Wonder Woman Sales In The 1980s OR It’s No Wonder We Got The Perez Relaunch

No one talks much about Wonder Woman in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.  After Ms. magazine and the TV show, the comic was just sort of there.  Wonder Woman shared her book with Huntress for a while, the editing position was a revolving door, and not much from that era lives on as classic Wonder Woman material apart from a few great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez covers.

Recently, I came across some interesting sales numbers for this era, via several cool comics dudes: Matt Fraction’s tumblr to Chris Roberson’s tumblr to former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter’s blog.  A few years ago, Shooter posted this sales analysis of DC’s comics released in November 1985:

Crisis on Infinite Earths topped the charts at DC, albeit with numbers that don’t look so huge by today’s standards.  However, I believe these are just the newsstand numbers, so there’d be more copies sold through comics shops and subscriptions.  Anyway, Crisis on Infinite Earths was big.  In November 1985, we would’ve been about 8 or 9 issues in, so it was all getting very exciting.  Superman and Tales of the Teen Titans were pretty popular, and oddly enough books like Hawkman and Fury of Firestorm were doing solid numbers (not so much these days though).  Poor Batman was in the middle of the pack, outsold by the team book Batman and the Outsiders.  Hey, remember when they tried to bring that back a little while ago?  It had Cassandra Cain in it!

Anyway, as we move down to the bottom of the list, there we see Wonder Woman.  The lowest print run of all of DC’s titles (84,500), and the lowest sales (19,300).  By November 1985, the current version of the series wasn’t long for the world, and it ended very soon after.  You can see why.  These are terrible numbers.

Poor sales weren’t anything new for Wonder Woman.  The book was tanking in the 1960s, which led to the mod revamp.  That was a huge mess, but it got Wonder Woman on the cover of Ms. and she became a huge icon after that.  But her sales had petered out dramatically a decade later, and it sounds like they’d been bad for a while.  In his introduction to the first collected volume of his Wonder Woman run, George Perez talks about how the book had been a perennial poor seller and no big name creators wanted to go near it.  The last issue of the first volume of Wonder Woman had a cover date of February 1986, and it took a full year for DC to decide what to do with the character.

Luckily, we ended up with George Perez and a book that revitalized Wonder Woman and set the standard for years to come.  Sales in the 1990s and through the 2000s have never been massive, with only sporadic, short term jumps for new creative teams, but at least Wonder Woman hasn’t hit the bottom of DC’s charts since 1985.  The current run looks to be settling into the upper middle of the New 52 pack, and while we’d all love it to be higher, at least it’s not getting beat by a Blue Devil book.

Top Five Wonder Woman Covers: Semi-Final Round #2

Last week, we looked at five of the ten winners from the preliminary round of best cover polling.  Now, we look at the rest with part two of our semi-finals!!

The covers were listed by percentage, and last week we did the evens (and it was quite an exciting poll… it seemed to be a blowout early on, but then things got VERY interesting).  This week is the odds, so we will look at the covers ranked 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th on the master list, and the winner will go to the finals.  Voting will last for exactly one week from the time this poll is posted, after which the two semi-final winners will face off for the title of best Wonder Woman cover of all time.

Here are the remaining five poll winners, as voted by you, for your consideration… be sure to vote in the poll at the end:

1^st Place, 65.4% – Wonder Woman #1 by H.G. Peter:  It’s rather fitting this cover made the list, seeing as it’s the first cover of the entire series.  The voting on this poll wasn’t even close; this cover led from day one and never looked back.  While there are more whimsical Peter covers, there are certainly none more iconic.

3^rd Place, 50.7% – Wonder Woman #184 by Adam Hughes:  I was surprised that a cover from the Hughes poll built up this much of a lead.  All of his covers are fantastic, and I expected a far closer race.  Usually when I post a poll I can tell that a certain cover or two are destined to be near the top, but with Hughes I thought they all had a shot.  I’m glad this one won, though.  It’s definitely my favourite Hughes.

5^th Place, 38.5% – Wonder Woman #22 by George Pérez:  The Pérez poll was extremely close.  It was the third list posted, but it wasn’t until the last couple weeks that this cover edged out the black and red silhouette cover.  But I’m glad this cover won in the end… I think it’s a great example of Pérez’s Wonder Woman work.

7^th Place, 32.6% – Wonder Woman #113 by Ross Andru:  Man, I loved the Andru covers… they were so fun!!  I have to admit, I was pulling for Paper Man, because that cover is just hilarious, but Sphinx creatures are a damn good time too.  Wonder Woman nonchalantly jumping out of the way of his eye-blasts totally sells the cover.

