@glennf @gedawei I don’t think we do have a picture, but I can look. She set up an easel in the bedroom, where should would lay out the big strips (they were made of a strong, but somewhat flexible paper material - similar to poster paper.) Her work at DC Comics and for Flessel definitely fits the description of “hidden labor.” I’ve tried to find some kind of documentation for her work, but nothing yet. Thanks so much for the offer to include her. She passed about 12 years ago. Unsung hero!

@glennf @gedawei Well, kind of. After she graduated from the School of Art & Design in Manhattan (Tony Bennett was a classmate!), where she studied calligraphy, she got a job at DC Comics (around 1945), doing lettering for their comic books. She quit that full-time job, with a long commute, when she started a family. Once we were a little older, mom found this part-time job through her contacts at DC Comics. It was fortunate that Craig lived close by.

@glennf As a kid in the 1960’s, I saw my mom do the lettering for a syndicated newspaper comic strip called David Crane, by Craig Flessel. Craig lived in the same town (Huntington NY) and he’d regularly come to our home to pick up the completed strips that my mom lettered in her bedroom. I remember the strips were pretty large, maybe a foot high and a few feet long. If I recall correctly, the strips were just sketched in by Craig, the words pencilled in, and then got lettered by my mom.

@trcfwtt Absolutely agree. And he’s still out there fomenting insurrection.

@glennf I did feel just a tinge of guilt reading that article. But not for very long. I retired at the onset of the pandemic at 66 years old, and have enjoyed the best years of my life since then. After 40 years of participation in the workforce, I’ve paid my dues.

@Nadinabbott Glad I found you here!