All Star Comics #8

'Fine. But make her a woman.'

On October 25, 1940, Family Circle magazine published an interview titled 'Don't Laugh at the Comics,' in which the psychologist William Moulton Marston said he saw great educational potential in comic books. The interviewer, writing as 'Olive Richard,' was Olive Byrne, who lived with Marston and his wife. The article caught the attention of the publisher Max Gaines, who hired Marston as an educational consultant for National Periodicals and All-American Publications, two of the companies that later merged to form DC Comics.

Marston wanted to create a new kind of superhero, one who would win with love rather than fists. His wife and fellow psychologist, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, is credited with the decisive suggestion. As one account puts it: 'Fine,' said Elizabeth. 'But make her a woman.'

Marston took the idea to Gaines, co-founder of All-American with Jack Liebowitz, and got the go-ahead. The character's working name, 'Suprema, the Wonder Woman,' was cut to simply Wonder Woman, a popular phrase of the time for an exceptionally gifted woman. Marston wrote under the pen name Charles Moulton, which combined his own middle name with Gaines's middle name.

A lie-detector inventor and a 61-year-old illustrator

William Moulton Marston was born May 9, 1893, in Saugus, Massachusetts, and earned three Harvard degrees: a B.A. in 1915, a law degree in 1918 and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1921. With Elizabeth Holloway he developed a systolic blood pressure test that became an early prototype of the polygraph. His work with it convinced him that women were more honest than men in certain situations. He also wrote on what became known as DISC theory, and as a Harvard student he sold a film script, The Thief, directed in 1913 by Alice Guy-Blache.

Olive Byrne, Marston's research assistant and partner from 1925, wore a pair of heavy bracelets that became the model for Wonder Woman's bullet-deflecting bracelets. Marston, Elizabeth and Olive lived together in a relationship that was told on film in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women in 2017.

The artist, Harry George Peter, was born in San Rafael, California, on March 8, 1880, and had spent his career as a newspaper and magazine illustrator in a pen-and-ink style influenced by Charles Dana Gibson. He was 61 when he began drawing Wonder Woman in October 1941, and he switched to a cartoon style with Art Nouveau influences for her. Marjorie Wilkes handled inking, lettering and transcribing Marston's scripts. Peter went uncredited in her creation and drew her until his death on January 2, 1958.

The tryout in the back pages

All Star Comics belonged to the Justice Society of America, the first superhero team, which had first met in All Star Comics #3 in the winter of 1940-41. Issue #8 leads with a Gardner Fox Justice Society story, 'Two New Members Win Their Spurs,' in which Doctor Mid-Nite and Starman join the team, Hawkman becomes chairman and Green Lantern is voted an honorary member. E. E. Hibbard drew the cover of the team; Wonder Woman is not on it.

Near the back sits 'Introducing Wonder Woman.' Its first caption reads: 'At last, in a world torn by the hatreds and wars of men, appears a woman to whom the problems and feats of men are mere child's play.' Captain Steve Trevor crashes on Paradise Island, home of the Amazons, and is nursed back to health. Queen Hippolyte tells her daughter Diana, who has fallen in love with him, the story of the Amazons, and holds a contest to choose who will return Trevor to America. Diana enters in disguise as contestant number 7, deflects bullets with her bracelets, and wins.

Published indexes differ on its length: one lists it at nine pages, another at eight. It was included to test reader interest. The response was strong enough that Wonder Woman became the lead feature of the new Sensation Comics, where the story continued in #1 (January 1942). The splash-page drawing of Wonder Woman was reused for that cover. Her own title, Wonder Woman, followed in 1942.

Her first costume was a red top with a golden eagle, a white belt, blue star-spangled bottoms and red and gold boots, based on the American flag. She originally wore a skirt, which Elizabeth Marston said was dropped because 'it was too hard to draw and would have been over her head most of the time.'

October 1941

The issue reached newsstands on October 21, 1941. The United States was still officially neutral, but the war was already reaching American sailors. Four days earlier a German submarine had torpedoed the destroyer USS Kearny off Iceland, killing 11 sailors, and on October 31 the destroyer USS Reuben James was sunk off Iceland with more than 100 Navy men lost. Seven weeks after the issue went on sale, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

Marston's own words about the bracelets, from a 1942 interview, tied the character to that war. The Amazons wore them, he said, as a reminder of the time Greeks put them 'in chains of the Hitler type.'

The same October, Disney released Dumbo, the New York Yankees won the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers, and work stopped on Mount Rushmore after 14 years.

