Number 2364: “Sky Sabotage”

I can imagine the conversation between EC founder and publisher, Max Gaines, and writer Gardner Fox: “I want you to create a character just like Wonder Woman, only different. No kinky stuff!” Gaines had been the publisher of the All American line, partners with Donenfield and Liebowitz, publishers of DC Comics, where Wonder Woman was a big seller. In 1945 Gaines sold his share, including Wonder Woman, to DC, and went off on his own again. Superheroes were fading fast in the late 1940s, except for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, so naturally he would want to capture some of Wonder Woman’s sales.

It didn’t work as well as hoped, and the only super hero(ine) of the EC Comics line, Moon Girl, didn’t last for long. It doesn’t mean that Moon Girl wasn’t fairly well done; Fox and artist Sheldon Moldoff were professionals who had been working for Gaines for years, but Moon Girl didn’t have the bizarre characteristics of Wonder Woman that made her a big seller. M.C. Gaines died in 1947, and EC was put under his son Bill’s direction. He gradually made decisions that turned the company into his, and not his father’s.

“Sky Sabotage” is from Moon Girl #3 (1948):

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