9^th Place, 28.3% – Wonder Woman #306 by José Luis Garcia-López:  This is Garcia-López’s second cover in the top ten, which is crazy impressive!!  The Pre-Crisis cover list was a tricky situation for me… it ended up tied when I closed all the polls.  Lucky for us, my friend Lori agreed to serve as an impartial third party and cast the deciding vote, and this cover won out.  And I’m happy it did… it’s super iconic.

You can vote for your favourite cover from the second group of semi-finalists below… the poll is only open for one week, so be sure to vote now so your pick makes it to the finals:

Top Five Wonder Woman Covers: Semi-Final Round #1

UPDATE: The poll is now closed.  The next semi-final vote begins February 1st, and the final vote starts February 8th.

For the past ten weeks, I have posted my top five picks of Wonder Woman covers in various categories, followed by a poll so readers could vote.  Now, with a top ten finalized, we begin the semi-finals!!

The semi-finals will consist of two rounds of five covers each, one this week and then another the next.  The two winners will ultimately go head to head to determine the best Wonder Woman cover of all time.  The two rounds were divided based on rank.  I made a list of all of the winning covers in order of the percentage of the vote they received and, to get the fairest distribution possible, that list was then divided into evens and odds.  This week will be evens, so we’ll have 2^nd, 4^th, 6^th, 8^th, and 10^th face off for a ticket to the finals.  The vote will last for one week, and will close as soon as the odds poll begins a week from today.

Here are your choices for five of the top ten Wonder Woman covers… be sure to vote in the poll that follows:

2^nd Place, 50.9% – Wonder Woman #72 by Brian Bolland:  I had a good feeling that this cover would make it in to the finals.  It’s a very iconic image that captures Bolland’s style well.  It took a while for this cover to take the lead, but once it did the lead grew impressively.

4^th Place, 43.5% -  Wonder Woman #230 by José Luis Garcia-López:  There were some great covers in the “Egregious Snubs” list, but I figured it would come down to one of the Garcia-López covers… the man is just too good.  He’s the only artist with two covers in the top ten, but the other won’t appear until next week.

6^th Place, 35.9% – Wonder Woman #43 by Irv Novick:  To be honest, I was pulling for the cover with the two trains, but this one was definitely by second favourite of the Novick covers.  You really can’t go wrong with Wonder Woman swooping in to take out a submarine.

8^th Place, 30.6% – Wonder Woman #13 by Terry Dodson:  I was hoping that this cover would win the “Best of the Rest” poll, but was worried it wouldn’t… it was up against some serious competition!!  But Dodson won out in the end.  Warrior Wonder Woman is always a good time.

10^th Place, 28.3% – Wonder Woman #25 by Aaron Lopresti: The Post-Crisis poll was close for a long time, and the lead kept changing between this cover and the two J.G. Jones covers.  Any of them would have been great choices, but I quite like the layout of this one.  Plus it’s cute with the little girls.

So there you have it… half of the top ten Wonder Woman covers as voted by you!!  Please vote below to ensure that your favourite cover makes it to the finals:

Top Five Wonder Woman Covers: Your Egregious Snubs List

UPDATE: The poll is now closed.  The two semi-final votes begin in new threads on January 25^th and February 1^st, and then the final vote starts February 8^th.

Last week, I asked for nominations of covers that you thought should have been included in my past lists, and after several discussions in various forums I have arrived at these five egregious snubs covers!!

The parameters were fairly simple… any cover I hadn’t already nominated was fair game.  You all seemed pretty keen on the 1970s and 1980s.  No covers from before 1970 made the list, and only one cover from the post-Crisis era came up.  You also seemed to like José Luis Garcia-López, and I certainly can’t fault you there.

This week is the last week for voting in these preliminary polls, so if you haven’t voted on my past lists, now is the time to go check them out!!  All of the polls will close at midnight Eastern time, next Monday night (January 24^th).  The next day I’ll post the first semi-final poll, and then another semi-final a week after that, and then the two winners from those polls will face off to determine the best Wonder Woman cover of all time!!  But first, we must get to this week’s poll. 

Here are you selections for the egregious snubs I was foolish to leave out:

Wonder Woman #212 (Bob Oksner): CarolStrick said of this cover: “Bob Oksner gives one of the all-time best renditions of the Wondie suit. So clean, so modern!”  And I agree (as did you all)… it’s a great cover.  His Wonder Woman is fantastic, AND you get some of the Justice League too!!

Wonder Woman #230 (José Luis Garcia-López): Vaffrey wrote: “So beautifully composed, the cover features WW v. Cheetah during the return-to-WWII period,” and DisneyBoy seconded the nomination, declaring: “That IS cool! WWII reference AND the Cheetah ”  This cover very nearly made my pre-Crisis list, and I’m glad it got a second chance here… it’s pretty fantastic.

