Skip to main content

Marston and Wonder Woman

I found the background of Marston to be quiet interesting.  I loved that he was a famous psychologist who kind of randomly took up the idea of working on comic books.  I found his earlier history to be extremely cool, in that he came up with the idea for the lie detector.  Loved the random stories pertaining to this concept, such as that of the two friends who loved each other but were already engaged to other people whom the lie detector found they did not love.  Marston was extremely accomplished in his field, teaching at Radcliffe, Tuts, Columbia, NYU and the University of Southern California, it is shocking to me that he would leave this field to work in creating comic books.  Marston however made the correct decision as he ended up creating the first true super herione, or rather the first successful super herione as the book states another one named Olga Mesmer, the girl with the x-ray eyes was the first, but she did not achieve popularity.  

Marston did not abandon his psychological concepts as stated in the book "Marston believed women were less susceptible than men to the negative traits of aggression and acquisitiveness, and could come to control the comparatively unruly male sex by alluring them"(Wonder Woman, the Complete History, pg 19).    Thus, Marston was targeting a male audience, and having female characters who were often bonded and tied up the male readers flocked to the wonder woman comics.  Many of the villains in the Wonder Woman comic books were quiet twisted and wonderful, such as Dr. Poison who was originally portrayed as a man but turned out to be a woman.  The wonder woman comic books and their creator truly have interested me, hopefully the rest of the book will continue to hold my interest.

Comments

philippos42 said…
You're reading Les Daniels's Wonder Woman: the Complete History? That's a good book.

As for Marston's career change, I got the impression he'd been fired from instructing for moral turpitude (i.e., his long extramarital relationship with Olive Byrne) & discovered comics as a way to have a more stable income. Unlike many comic book writers & artists, he kept ultimate control of his character, which helped him stay nearly his own boss (though of course he had an editor).

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Comics Ch. 1-2 & Comic Book Nation Ch.1

To begin with, I really do like the idea of reading a comic about comics. I think it's a great idea and it's very well executed. As I was reading the first two chapters, I was surprised at how many examples there were of art in recent (and ancient, in some cases) history that are variations of "sequential visual art" and thus the foundations of modern comics. I'd never even thought about it before and it was hard to believe how many different kinds there were. I also love all the discussion about how our human brains automatically interpret certain images in a specific way, how we see others constantly but we identify ourselves when we look at cartoons, and how inanimate objects automatically becomes extensions of our bodies. The pyramid of styles was very interesting too as a way to conceptualize and almost graph or "place" a specific art style in comics. In Comic Book Nation , I enjoyed reading about the evolution of early comics from "funnies...

MegaCon 2011 Mobile Blog Entry

Next up, the Crime Noir Panel hosted by The Rack Pack Comic Podcast . Jimmy Palmiotti, Frank Tieri, Darwyn Cook and Dave Johnson are the speakers. MegaCon has matured as the comic industry has grown in importance in popular culture. Orlando's native convention should be attracting this kind of top talents and now it seem to be doing it.

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.