Number 2321: “Rio! The American spy!”

Señorita Rio is one of my favorites from Fiction House. She lasted from 1942 until 1950 in Fight Comics, illustrated by several of the top artists associated with that line, including Nick Cardy (who drew her first story) and Lily Renée Wilhelm, who is the artist most identified with the character.

Rio (real name, Rita Farrar) was a spy. As I read in this story, she was even known as a spy to the villain when he spotted her on a train. Pardon me for stating the obvious, but the usefulness of a spy is nil once identified by the other side. Maybe they let her go because they wanted to see her eye-popping whip dance (page 6).

In looking at Lily Renée’s Wikipedia page I read that she was born in 1921, which makes her about 98 right now. If Wikipedia is correct, then she would be one of the few remaining artists from the golden age of comic books. She and her parents escaped the Nazis and eventually ended up together as war refugees in New York. Lily began drawing comics because her mother saw an ad from Fiction House. In those days the male artists were being taken by the armed forces to fight the war. Lily was a fast learner, and according to Wikipedia, “at some point, she studied at the Art Students League of New York and the School of Visual Arts.” She dropped out of comics in the fifties, but continued working, writing some plays and children’s books.

From Fight Comics #50 (1947):

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