Wonder Woman #240 (José Luis Garcia-López): Another killer Garcia- López!!  JK Carrier called it “an unusual, almost subdued piece, compared to the typical action scenes — but definitely packs a dramatic punch.”  That wanted poster is so well done, and the whole cover is very ominous!!

Wonder Woman #315 (Paris Cullins):  Vaffrey called this the “Best. Cover. Ever. Diana Prince in a hall of mirrors, with lots of distorted Wonder Women looking back at her,” and Frank-Fournier agreed, nominating the cover as well.  It’s wonderfully weird, and most definitely an eye-catching piece.

Wonder Woman #0 (Brian Bolland):  This is, by far, the cover that got the biggest response when I didn’t include it.  Franklin wrote “Tim, you’ve left the best Bolland cover out of your poll, and I can’t help but think you were under the influence when omitting this fabulous Bolland cover. I’ll forgive you, but you must one day see the errors of you ways and right this wrong.”  Consider the wrong righted!!

So there are YOUR top five egregious snubs covers… thanks so much to everyone who nominated covers!!  You can vote for your favourite below, and remember to do so quickly… there’s only one week left!!

Top Five Wonder Woman Covers: Pre-Crisis Faceoff

UPDATE: The poll is now closed.  The two semi-final votes begin in new threads on January 25^th and February 1^st, and then the final vote starts February 8^th.

We have already looked at H.G. Peter. Irv Novick, and Ross Andru, who drew pretty much every Wonder Woman cover between 1942 and 1968, so this list isn’t “pre-Crisis” so much as just the twenty years before Crisis on Infinite Earths.  But oh well… there are also six covers, as there were last week, but I still named the post “Top Five” to avoid confusion.  This is not a brilliant exercise in titling.  But there are some lovely covers, and this week we have Mike Sekowsky vs. Ross Andru AND Dick Giordano vs. José Luis Garcia-López!!

Mike Sekowsky is probably best known for his lengthy run on Justice League of America in the 1960s, but in 1968 he became the artist for Wonder Woman with her mod re-launch, including the covers from Wonder Woman #178-196.  He later worked at Marvel, and then in animation for Hanna-Barbera.  We have looked at Ross Andru covers before, but after his original tenure on the book he did a sizable number of covers with famed inker Dick Giordano in the 1970s and 1980s.  Giordano is one of the best inkers of all time, and also served as Executive Editor of DC Comics.  Their covers appeared semi-regularly between Wonder Woman #251-311.  José Luis Garcia-López is a Spanish artist who has drawn pretty much every major character at DC Comics.  His Wonder Woman covers were sporadic at best, but fantastic.

Here are my choices for the best two covers from each artist, with the poll at the very bottom:

Mike Sekowsky

Wonder Woman #178:  This cover marked a new era for Wonder Woman and introduced the hip and fashionable (though now hilariously dated) Diana Prince.  Looking back on it now, the cover is an amusing attempt to be all groovy and such, but at the time it must have come as a huge shock to young readers to see Wonder Woman take on such a bold new direction.

Wonder Woman #179:  Now it’s official… the previous issue set up a new look for Diana Prince, but this issue established the end of her Wonder Woman persona as well.  This cover shows Diana tearfully leaving her Amazon family behind, but lucky for her she had a closetful of new fashions to return to.

Ross Andru and Dick Giordano

Wonder Woman #269:  Wonder Woman quitting seems to be a theme today!  Here, Wonder Woman storms off, sick of man’s world, tossing aside her lasso and tiara.  It’s totally a “Screw you guys, I’m going home” situation, but decades before Cartman.

Wonder Woman #292:  The faux-book layout of this cover is a little odd, but the art is so cool.  The picture of Wonder Woman in the foreground is great and totally captures the character well, and then there are tons of guest stars in the background, including Supergirl, Black Canary, Huntress, Power Girl, and more.  I dig it even with the weird framing.

José Luis Garcia-López

Wonder Woman #306:  Do I even need to tell you why this cover is fantastic?  You’ve got that awesome picture of Wonder Woman in the background, and THEN Wonder Woman with the lasso going atop an in-flight invisible plane.  This cover is crazy great!!

Wonder Woman #329:  Again with the ending of eras!!  This was the last issue of Wonder Woman before the Peréz re-launch in 1987, and they decided to go out on a high note, coverwise.  Wonder Woman looks defiant, and ready to kick some ass, while the hordes behind her seem prepared to lend a hand as well. 

So there are my top six covers… keep track of any omissions you think I’ve made for the upcoming “Egregious Snubs” list, and vote for your favourite of the six below: