'Jimmy Jupiter' in Marvel Mystery Comics #44 (cover-dated June 1943).
Helene Rother was a German-born American automotive designer, first working for General Motors and then running her own industrial design studio. Shortly after arriving in the United States as a European World War II refugee, she had a stint as comic artist at Timely Comics, drawing a character named 'Jimmy Jupiter' (1943).
Early life and career
Helene Rother was born in 1908 in Leipzig, Germany. She received her artistic education at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg, and possibly also attended one of the Bauhaus schools. Rother later moved to Paris, France, where she worked as a women's jewelry designer. In 1932, Rother gave birth to her daughter, Ina Ann Rother, whose father was later active in the French Resistance during World War II.
After the outbreak of World War II, Rother and her daughter fled from Nazi-occupied France. As the Nazis marched in, they headed south and ended up in northern Africa, arriving finally in the Moroccan city Casablanca. There, they spent two months in a displaced persons camp awaiting an exit visa, before they could continue their journey to the United States. When Rother and her daughter arrived in New York City in 1941, she decided to use her artistic skills to make a living.
Comics
One of Rother's early American jobs was as a comic book artist with Timely Comics, the company that would later become Marvel Comics. In later interviews, daughter Ina mentioned that her mother drew a character called 'Jimmy Jupiter'. Between 1942 and 1943, this boy, with the ability to transport to a parallel world where he can create anything he desires, made regular appearances in Marvel Mystery Comics. Among the artists associated with 'Jimmy Jupiter' were Eddie Robbins, Gus Hetman and Fred Gill. When a 2018 article about Helene Rother on the automotive website Hemmings.com caught the attention of comic historians, it was discovered that the 'Jimmy Jupiter' features in Marvel Mystery Comics issues #44-46 had signatures resembling the words "HELO" or "HETTO". While it was originally believed that these stories were drawn by Gus Hetman, it now seems more likely that they can be attributed to Helene Rother.
'Jimmy Jupiter' in Marvel Mystery Comics #45 (cover-dated July 1943).
Automotive designer
All in all, Rother's tenure in comics was a short one. In 1943, she replied to an ad by General Motors, who were in search of an interior designer. She got the job, and moved to Detroit, where she spent four years working as "Detroit's first woman automotive designer" (according to The Detroit News). With her keen sense for design and her "selling personality", in 1947 she eventually opened her own industrial design studio. One of her main clients was the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, for which she made idea sketches for interior lines, contributed ideas for colors and fabrics, and designed hardware items such as door handles, medallions and garnish moldings. Between 1948 and 1956, most Nash cars had an elegant interior design by Helene Rother.
Among her later clients were U.S. Rubber, Stromberg-Carlson, B.F.Goodrich, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, and International Harvester, as well as non-automotive firms like Magnavox and Elgin American. Because of her strong reputation for stylish interiors, the Miller-Meteor Motor Car Division of the Divco-Wayne Corporation also hired her for designing interiors for their ambulances and funeral cars.
Later life
Later in life, Rother earned additional praise with her designs for large stained-glass church windows. She spent her final years living on a horse farm in Metamora, Michigan, where she died in 1999 in her early nineties. Even though her contributions to the world of comics were limited, Helene Rother is widely regarded as a pioneer in automotive design and an inspiration for women working in male-dominated industries.
Helene Rother.