DORIS SLATER (1918-1964)
Doris Slater of Chatham and later Toronto, Ontario attended the Ontario College of art in the late 1930’s, and was hired by brother-in-law Ted McCall at Anglo-American Comics to work on the first issues of Grand Slam Comics and Three Aces Comics for which she drew characters like Pat the Air Cadet and Martin Blake, The Animal King. In the fall of 1944 Doris made arrangements to draw scripts from Pat Joudry’s popular CBC radio show “Penny’s Diary” for Bell Features’ Active Comics 29-26. Around this time she also married popular Canadian crooner Russ Titus and soon had two children Robin and Patricia. The marriage did not last long as Titus moved to England to pursue an entertainment career under the name Larry Cross. After the decline of the Canadian comics industry, Doris drew commercially for magazines and children’s books and did murals. She would move to teaching, and taught art in Brantford and later Ottawa. In 1964, Doris Titus was killed in head on collision. Her daughter Patti, who was in the back seat, survived the accident. Doris Slater/Titus was 56, and is recognized as Canada’s first female comic book creator.