Dorothy Woolfolk Explained

Birth Name:Dorothy Roubicek
Birth Date:1 October 1913
Birth Place:New York City
Death Place:Newport News, Virginia
Nationality:American
Write:y
Edit:y
Alias:Dorothy Manning
Notable Works:Kryptonite
Awards:Bill Finger Award

Dorothy Woolfolk née Dorothy Roubicek (October 1, 1913 – November 27, 2000[1] [2]) was one of the first women in the American comic-book industry. As an editor at DC Comics, one of the two largest companies in the field, during the 1940s period historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books, she is credited with helping to create the fictional metal Kryptonite in the Superman mythos.[3]

Biography

Early life and education

Born Dorothy Roubicek, Woolfolk was a New York City high school graduate who never attended college but nonetheless won prizes on a 1950s television game show.

Editor

She served from 1942 to 1944 as an editor at All-American Publications, one of the three companies that would merge to form the present-day DC, before Julius Schwartz took over,[4] then spent the next two years at Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor to Marvel Comics, and in 1948 was an editor at EC Comics.[5]

Woolfolk said in 1993 that she had found Superman's invulnerability dull, and that DC's flagship hero might be more interesting with an Achilles' heel such as adverse reactions to a fragment of his home planet. This gave rise to the famous fictional metal kryptonite,[6] [7] which made its first appearance in the comics in the story "Superman Returns To Krypton!", credited to writer Bill Finger, in Superman #61 (Dec. 1949).[8]

After raising children Donald and Donna, the latter of whom would become an author, Woolfolk briefly returned to comics in the 1970s, editing Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, Young Romance, and other DC superhero and romance titles from 1971 to 1974.[9] Comics artist Alan Kupperberg, who worked with her at DC Comics in the 1970s, said in 2001,

Her assistant editor at DC, Ethan Mordden, would go on to become a notable LBGT author.

Writer

She also occasionally scripted comics, including an unknown number of Wonder Woman stories in the 1940s — making Woolfolk the first female writer of that series, and, with Ruth Atkinson and Ruth Roche, among comic books' first female writers. Woolfolk also wrote for the science fiction magazine Orbit during the 1950s, and in the 1970s and early 1980s was the author of the 10-book Scholastic Press young-adult novel series about teen detective Donna Rockford.

Personal life

Her second husband was 1930s comic-strip cartoonist and 1940s comic-book writer Walter Galli.[10] She met her third husband,[11] novelist William Woolfolk,[12] during her stint at DC, when she rejected a script he had submitted for a Superman comic book.

Woolfolk's daughter, Donna Woolfolk Cross, is also an author; her work includes the historical novel Pope Joan (Ballantine, 1996).

Woolfolk, who lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan while working in comics and as an author, moved to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1996. Two years later, she began to reside at the St. Francis Nursing Center in Newport News, Virginia, and died at Mary Immaculate Hospital in that city on November 27, 2000.

Awards

Woolfolk was nominated every year from 2001 to 2004 for induction into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.[13] [14] [15] [16]

In 2018, Woolfolk won the 2018 Bill Finger Award from San Diego Comic-Con.[17]

See also

Books

Donna Rockford Mystery series

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.fold3.com/s.php#query=Dorothy+Woolfolk&offset=6&preview=1&t=830 Dorothy A. Woolfolk
  2. News: Tippens . Norman . Dorothy Woolfolk, Superman Editor . . . December 6, 2000 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130404225236/http://articles.dailypress.com/2000-12-06/news/0012060120_1_superman-comics-comic-books-superman-editor . April 4, 2013 . dead. Note: Obituary gives middle initial "G" while Social Security Death Index gives middle initial "A".
  3. Web site: Dorothy Woolfolk and the invention of Kryptonite. Syfy.com. en. Sara. Century. 2018-04-12. June 21, 2018. October 31, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201031052549/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dorothy-woolfolk-and-the-invention-of-kryptonite. live.
  4. Web site: DCHISTORY-1 . 2024-07-12 . dccomicsartists.com.
  5. [Roy Thomas|Thomas, Roy]
  6. As related by Tippens, who notes, "although there is no definitive record."
  7. News: The Woman Who Tried to Kill Superman. Florida Today. Brevard County, Florida. August 20, 1993. 39. Jocelyn R.. Coleman. November 20, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191120031302/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12219279/dorothy_woolfolk/. live.
  8. http://www.comics.org/issue/7882/#74473 Superman #61
  9. http://www.comics.org/credit/name/dorothy%20woolfolk/sort/chrono/ Dorothy Woolfolk
  10. Web site: Jerry Bails . Bails . Jerry . Hames Ware . Galli, Walter . Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234628/http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=GALLI,+WALTER . March 3, 2016 . live .
  11. Web site: Bails . Jerry . Hames Ware . Woolfolk, Dorothy . Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224455/http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=WOOLFOLK,+DOROTHY . March 3, 2016 . live .
  12. News: Sherwin . Elisabeth . 'Pope Joan' will Make You Wonder about History, Herstory . "Printed Matter" (syndicated column, California newspapers) . October 19, 1997 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110519100525/http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/1997/woolfolk.html . May 19, 2011 . live .
  13. Web site: Friends of Lulu 2001 Lulu Awards . Comic Book Awards Almanac . https://web.archive.org/web/20120304160308/http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/lulu01.php . March 4, 2012 . live.
  14. 'Friends Of Lulu' Award Nominees Announced . . July 12, 2002 . April 8, 2013 . April 8, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130408105417/http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=1265 . live . Archive link requires scrolldown.
  15. 'Friends Of Lulu' Award Nominees Announced . . June 18, 2003 . April 8, 2013 . April 8, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130408105312/http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=2264 . live . Archive link requires scrolldown.
  16. News: Friends of Lulu Announces 2004 Nominees . . June 24, 2004 . April 8, 2013 . February 12, 2006 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20060212224347/http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/resources/longbox/2129/.
  17. Web site: Joye Murchison Kelly, Dorothy Roubicek Woolfolk to Receive 2018 Bill Finger Award . San Diego Comic-Con International . 2018 . 5 February 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190205235228/https://www.comic-con.org/awards/bill-finger-award-node.

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