The Lost Wonder Woman Tabloid

[jkcarrier]

Welcome to the second of my "Lost Issues of the 1970s", where I create mock-ups of comic books that I wish had been published during my childhood, but weren't.

This time out I turned my attention to DC's "Limited Collector's Edition", a series of tabloid-size (approx. 10"x 14") reprint comics. Superman, Batman, and Shazam/Captain Marvel had several issues each devoted to them. Other properties, like the Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League of America, and even "Welcome Back, Kotter" got their turn in the spotlight as well. Wonder Woman was featured in facsimile reprints of Sensation Comics #1 and Wonder Woman #1, but never got a Limited Collector's Edition all to herself. So I set out to create one.

Another popular subject of DC's tabloid line was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Between Limited Collector's Edition and its sister title All-New Collector's Edition, Rudolph had 7 tabloid issues devoted to his adventures. I figured he could stand to lose one, so I took issue C-50 to turn into my Wonder Woman tabloid. (I figure Rudolph artist Sheldon Mayer wouldn't have minded, since he was also the original editor of Wonder Woman back in the 1940s). This would have been released in October of 1976, partway through the first season of the Wonder Woman TV show.

I had some wiggle room in terms of page count, since the tabloids varied in length anywhere from 56-80 pages (not counting covers). But I ended up using the maximum anyway. My rules were to not include any stories less than ten years old at the time, and not to include any stories that had been previously reprinted. Within those guidelines, my goal was to have as much variety in the artwork as possible. Which is trickier than it sounds, since Wonder Woman's series was dominated by two artists (Harry G. Peter and Ross Andru) throughout the 1940s-1960s. Here's what I ended up with:


"The Countess of Dreams"
Previously unpublished
Written by Denny O'Neil
Drawn by Curt Swan (and possibly John Rosenberger)

Wonder Woman takes on a gang of drug smugglers.

This 10-page story exists in penciled & lettered form, but was never completed. One theory is that it was part of a proposed anti-drug comic that never materialized. You can see the pencilled pages and read more about it here:
https://neverwerecomics.wordpress.com/2021/09/21/the-countess-of-dreams-the-unpublished-curt-swan-denny-oneil-wonder-woman-story/
Since it was never published, I thought it would be a fun "surprise" to include in the tabloid, as well as a way to get a then-modern rendition of Wonder Woman in among all the reprints.


"Wanted by Hitler, Dead or Alive"
Comic Cavalcade #2, Spring 1943
Written by William Moulton Marston
Drawn by Frank Godwin

The Nazis send their top spy, Fausta Grables, to capture Wonder Woman.

Noted illustrator Frank Godwin only drew a handful of Wonder Woman stories in the 1940s, and a couple of them had already been reprinted. He did his best to mimic Harry G. Peter's style for consistency's sake, but if you look closely, you can see his figures are a little more naturalistic.

The other reason I thought this story was a good choice was because it was loosely adapted as an episode of the Wonder Woman TV show: "Fausta, The Nazi Wonder Woman".


"The Proving of Wonder Woman"
Wonder Woman #131, July 1962
Written by Robert Kanigher
Drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

Wonder Woman undergoes a series of tests to prove she is still worthy to be the Amazons' champion, but Zeus decides to get involved.

This is a typical story of the era, a bit farcical but full of wild ideas, mythology, and over-the-top action. A good showcase for Andru's artwork.


"The Unconquerable Women of Cochabamba"
Sensation Comics #70, October 1947
Written by William Moulton Marston
Drawn by Harry G. Peter

Wonder Woman is drawn back in time to the age of the Incas, and defends a South American town from Spanish invaders.

This story is based on a real battle that took place in Bolivia in 1812, although in real life, things didn't turn out quite so well for the army of women defending their city. Still, in an era where people of color were often depicted in comics as insulting stereotypes, it's nice to see the Incas shown as being tough, smart, and brave (The Spanish colonizers, on the other hand, are portrayed as nothing but a bunch of greedy thugs -- Marston was a pretty progressive guy for his time).


"The Origin of Wonder Girl"
Teen Titans #22, August 1969
Written by Marv Wolfman
Drawn by Gil Kane and Nick Cardy

Wonder Girl reveals her origins to her teammates, and tries to establish a civlian life for herself.

I fudged my "nothing less than ten years old" rule for this one. Since a version of Wonder Girl was featured on the TV show, I thought it was a nice tie-in to include her here. And again, it adds to the variety of artists on display. Can't go wrong with Gil Kane and Nick Cardy.


