Ramona Fradon and Dana Fradon papers, 1950s-2020s

Ramona Fradon (1926-2024) was a versatile comics artist, spanning both comic books and newspaper strips. She began working at DC Comics in 1950, and was quickly promoted to the Aquaman series, upon the departure of Aquaman's first artist. There, she redesigned the main character and, with the series writer, introduced Aqualad. While Fradon took leaves in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, in order to raise her children, she returned to comics. In 1964, she created a new character, Metamorpho, whose popularity led to an eponymous series. She was the only woman artist working at DC Comics (concurrently with Marie Severin, at Marvel).

In 1980, Fradon left comic books for newspaper strips, her first love, with the opportunity to take over the strip "Brenda Starr" from its creator, Dale Messick. She stayed on the strip for the next 15 years. After that, she worked for a variety of comics publishers, such as Bongo's Simpson title, DC's Superfriends, and United Plankton Pictures' SpongeBob SquarePants. This continued until her retirement in 2013, although she was a staple at major conventions until shortly before her death.

Dana Fradon (1922-2019) was a prolific cartoonist, best known for his work in The New Yorker, where he published roughly 1400 cartoons in his 50-year career. Fradon was the last cartoonist to be hired under contract by Harold Ross, the founder of the magazine. He was one of The New Yorker's most political cartoonists, reflecting his own passion for Democratic politics and social justice. He did a great deal to shape Connecticut politics, especially in regard to the civil rights and anti-war movement.

Dana and Ramona Fradon met in the 1940s, while studying at the Art Students League and, while their marriage lasted only until 1982, their friendship continued until his death. They collaborated on projects (most, never published) and in Dana Fradon's final illness, he would come up with captions that Ramona would draw. In the early years of their marriage, Dana showed some of Ramona's work to his friend, letterer George Ward, who used it to pitch her to various comics publishers.

While continuing his prolific run at The New Yorker, he created several award-winning children's books.