Wonder Woman stories written by her creator, Charles Moulton (William Moulton Marston), seldom disappoint. They have elements that elevate the character above the run-of-the-mill super-doer. This delightfully oddball tale is set in Mexico with a beautiful eight-foot-tall señorita, bandits with bandoleros, Wonder Woman’s invisible plane, chains, bondage, and even Wonder Woman in bare feet walking over hot coals. Wow.
This Mexican melange is drawn by H.G. Peter, and is scanned from
Sensation Comics #45 (1945).
More wonderful wacky Wonder Woman. Click on the thumbnail.
The New Yorker for September 22, 2014, had a fascinating article by Jill Lepore on the character and Marston. Click on the thumbnail.
In other Marston penned Wonder Woman comic, there's always the same two moments.
ReplyDeleteFirst, as you are reading it, you can charitably say "I'm not looking directly into his mind", and then you hit moment one, where you can no longer convince yourself of that. For this comic, it's when she gets chained as says "oh, I don't mind wearing them!"
Second, when all concept of story telling is thrown out the window. Here's it when Etta Candy (ugh) and gang respond to a desperate mental summons -- and, well, come as a marching band.
And it's GLORIOUS.
People try to make crazy comics. Underground cartoonist spent a decade doing that, but nothing gets near the lunacy of a Marston WW comic.
Moulton and Peter only get better and better as time goes by.
ReplyDelete(Wait, did Etta and the Holliday Girls march right into the general's office straight from band practice? They got the mental radio call from WW and didn't even stop to put down their instruments? Security was surprisingly loose at the Pentagon in 1945. Still, that made it easier for them to create a diversion when the time came...)
Brian, Richard...I'm glad you guys understand perfectly what I am trying to show with these bizarre stories. As we now know both publisher M.C. Gaines and editor Sheldon Mayer were concerned about the amount of Marston's kinkiness that went into these stories, and tried to restrain him from going so far overboard. Luckily for us fans 70 years later Marston-Moulton's messages still ring loud and clear.
ReplyDeleteWoo-woo! I'm going to mental radio Wonder
ReplyDeleteWoman! Wow, what a romp! And the link to the "Brain Pirates" story, too. But what really put the icing on the cake was that linked New Yorker article. I knew bits of what was written there but not the bigger story. Gosh, thanks, Pappy! Great and amazing! What I didn't know about Wonder Woman…!
7f7...you readers are gonna learn something whether you want to or not. They don't call me Pedantic Pappy behind my back for nothin'!
ReplyDelete