Millie the Model #1

History

The original story reprinted here was written, penciled, and inked entirely by Ruth Atkinson, one of the first women to hold a staff artist role at a major American comics publisher, for Timely Comics in August 1945. Atkinson had already co-created Patsy Walker for Timely just a year earlier, and the debut issue of Millie the Model was her solo creative showcase — though some sources note that Stan Lee's editorial involvement has led to occasional debate about the precise degree of co-creation. The Horwitz edition was produced by Horwitz Publications, a Sydney firm founded in 1920 that operated as the dominant Australian conduit for Timely/Atlas/Marvel material from roughly 1950 to 1966, at its peak releasing nearly 50 comic titles monthly across large print runs; the Horwitz Millie series is identified by the Grand Comics Database as a circa-1950 series, placing this reprint squarely in Horwitz's prime publishing window.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Millicent 'Millie' Collins, an aspiring small-town model who moves to New York City to work for the fictional Hanover Modeling Agency — the character's entire 28-year run flows from this debut story.
• Created in full — script, pencils, and inks — by Ruth Atkinson (June 2, 1918 – June 1, 1997), one of the pioneering female writer-artists in American comic books, who also co-created Patsy Walker for Timely Comics.
• The debut issue's cover was a collaboration between Ruth Atkinson and Mike Sekowsky, who went on to become a significant Timely/Atlas staffer in the early issues of the series.
• Millie the Model launched as part of a coordinated Timely Comics line of female-led 'career girl' titles in August 1945, alongside Tessie the Typist, Nellie the Nurse, and Dolly Dill — an early industry attempt at a cohesive women's comics imprint.
• The debut story establishes Millie's origin: she wins a beauty pageant in her small hometown of Barberton, which propels her journey to New York City and the Hanover Modeling Agency.
• Publisher Horwitz Publications (Sydney, est. 1920) reprinted Timely/Atlas/Marvel content as Australia's dominant comics reprint house from approximately 1950–1966, releasing the Millie the Model series as part of a catalog that at peak reached nearly 50 monthly titles.
• After Atkinson's single-issue creative run, subsequent early issues of the American series were handled by artists including Ken Bald; the character's most visually definitive look was later established by Dan DeCarlo in a ten-year run (issues #18–93), before DeCarlo became famous for creating Josie and the Pussycats at Archie Comics.
• The original American series that this Horwitz issue reprints eventually spawned at least four spin-off titles — A Date with Millie, Life with Millie, Mad About Millie, and Modeling with Millie — plus one of the earliest Marvel Comics annuals, published in 1962.

Key issues in Millie the Model