Are the "A League of Their Own" Characters Real People? Let's Investigate

Gbemisola Ikumel plays Clance, Max's lifelong BFF and an aspiring comic-book artist. While she's not directly based on a historical figure, she does have some things in common with Jackie Ormes, a trailblazing artist of the era.

Ormes was the first Black woman to have a syndicated comic strip, and, like the fictional Clance, she often drew inspiration for her cartoons from the situations and people she knew. Her most famous comic strips were "Torchy Brown" and "Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger," which combined sharp social and political commentary with Ormes's love of fashion. In 2018, 33 years after her death, Ormes was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame at San Diego Comic-Con.