I can imagine the conversation between EC founder and publisher, Max Gaines, and writer Gardner Fox: “I want you to create a character just like Wonder Woman, only different.
No kinky stuff!” Gaines had been the publisher of the All American line, partners with Donenfield and Liebowitz, publishers of DC Comics, where Wonder Woman was a big seller. In 1945 Gaines sold his share, including Wonder Woman, to DC, and went off on his own again. Superheroes were fading fast in the late 1940s, except for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, so naturally he would want to capture some of Wonder Woman’s sales.
It didn’t work as well as hoped, and the only super hero(ine) of the EC Comics line, Moon Girl, didn’t last for long. It doesn’t mean that Moon Girl wasn’t fairly well done; Fox and artist Sheldon Moldoff were professionals who had been working for Gaines for years, but Moon Girl didn’t have the bizarre characteristics of Wonder Woman that made her a big seller. M.C. Gaines died in 1947, and EC was put under his son Bill’s direction. He gradually made decisions that turned the company into his, and not his father’s.
“Sky Sabotage” is from
Moon Girl #3 (1948):
Had I been Gardner Fox, I would have been sorely tempted to sneak kinky stuff into the stories in some form that wouldn't immediately have been recognized. (I've read that Max Gaines was an abusive father, and I'd be surprised if he were an otherwise nice guy yet able to function for years as a partner with Donenfeld.) Perhaps Fox was tempted as well, but didn't want to risk future paychecks.
ReplyDeleteMoon Girl didn't mess around! In this story, she killed at least two thugs with bullets, and maybe more with fists. But I wonder why she bothered with a rifle in the first instance, since the second killing was effected by throwing the bullets. She may as well just have asked if their were expendable hardware to be chucked at the villains.
Pretty sub-par Fox! The early years of EC are fascinating - they tried everything before hitting on the winning formula.
ReplyDeleteWell, now we know where the A-team got all it's episode plots from!
ReplyDeleteI think your right, here, Pappy, Moon Girl has a severe lack of gimmick or immediately recognizable super power. She's just kind of ... dull. It's a serviceable enough story and I enjoy the concept of being able to "throw" bullets at a plane. It doesn't matter how strong you are that's just not going to work if you can't keep the bullets from tumbling.
This also has to be the worse plausible deniability of switching to your super hero persona ever. They are *right* next to you!
Brian, they used plots on A-Team? What I remember, watching occasionally with my son, was the show usually had at least one sequence where the A-Team was set upon by about 50 guys with machine guns, and the team were never hit by any bullets! Other than that I cannot remember a thing. Ooops, I also remember "I pity the fool!" by Mr T. I heard a radio commercial the other day where some goofball was trying to imitate Mr T. He growls, "I pity the fool who doesn't come to **** Auto for good car deals!" I wonder if anyone listening to that commercial, besides me, was old enough to remember who they were trying to imitate.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, I have heard that Max Gaines was pretty tough with his son, Bill, but Bill was smart enough, when the time came for him to inherit the business, to get rid of his father's EC Comics and create his own. As Max, creator of Picture Stories from the Bible, et al., might have spun in(or better still come out of) his grave when the horror comics took over, in the long run Bill did okay as a publisher.
ReplyDeleteBrad S., amen!
ReplyDeleteDaniel, another thing, just a thought on Fox...he is credited with writing those Undercover Girl stories for ME Comics, drawn by Ogden Whitney. They usually featured women fighting each other, which last I heard, was a kinky thing for some guys.
ReplyDeleteNot me, of course, Heh...heh...
I'm reminded again of the contract the Marstons had with DC (presumably inherited from All-American): the character reverted to the Marstons if DC dropped the book. Too bad Moon Girl didn't have something similar. It seemed like every issue was a new book. (I think the title did change about every issue.) Who owns the rights to Moon Girl now?
ReplyDeleteDarci, after Marston died his heirs were protective of Wonder Woman, but their ideas for what they wanted DC to do with the character were overruled by the publisher. Robert Kanigher, a noted curmudgeon who took over as editor, really did not like Wonder Woman, I presume. Though WW continued to sell, even during the early '60s when fans voted WW "worst comic book" for the Alley Awards. I was one of those voters, and that was the way I voted, also. At that time I had not seen the Golden Age Wonder Woman, and when I did I thought WW more curious than anything else; very much in her own universe, and stylistically apart from the larger DC universe.
ReplyDeleteI don't know who has the rights to Moon Girl, or was that a rhetorical question?
When EC was sold, the copyrights to the Moon Girl stories would still have held, and they could gave been renewed. In that case, Warner Brothers would now be the rights holder. If the copyright was not renewed, then the stories would be in the public domain.
ReplyDeleteThe name “Moon Girl” was inactive long enough that, as with various other superhero names, it was appropriated by Marvel, and Disney could probably successfully defend it as a trademark.