"Ice World's Conquest"
Wonder Woman #29, May-June 1948
Written by William Moulton Marston
Drawn by Harry G. Peter

Minister Blizzard of the hidden tribe of Icicle-Men unleashes a giant glacier to destroy America.

Kind of a prescient theme here, since Blizzard's excuse for attacking America is that a U.S. scientist has invented a climate-changing machine that could melt the polar ice cap where they live. Harry Peter is at the peak of his artistic prowess here, and there's some awesome scenes of mass destruction as the glacier tears through New York City.


"A Day in the Life of an Amazon"
Wonder Woman #172, September 1967
Written by Robert Kanigher
Drawn by Irv Novick and Mike Esposito

Wonder Woman answers a fan's letter about what a typical day is like for her, facing several challenges along the way.

Artist Irv Novick, better-known for his work on the Flash and Batman, also drew some Wonder Woman covers and stories in this era. His style is similar enough to regular artist Ross Andru that the average reader probably didn't notice the difference. The story is mainly an excuse to string together a bunch of unrelated vignettes of Wonder Woman overcoming various obstacles. But it's a fun little romp, and I thought it would be a nice light note to end the issue on.

A couple of online databases that were super helpful in the process of picking stories:
https://www.comics.org/
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Comics_Database

Stories that didn't make the cut: I originally had a Kanigher/Peter story from 1954 called "The 3-D Terror" on the list. It was a riff on the 3-D movie craze of the time, and featured some cool-looking lizard-monsters. Since I had an illustration with a lizard-monster picked out for the cover (see below), I thought it would be a nice bit of symmetry. But I already had quite a bit of Harry G. Peter artwork in the mix, so for the sake of variety, I replaced it with the Wonder Girl story.

I also really wanted to feature something from the Mike Sekowsky-written and -drawn "no powers" era of the late 1960s/early 1970s, so that every major phase of WW's history up to that point would be represented. But those were all full-length stories, and most of them were two-parters on top of that, so it would have eaten up half of the available pages. One of these days, I want to do a "Wonder Woman From the '40s to the '70s" book, so Mr. Sekowsky will get his due then.



With the contents sorted out, I turned my attention to the covers, inside and out. I found a striking bit of merchandizing art showing Wonder Woman lassoing a dinosaur-like creature, apparently originally done for a jigsaw puzzle. The site I found it on credited it to Gil Kane and Dick Giordano, but it looks like pure Giordano to me. In any case, it made a great, dramatic cover. The logos and trade dress were either lifted from scans of original artwork (the Heritage Auctions site www.ha.com is a very useful resource for such things), or recreated by me, matching the various fonts as best I could (in a lot of cases, it was just plain ol' Helvetica).



The inside front cover of the tabloids was usually reserved for the table of contents. The designs tended to be rudimentary but functional, and I followed suit. The illustration is another piece of Dick Giordano merchandizing art (I think this one was for a greeting card?). What can I say, I love Dick Giordano's art, especially the way he draws Wonder Woman.

A note about the "Puzzle Pages": In the DC Comics of the 1960s, there would frequently be pages (generally at the end of a story or story chapter) where the artwork would only take up 1/2 or 2/3 of the page, with the rest being filled by advertising. Since the tabloid books had no ads, when those stories were reprinted, they would fill up that empty space with puzzles, games, or other bits of fun fluff. I thought about actually trying to draw up some Wonder Woman-themed puzzles, but after wrestling with the "3-D Diorama" (see below), I decided enough was enough. Use your imagination to picture something terribly fun and clever.


The inside back cover is devoted to the Wonder Woman tv show, which was just getting underway at the time. The Superman, Batman, and Shazam tabloids had features on those characters' respective shows, so it seemed like a natural. Nothing too in-depth, just some publicity stills with brief captions in a simple layout.


And then there's the back cover. Many of the Limited Collector's Edition issues featured these cut-and-assemble "3-D Dioramas", with the front cover artwork re-engineered to be a two-part display piece. As a kid, I would dutifully hack apart my tabloids and put them together, usually screwing something up in the process. Now you too can feel my pain. And yes, I did print it out and do a rough test-assembly to make sure the pieces would actually go together, but good luck cutting out all those "glow marks" on the lasso.

So that's my homage to the oversized comics of the 1970s. If you've read all the way to the end, thanks for joining me in my walk down memory lane. More to come!