THE SECRET ORIGIN OF WONDER WOMAN

The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman came packaged with Leaf Candy of
some sort.  It’s the last of eight mini-comics - 4-1/4" tall and 2-
3/4" wide - sold circa 1980 as “Comicbook Candy.” Each of these
booklets consisted of a cover, 14 pages of story and a back cover
advertisement for a DC Super Heroes Collector Album.

The Grand Comics Database has indexed these comics and, thanks to
the effort of the tireless GCD indexers, we know a lot about them.
But not everything.

Here’s what the GCD says about the cover: Dick Giordano in an email
to the indexer has confirmed that he inked this cover, and suspects
that he pencilled it based on a layout from Carmine Infantino.
However, it also seems to have a Curt Swan look; particularly the
Cheetah.

In a post to this blog recently, Bob Rozakis told me he wrote this
secret origin and that of the Flash.  I think he did a fine job on
both of them.  In this one, we see the birth of Diana, learn about
her powers and witness the arrival of Steve Trevor to the Amazons’
island and the competition to choose the island’s ambassador to the
world.  That’s a lot to cover in the too few and too small pages of
this booklet.

The GCD identifies the mini-comic’s artists as Jose Delbo (pencils)
and Vince Colletta (inks).  That looks spot on to me.  Delbo works
well with the limited space he had and Colletta did a good job of
inking the pencils.

Joe Orlando is believed to have been the editor of this and all of
the other “secret origin” booklets.  The colorist and letterer have
yet to be identified.  As with the other unidentified credits, I’d
love to hear from those creators who worked on the books.  I will
pass on any information to the GCD.

Going through my Vast Accumulation of Stuff is always great fun for
me and it’s precisely because I come across little treasures like
these mini-comics.  While I plan to sell most of these items in my
online and garage sales, it’s still cool to see them one more time
and, as in this case, write about them.  You’ll definitely see more
of this in 2013's bloggy things.

To answer a frequently-asked question, yes, I will be selling this
set of “Secret Origin” comics via my weekly online sale.  I think
they will be in the very next one.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella