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.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Number 629
Guilty pleasure
The original Wonder Woman is a real guilty pleasure for me. I like it for the very reasons others probably hate it. It was one of a kind. No one could imitate this strip and its grotesque artwork by Harry G. Peter. (Max Gaines, the original WW publisher, tried it with the character Moon Girl, drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, without much success.) Wonder Woman and her friends and enemies inhabit a bizarre universe. The closest I can come to it is Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, a strip which also existed in its own grotesque reality. Both the early writing on Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston and the art by H. G. Peter, who outlived Marston, are eccentric enough that even if you hate it, you've got to call Wonder Woman a unique comic.
This story was originally to be published in Sensation Comics, but didn't see print until 1974 with its appearance in The Amazing World Of DC Comics #2. Marston, under his pen-name, Charles Moulton, isn't credited. Marston died in 1947 and I believe both editing and writing chores were taken over then by Robert Kanigher.
