The Comic Watchers - Episode #320 Joe Corallo And The Phantom Hand Of Comic Books

By Chad Burdette

on June 15, 2026

Ruth Roche: The Phantom Hand of Comics is a graphic novel biography by Joe Corallo, illustrated by Meghan Hetrick, that tells the story of Ruth Roche, a pioneering but often overlooked writer and editor from the Golden Age of comics.

Joe Corallo stops by to chat about the book and more with The Comic Watchers

–

Who Was Ruth Roche – The Golden Age’s Phantom Hand

–

The Phantom Lady Controversy Explained

–

Ruth Roche co-created the first Muslim superhero

–

Why Ruth left comics: the 1950s crash

–

How Starman led me to Ruth Roche

–

The detective work behind reconstructing Ruth Roche’s life

–

Unsung Women in Comics: Mindy Newell & More

–

Mad Cave: Creative Freedom and Production Details

–

Book Pitch: The Phantom Hand of Comics

Ruth Roche – The Phantom Hand of Comics – Vol. 1

A biographical look at one of comics unsung heroes from the Golden Age, writer and editor, Ruth Roche. Finally, a book that highlights the pioneering, yet too often overlooked, comics career of Ruth Roche using the medium she most closely worked in as a writer, editor, and business partner to the legendary Jerry Iger. Following Ruth’s journey from a young women with a penchant for storytelling, through the Golden Age of comics, where Ruth worked in the midst of the action–until the fateful Wertham Trials brought all of it to an end.

Creative Team