Miss America Magazine #2

History

The Patsy Walker feature was co-created by writer Stuart Little and artist Ruth Atkinson, one of the first women working as both writer and artist in the American comic book industry, who had recently left Fiction House (where she briefly served as art director) to freelance for Timely. The issue was produced under the editorial oversight of Vincent Fago, who served as Timely's interim editor while Stan Lee was away on military service. The script for the inaugural Patsy story was attributed via textual analysis to Otto Binder, though the Grand Comics Database notes that Bessie Little — wife of Stuart Little and editor of Miss America Magazine — credited her husband as the original creator, a point that remains a minor scholarly dispute. Atkinson drew the Patsy Walker feature for approximately two years before retiring from the character, and she also drew the premiere issue of the long-running Millie the Model series around the same period.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Patsy Walker (Patricia 'Patsy' Walker), co-created by writer Stuart Little and artist Ruth Atkinson — cover date November 1944, published by Timely Comics.
• First appearances of the entire original supporting cast: Buzz Baxter (Patsy's boyfriend, later the supervillain Mad Dog), Hedy Wolfe (Patsy's raven-haired rival — surname spelled 'Wolf' in this issue, corrected to 'Wolfe' from the next issue onward), Stanley Walker (Patsy's father), Mary Walker (Patsy's mother), and Mickey Walker (Patsy's brother).
• The 7-page Patsy debut story, 'Introducing Patsy Walker,' centers on Patsy's discovery that Hedy has snagged her radio idol Swoon Strong as a prom date.
• The issue also contains a 14-page Miss America (Madeline Joyce) adventure titled 'The Mystery of the Shocker,' featuring the introduction and death of the villain The Shocker, plus an in-story retelling of Miss America's origin.
• The cover is a real-life photograph of 15-year-old model Dolores Conlon dressed as Miss America — one of the earliest known superhero cosplay covers in comics history.
• This issue marks the format change of the series from a standard superhero comic (Miss America Comics) into a larger magazine-sized publication mixing superhero stories, teen-romance features, and lifestyle articles aimed at young women.
• Ruth Atkinson, the artist and co-creator of Patsy Walker, was one of the first women to serve both as artist and writer in American comic books; she also created Millie the Model for Timely around the same period.
• The Patsy Walker cast introduced here remained in continuous publication across Timely, Atlas Comics, and Marvel Comics from 1944 through 1967, and Patsy was later reinvented as the superheroine Hellcat beginning in The Avengers #144 (February 1976), with a MCU adaptation appearing in the Netflix series Jessica Jones (2015–2019) as Trish Walker, portrayed by Rachael Taylor.

Cast · 7 characters

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