The million-dollar Amazon

Only one copy of All Star Comics #8 has been graded CGC 9.4, and none is higher. That copy last sold for a record $936,223 in August 2017, according to a 2020 report that does not say how the sale was made. In August 2020 it was offered at auction again with expectations of a seven-figure price; the result of that sale was not found in the sources used here.

On June 16, 2022, the CGC 9.4 sold at auction for $1,620,000. It was the first comic book sought mainly for a female superhero to bring more than $1 million at auction, and the eighth sale of a CGC-graded comic above $1 million that year. On January 11, 2024, the same copy sold at auction again, for $1,500,000.

Lower grades sell for far less. A CGC 6.0 sold at auction for $66,000 on December 11, 2022, and another CGC 6.0 had reached $57,600 in pre-auction bidding in June 2024.

How many survive

No print run for All Star Comics #8 is documented. In June 2022 the CGC census listed 191 copies, only one graded higher than 9.0. By January 2024 the count was 202, with the 9.4 still alone at the top, and only six copies certified above VF 8.0.

Collectors sometimes credit Sensation Comics #1 with Wonder Woman's first appearance, because it was her first cover and the start of her regular series. Her debut and origin are in All Star Comics #8, released in October 1941. To identify the issue, look for the 10-cent price, the Justice Society cover by E. E. Hibbard, the 'A Superman DC Publication' emblem and the All-American Comics, Inc. indicia. The logo reads All Star Comics, but the copyrighted title in the indicia is All-Star Comics, with a hyphen.

The numbers

Cover price

10 cents

Pages

76

Wonder Woman story

8 or 9, depending on the index

Print run

No verified figure found

Census, June 2022

191 copies; only one graded higher than 9.0

Census, January 2024

202 copies; one at 9.4, none higher; six above 8.0

Timeline

1. May 9, 1893

   William Moulton Marston is born in Saugus, Massachusetts.

2. 1921

   Marston earns his Ph.D. in psychology at Harvard.

3. Oct 25, 1940

   Family Circle publishes the interview that leads Max Gaines to hire Marston.

4. 1940

   The Justice Society of America first meets in All Star Comics #3, cover-dated Winter 1940-41.

5. Oct 1941

   Harry G. Peter begins drawing Wonder Woman, at 61.

6. Oct 21, 1941

   All Star Comics #8 goes on sale, cover-dated December 1941-January 1942.

7. Jan 1942

   Wonder Woman's story continues as the lead of Sensation Comics #1.

8. 1942

   Wonder Woman #1 begins her own series.

9. May 2, 1947

   Marston dies of cancer in Rye, New York.

10. Jan 2, 1958

    Harry G. Peter dies, still drawing Wonder Woman.

11. 2017

    Marston's papers go to Harvard's Schlesinger Library, and the film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is released.

12. Aug 2017

    The CGC 9.4 copy sells for a reported record $936,223.

13. Aug 2020

    The CGC 9.4 copy is offered at auction again.

14. Jun 16, 2022

    The CGC 9.4 sells at auction for $1,620,000, a record for the issue.

15. Dec 11, 2022

    A CGC 6.0 sells at auction for $66,000.

16. Jan 11, 2024

    The CGC 9.4 sells at auction for $1,500,000.

The world in 1941

• May 1941

  Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.

• Sep 27, 1941

  The first Liberty ship, SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore.

• Oct 6, 1941

  The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the World Series.

• Oct 17, 1941

  The destroyer USS Kearny is torpedoed off Iceland; 11 sailors are killed.

• Oct 23, 1941

  Disney releases Dumbo.

• Oct 31, 1941

  Work stops on Mount Rushmore after 14 years, and the USS Reuben James is sunk off Iceland.

• Dec 7, 1941

  Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, All Star Comics #8 is number 9 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (17 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Wonder Woman's working name was 'Suprema, the Wonder Woman.'
• The pen name Charles Moulton combined Marston's middle name with publisher Max Gaines's middle name.
• Wonder Woman's bracelets were modeled on a pair worn by Olive Byrne, who lived with Marston and his wife.
• Her creator helped develop the systolic blood pressure test behind the lie detector.
• Harry G. Peter was 61 when he started drawing Wonder Woman.
• Wonder Woman does not appear on the cover of the issue that introduced her.
• The same issue made Doctor Mid-Nite and Starman members of the Justice Society.
• Her first costume included a skirt that was dropped because it was too hard to draw.