Number 1554: Abbott and Costello Meet Lily Renée

Abbott and Costello #6 (1949) from St. John presents a time-worn scenario: mirages, oases, sword-wielding sheiks and beautiful babes in bra-tops and harem pants. Oh yeah, and a lot of silly jokes and cornball word play. How many movies used the same setting?

The point of showing this, even for those who don’t remember how popular Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were in their era, is the art of Lily Renée and Eric Peters. Renée, born Lily Renée Wilhelm,  was a teenage war refugee from Austria. She came to America having never seen a comic book, and yet soon found herself drawing comics for Fiction House (Señorita Rio, The Lost World, Werewolf Hunter). Peters was Renée’s husband for a time. He also come from Austria. As I understand the division of labor, Peters drew the caricatures of Abbott and Costello, and Renée the other stuff, including the beautiful women.

Number 1089


"Heyyyyyy, Abbotttt!"


Lily Renée, an artist I featured with a Planet Comics "Lost World" story in my last post of 2011, is back with yet another episode from Abbott and Costello Comics. (See also Pappy's #1015.)

Renée's husband at the time, Eric Peters, drew the caricatures of the comedians, and Renée drew the rest (especially the pretty girls, her specialty).

Years after their deaths (Lou Costello in 1959, William "Bud" Abbott in 1974) Abbott and Costello are still well known and some of their movies are considered classics. I know I consider Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to be a classic. Pairing them up with the Universal Monsters was genius. I loved it when I was a kid, and love it now.

From St. John's Abbott and Costello Comics #8, 1949:

Number 1015





"Lily Renée drew the women. . ."





And hooboy, could she draw women! Renée, born Lily Wilhelms in 1925 in Vienna, Austria, came to America to escape the Nazis, and through a series of circumstances ended up at Fiction House as an artist.

Portrait of Renée from The Comics Journal #279.

In 1947 she married fellow Austrian Eric Peters, and together they drew several issues of Abbott and Costello for St. John. Peters drew the caricatures of Abbott and Costello, and Renée drew everything else.



I love Lily Renée's artwork. She was apparently embarrassed about drawing comic books, but she did it so well it's obvious she had some fun doing her job. Her time at Fiction House showed she was adept at giving the male readers what they wanted. Her females are beautiful, and in the case of her star character, Señorita Rio, also beautifully dressed. Rio, according to the artist, was dressed as she would have liked to be dressed.



Trina Robbins' 2006 interview with Renée from The Comics Journal #279 is the basis for most of what biographical information is known about her. She kept a low profile, not even telling her own children she had worked in comic books. As is shown in the stories reprinted in that issue of TCJ, and in this 24-page story from Abbott and Costello #2, in 1949, she had nothing to feel embarrassed about.



(Speaking of embarrassed: there are some racist caricatures in this story. I am posting them because I don't censor the past.)