A MORRISON MONDAYS 85th anniversary salute to the Amazing Amazon!
By BILL MORRISON
You wouldn’t know it to look at Wonder Woman, but this Wednesday, October 21, she will turn 85 years old! To celebrate the anniversary of her first appearance in All-Star Comics #8, I dug out a drawing I did when Princess Diana was only in her 60s and colored it up especially for 13th Dimension!
Even casual fans of the Princess of Paradise Island will probably recognize the source of my inspiration for the drawing, the Aurora Wonder Woman model kit from 1965.
My drawing was done on Duo-shade board, an old graphic arts product that many comic artists used to use to create shading lines and cross hatching in their drawings through a chemical process. Nowadays, artists can create the same effects digitally, which is why they haven’t made Duo-shade since 2007. I was curious to see how it worked, and chose Wonder Woman as the subject for my experiment.
When I was a kid, a high percentage of my weekly allowance was spent on Aurora model kits, and I built and painted nearly all the monster and superhero models they offered. Wonder Woman was one of my favorites, and I especially loved the Murphy Anderson box art of Diana binding a giant octopus with her Golden Lasso of Truth. My original model is long gone, but I kept the box all these years. It’s a classic image of an iconic character who’s only become more popular as the years have rolled by.
In 1965, she was a comic book superstar, but not much more. Today her resume includes a hit live-action TV show and multiple blockbuster feature films, along with starring roles on several animated series and loads of merchandise. So, happy anniversary to the Amazing Amazon, and may your adventures go on for decades to come.
Random thought: I wish Aurora had done a 1970s Comic Scenes reissue of the kit, complete with a comic story that explains the situation depicted in the model, like they did with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, etc.
I’ve always wanted to know what information Wonder Woman was trying to coax out of that octopus with her lasso. Maybe some dirt on Aquaman? Or possibly the phone number of the Sea King’s agent, so she could call and ask him how a guy whose main power is talking to fish, and whose ride is a giant seahorse, managed to costar on a Saturday morning TV show with Superman? (Sigh!) I guess I’ll never know.
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MORE
— The Art of the Insanely Popular JACK IN THE BOX/SIMPSONS MUNCHIE MEAL OF HORROR. Click here.
— My Dinner With WILL ELDER… and LITTLE ANNIE FANNY. Click here.
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Eisner winner BILL MORRISON has been working in comics and publishing since 1993 when he co-founded Bongo Entertainment with Matt Groening, Cindy Vance and Steve Vance. At Bongo, and later as Executive Editor of Mad Magazine, he parodied the comics images he loved as a kid every chance he got. Not much has changed.
Bill is on Instagram (@atomicbattery) and Facebook (Bill Morrison/Atomic Battery Studios), and regularly takes commissions and sells published art through 4C Comics.
October 19, 2026
Some years ago, the Aurora kit got a reissue by Moebius. It might be worth the work of hunting it.
October 19, 2026
Fantastic idea! We need a booklet created for her.
October 19, 2026
I had several of the original models and the boxes. Finally sold ONLY Wonder Woman and SUPERBOY in a Comic Buyer’s Guide ad (and maybe my extra Spider-Man one & box I didn’t do a good paint job on). Then those two ended up being the scarce ones. Supposedly the molds were damages/destroyed. I mainly used glossy paints and no spray paint, so it was harder to be satisfied,
Still have Hulk, Spidey & Cap and their boxes. Never got Batman or Superman even though I was a true DC fan early on. The look of the Batman one disappointed me. Bought a Captain Action one locally for someone else out-of-town. I couldn’t see wanting to paint that one.
My neighbor wanted the Batmobile I put together and bought it from me. Did not have it long.
My local buddy had SO many monster etc. models!! My kind of OCD nature was frustrated by wanting to always do a REALLY good job on painting them. So, I didn’t buy ANY other monster ones after only having Wolfman. Proud of the job I did on a Giant Frankenstein I found near to out house at a garage sale for $1!!!! as we were building our current house. Got pointers from a DC colorist. No tombstone piece or chain links. It was like a dream!
You brought back memories!
October 19, 2026
Glad to be of service, Doug! And thanks for the personal memories!
October 19, 2026
I can’t imagine that long plastic rope not breaking while building the model!