[Yoc]

Hi Gang,
I hope all you Rene fans are reading this.
As fate would have it a reporter for Newsweek is doing a story on Lily Renee and wanted to read some thoughts on her work, good and bad, from FH general fandom.
I've already pointed the reporter towards noted women historians Trina Robbins and Cat Yronwode so the expert opinions are covered.
Jonathan - I'm especially thinking of you here as you are a FH original art collector and you've had a chance to see FH artist's work up close - a real privileged opportunity to see each artist at their best before poor paper/off register printing/and gaudy colouring have likely as not destroyed any fine details in a muddy throw away quality printing.

My own humble opinion is Renee wasn't a bad artist - but she wasn't any Matt Baker either but I give her credit for not trying to be a Baker Clone either.  She was a young woman making a living likely under trying conditions always with a deadline looming and only being paid to be fast not to be a Rembrandt.
It's interesting she was basically taught on the job.  She did have some time in the NY  Art Student's League and the School of Visual Arts but she went from doing catalog work to Fiction House and the Jane Martin feature.  You can read a fascinating interview with Rene here:
http://tinyurl.com/cpgwc9

She talks of her adventures escaping Nazi Germany at 14 to live in London during the blitz before finally making it to NYC.  She was a real looker by the time she got to FH (see pic in above link!) and as the only woman there at first she got treated pretty crudely.  But she stuck it out and became a better than competent artist and it's been pointed out by many - the ONLY female artist to get to do the much coveted cover job on a few of their books.
I think she actually was better doing the Abbott and Costello work for St.John.  She had a great touch for the humour of the team.  No doubt she could draw a sexy woman as good as many (with those odd eyes she favoured.  Slightly farther apart than normal but always exotic) but she was a face in the crowd at FH.

So people, you know her from early Jane Martin, Senorita Rio, Werewolf Hunter and The Lost World.  What are your thoughts on her time at FH?

Anyone?
-Yoc

[JVJ]

I take it, Yoc,
that the Who's Who is correct and the Trina interview is wrong on the spelling of Lilly? I'm curious as to which is right. If it's "LILLY", then I've been wrong all these years and would want to change the GCD entries on all the Fiction House stories where I spelled in "LILY".

If there's any chance that someone can ask Ms. Renee some  questions, I'd be curious as to whether or not she ever collaborated with some of the other women at Fiction House on her stories? And, whether or not she was any relation to George Carl Wilhelms, another FH artist?

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[kquattro]

Hi Gang,
I hope all you Rene fans are reading this.
As fate would have it a reporter for Newsweek is doing a story on Lilly Rene and wanted to read some thoughts on her work, good and bad, from FH general fandom.
I've already pointed the reporter towards noted women historians Trina Robbins and Cat Yronwode so the expert opinions are covered.

You might point the reporter toward Jim Amash, who recently interviewed Ms. Renee for ALTER EGO and George Hagenauer, who is among the most knowledgeable Fiction House fans that I know. If you need either man's email, contact me off-list.

I think she actually was better doing the Abbott and Costello work for St.John.  She had a great touch for the humour of the team.

Actually, her husband Eric Peters drew the characters of Abbott and Costello, while Renee drew the girls and everything else. She also told me that she inked all the artwork in the series.

Regarding Jim V's questions: Lily Renee does spell her name with one "L"--at least that's how she signed her artwork. 

Have a great time in France, Jim! Bon Voyage!!!

--Ken Quattro

[Yoc]

Ok - SORRY gang, it is Lily - my bad!  Autopilot typing.

Ken, I've sent you a PM on the subject.

Jim, have another great trip!
-Yoc

[JVJ]

Regarding Jim V's questions: Lily Renee does spell her name with one "L"--at least that's how she signed her artwork. 

Have a great time in France, Jim! Bon Voyage!!!

--Ken Quattro

I'll do that, Ken. By the way, the reason I was confused about the "LL" is that THROUGHOUT the Who's Who site it's spelled "Lilly". I've always used only one "L", but suddenly when I looked her up on the Bails project, I couldn't FIND her unless I uses two "L"s. That's when I began questioning myself. Thanks for the clarification.

(|:{>

[Mr. Izaj]

 All I could say about the artwork of Lily Renee is for a lady who practically had on-the-job training as a comic book artist, she did quite well for herself. She developed a natural realistic style that meshed well with the fast-paced, pulp inspired stories that she often drew at Fiction House. In fact her style reminded me a lot of what fellows like Al Bryant, Dan Zolnerwich, and Ruben Moriea were doing at Quality Comics during this period (although somewhat rougher than what they were doing). And the fact she was frequently assigned to do the covers for many of Fiction House's books proved that she must have been a good artist.

[narfstar]

When most companies used the best for covers I wonder why Fox used Otis. These are some of my least favorite GA covers on Blue Beetle and Green Mask and others. Did kids at the time respond positively to them? They are very simple. Maybe it was just Victor Fox being cheap. Surely even at that he could have gotten better.

[Yoc]

Joe Simon was a Fox editor.  I'm sure he had a budget to follow but Fox also used some of the best cover artist as well.

[Mr. Izaj]

 That's true Yoc, Fox did have some of the best cover artists. But much of the best covers to grace Fox's titles came circa 1939-1940 when the Eisner-Iger studio - and especially top artist Lou Fine - was providing material for Fox's books. After Victor Fox broke his ties with Eisner & Iger, the quality of the covers slipped big time. At their best, they were a grade below those that the Eisner-Iger studio provided for the books.

  Looking at Lily Renee's art at Fiction House, it's easy to see why she was frequently assigned covers. She was also good enough to be working on a strip that was a book's lead feature (for a time Senorita Rio was the lead feature of Fight Comics). Heavy accomplishments for a woman in the comic book field.

[Mr. Izaj]

  Just found out through looking over the Fiction House books on the site that Lily Renee actually had two strips that for a time were the lead features in a book. The two were The Lost World in the pages of Planet Comics and Senorita Rio in pages of Fight Comics.

I hoping that more issues of Fight Comics would be added in the future. I'd like to see more of Ms. Renee's work on Senorita Rio.

[JVJ]

Any chance we can get this thread title to read "Lily Renee"?

(|:{>

[Yoc]

Done, thanks for reminding me Jim.
Since I passed along contacts generously provided by Jim and Ken Q I haven't heard back from the writer but I hope we get to see the final product some day.

Thanks to all for their posts,
-Yoc

[JVJ]

Done, thanks for reminding me Jim.
Since I passed along contacts generously provided by Jim and Ken Q I haven't heard back from the writer but I hope we get to see the final product some day.

Thanks to all for their posts,
-Yoc

Don't forget the third "E" in Renee, Yoc.
Thanks!

Today I visited a Parisian Office Depot in order to get some ink cartridges for my Epson All-in-One that I have here. I need the ink to print out the advance contents of the the Young Allies 1-4 Masterworks volume. I'm supposed to help DocV with art IDs, but I'm feeling very insecure with this Timely Shop era. Then we visited the Arch d' Triomphe and a FNAC store (sort of like an upscale Fry's, I guess is the best comparison) in order to get a power supply for Karen's laptop. All the problems of home, except the scenery is much more interesting...

Peace, Jim (|:{>