An H.G. PETER Birthday Salute in 13 Classic WONDER WOMAN NEWSPAPER Strips

The Amazing Amazon’s co-creator was born 145 years ago (!)…

By PETER BOSCH

It’s often been said that when comic books were getting started, it was a young man’s game. That certainly would have come as a surprise to artist Harry George Peter (better known as “H.G. Peter”). When he co-created Wonder Woman with Dr. William Moulton Marston in 1941, he was 61 years old. (By comparison, Marston was a young whippersnapper of 48.)

Peter was born March 8, 1880, in San Rafael, California and his early drawings appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and New York American newspapers at the start of 20th century. He would also become an illustrator for a number of magazines, including Judge.

Judge magazine, 1915

However, his best-known work was drawing the Wonder Woman comics for 18 years (until his death in 1958). What is lesser known is that he also drew the rarely seen Wonder Woman newspaper strip in its entirety from 1944 to 1945 (which was also written by Marston).

1944 promo for the Wonder Woman strip

In honor of H.G. Peter’s birth 145 years ago, here are 13 of the WW strips, including the first two weeks, from May 8 to May 20, 1944, and the series finale on Dec. 1, 1945:

To see the entire run, the book Wonder Woman: The Complete Dailies — 1944-1945 (IDW, 2014) is a must:

MORE

— COMICS 101: The Wild and Weird World of H.G. PETER’s WONDER WOMAN. Click here.

— 13 COVERS: An H.G. PETER Birthday Celebration. Click here.

13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Pagewas published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is due in 2025. (You can pre-order here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.

Author: Dan Greenfield

Share This Post On

1 Comment

Leave a Reply to jeffbaker307 Cancel reply

%d bloggers like this: