Sensation Comics #1

A new anthology with a new kind of hero

Sensation Comics #1 went on sale on November 5, 1941, with a January 1942 cover date. It cost 10 cents and ran 68 pages. The indicia names the publisher as J. R. Publishing Co. of 225 Lafayette Street in New York, which the trademark filing identifies as Jesse Gaines and Rose Liebowitz doing business under that name, and the cover carries the 'A Superman DC Publication' brand. Gaines is credited as managing editor and Sheldon Mayer as assistant editor.

Wonder Woman had made her debut only weeks earlier in All Star Comics #8, cover-dated December 1941 to January 1942. Sensation #1 gave her the lead story, the cover and, from then on, a home: the character headlined the title for its superhero years, and her own Wonder Woman #1 followed about six months later.

The trademark paperwork shows how long the title had been planned. Gaines filed for the Sensation Comics mark on December 17, 1940, claiming use since November 1, 1940, almost a year before the first issue reached newsstands. The mark was published in March 1942 and granted on June 2, 1942.

The 13-page lead story, later reprinted as 'Wonder Woman Comes to America,' has her bring Steve Trevor to the United States, buy the identity of an Army nurse named Diana Prince so she can stay near him, and take up a 'bullets and bracelets' stage act to earn money, unaware that her promoter is pocketing the profits. Nazi spies supply the villains.

The psychologist and the illustrator

William Moulton Marston was born on 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. He devised the systolic blood pressure test that became one component of the modern polygraph, an idea his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, helped spark by noticing that her own blood pressure seemed to climb when she was angry or excited.

In October 1940 Olive Byrne, the Marstons' partner, published an interview with him in The Family Circle in which he argued that comics had great educational potential. The piece caught the eye of Max Gaines, who hired Marston as an educational consultant. When Marston proposed a hero who would win with love rather than fists, Elizabeth is reported to have answered, 'Fine, but make her a woman.' His pen name, Charles Moulton, combined his own middle name with Gaines's.

Marston described the goal plainly in 1943: 'to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.' The heavy bracelets she used to deflect bullets were inspired by bracelets Olive Byrne wore. An early name, 'Suprema, the Wonder Woman,' was trimmed to simply Wonder Woman.

The art came from Harry George Peter, born in San Rafael, California, in 1880, a veteran newspaper and magazine illustrator who signed his work H. G. Peter. He was 61 when he began drawing Wonder Woman in late 1941, and he traded his earlier pen-and-ink manner for an Art Nouveau-influenced cartoon style for the series. Marston died on May 2, 1947; Peter died on January 2, 1958.

More than one debut inside

Wonder Woman fills only 13 of the 68 pages. The rest of the issue launched a small roster of its own. Bill Finger and Irwin Hasen's 'The Origin of Wildcat' introduces Ted Grant, a boxer framed for the death of a former champion who takes up a cat costume after a boy describes the Green Lantern to him. Wildcat later joined the Justice Society and has appeared in live-action television.

Charles Reizenstein and Hal Sharp contribute 'The Origin of Mr. Terrific,' about Terry Sloane, a bored socialite who has mastered every field and finds a purpose fighting crime. Gardner Fox and Howard Purcell's 'The Origin of the Gay Ghost' sends the spirit of an 18th-century earl into the body of a murdered 20th-century man. Finger also wrote 'The Origin of Little Boy Blue,' drawn by Jon L. Blummer, in which three boys inspired by Wildcat form a crime-fighting club.

Sheldon Moldoff's Black Pirate story, 'The Marriage of Jon Valor,' continues a feature that had been running in Action Comics, and a two-page text piece, 'Gunner Godbee,' tells a First World War air story. Inside the front cover sits an introduction from Gaines that opens, 'Boys and girls.'

November 1941

The issue reached newsstands in a country that was not yet at war but was edging closer. On October 31 a German submarine sank the destroyer USS Reuben James off Iceland, killing more than 100 American sailors. The same day, after 14 years, work stopped on Mount Rushmore. On December 7, about a month after Sensation #1 went on sale, the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the Second World War, and on December 8 President Roosevelt gave his 'Infamy' speech.

Wonder Woman was a creation of that moment. Her first stories pit her against Nazi spies, and her alter ego is an Army nurse. The cover itself, by H. G. Peter for the Wonder Woman figure and Jon L. Blummer for the rest, bases its heroine on the splash panel of her All Star Comics #8 debut.

From newsstand to the auction block

No print run for the issue has been published, and the CGC census is the best count of surviving copies. A December 2023 sale description put the census at just over 110 copies; a CGC article in March 2024 counted 113 graded examples, of which a single copy at 9.6 was the highest. An April 2024 lot description gave the census as one at 9.6 and none higher.

That 9.6 copy, with off-white pages, was offered at auction in the spring of 2024 with a description calling it possibly the most desirable copy of any Wonder Woman comic, since no All Star Comics #8 had been graded above 9.4. It realized $420,000, the highest price the issue has brought. A price guide reports that a 9.6 copy, the highest-graded to sell publicly, had earlier sold for $399,100 in August 2017.

Mid-grade copies have moved steadily. A CGC 8.5 sold for $153,000 at auction in March 2018 after 30 bids, and an 8.5 brought $132,000 in November 2019. A CGC 6.0 from the Bobby Blue Collection sold for $56,350 in December 2023, and a CGC 4.5 with white pages realized $41,480 at auction in September 2026.

For context, the first-appearance All Star Comics #8 in CGC 9.4 sold for $1.62 million in June 2022. CGC itself has noted that some collectors wrongly credit Sensation #1 as Wonder Woman's first appearance; it is her first cover and the start of her series.

How to identify an original

An original is cover-dated January 1942, priced at 10 cents and carries a J. R. Publishing Co. indicia stating 'Entire contents copyrighted 1941.' The issue has been reprinted many times, including in DC's Famous First Edition #C-30 in 1974, a Millennium Edition in October 2000, and the Wonder Woman Archives and Golden Age Omnibus collections, so a copy should always be checked against those.

There is also a rare oddity: a black-and-white reproduction of the cover appears on the Wonder Woman ashcan #1 dated January 1942. The trademark filing for Sensation itself shows the logo without the lettering in the circle above the 'S,' which the database's indexers suggest may come from a lost ashcan or a cover mock-up. The Sensation title went on for 109 issues, turning to romance with #94 in November 1949, to supernatural mystery with #107, and becoming Sensation Mystery with #110 before ending at #116 in 1953.

The numbers

Print run

Not published; no figure verified

CGC census, March 2024

113 graded examples

CGC census, April 2024

1 copy at 9.6, none higher

Pages

68, including a 13-page Wonder Woman lead

Cover price

10 cents

Timeline

1. May 9, 1893

   William Moulton Marston is born in Saugus, Massachusetts.

2. Oct 25, 1940

   Family Circle publishes Olive Byrne's interview with Marston, 'Don't Laugh at the Comics,' which leads Max Gaines to hire him.

3. Dec 17, 1940

   M. C. Gaines files the Sensation Comics trademark, claiming use since November 1, 1940.

4. Nov 5, 1941

   Sensation Comics #1 goes on sale, cover-dated January 1942, at 10 cents.

5. Jun 2, 1942

   The Sensation Comics trademark is granted.

6. May 2, 1947

   Marston dies in Rye, New York.

7. Nov 1949

   Sensation Comics turns to romance stories with issue #94.

8. 1953

   The retitled Sensation Mystery ends with issue #116.

9. 1974

   DC reprints the complete issue in Famous First Edition #C-30.

10. Oct 2000

    DC reprints the issue again as a Millennium Edition.

11. Aug 2017

    A CGC 9.6 copy sells for $399,100, per a price guide.

12. Mar 22, 2018

    A CGC 8.5 copy sells for $153,000 at auction after 30 bids.

13. Dec 8, 2023

    A CGC 6.0 copy from the Bobby Blue Collection realizes $56,350 at auction.

14. Apr 2024

    The only CGC 9.6 copy on the census realizes $420,000 at auction, a record for the issue.

15. Sep 26, 2026

    A CGC 4.5 copy with white pages realizes $41,480 at auction.

The world in 1941

• Sep 27, 1941

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

• Oct 31, 1941

  Work on Mount Rushmore stops after 14 years; the same day the destroyer USS Reuben James is sunk off Iceland.

• Dec 1, 1941

  New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia signs the order creating the Civil Air Patrol.

• Dec 7, 1941

  Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into the Second World War.

• Dec 8, 1941

  President Roosevelt delivers his 'Infamy' speech, and the declaration of war on Japan is signed within the hour.

• Dec 26, 1941

  Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

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, Sensation Comics #1 is number 41 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 (55 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Sensation Comics trademark was filed in December 1940, almost a year before the first issue went on sale.
• Wonder Woman's creator also devised the systolic blood pressure test that became part of the modern lie detector.
• 'Charles Moulton' combined Marston's middle name with that of his publisher, Max Gaines.
• H. G. Peter was 61 years old when he started drawing Wonder Woman.
• Her bullet-deflecting bracelets were inspired by bracelets worn by Olive Byrne, who shared a household with the Marstons.
• The issue went on sale on November 5, 1941, about a month before Pearl Harbor.
• The same issue introduced Wildcat, a boxer who takes up his costume after hearing a boy describe the Green Lantern.