June Tarpe Mills (1915-1988) had been a fashion model and illustrator and contributed minor strips such as The Purple Zombie and Daredevil Barry Finn to comic books for two years when the much more successful Miss Fury made its debut in national newspapers in 1941, beating Wonder Woman to the punch by eight months. From the beginning, Mills signed her comics with her sexually ambiguous middle name because, as she said in a newspaper interview, "It would have been a major let-down to the kids if they found out that the author of such virile and awesome characters was a gal."