kismet, Man of Fate, the first Muslim superhero, published in the comic book Bomber Comics from Elliot Publishing Company.
She soon became Iger's associate editor; in 1945 they became business partners, and the studio became the Roche-Iger Studio. She stayed with the studio until it ceased operations in 1961.
She later married a man named Schaffer. She died in 1983.

Legacy

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

Writer

America In Action #1Bomber Comics #2

Editor

Aggie Mack #8All True Romance #23-24, 27, 30Battle Report #1-3Black Cobra #6Bomber Comics #3Bride's Secrets #9-10, 19Ellery Queen #2Fantastic Comics #11The Fighting Man #1-8The Flame #5 G-I in Battle #8Gunsmoke Trail #2-3Haunted Thrills #3, 10, 12, 17-18Lone Eagle #4The Lone Rider #3, 11, 15, 18, 20Lonely Heart #12Men in Action #1-2, 6Midnight #1-2, 4Phantom Lady #5 -4The Rider #3Samson #12-14Secret Love #2Seven Seas Comics #1-4Spitfire Comics #132Spunky the Smiling Spook #1Strange #1-6Strange Fantasy #2, 4-7, 9-14Super Cat #1Swift Arrow #1-2Today's Brides #4Voodoo #1-6, 8, 10-15, 17, 19