Mary Marvel Gets a Series With Wow Comics #9, up for Auction

Fawcett’s Wow Comics is a nice Golden Age sequence that deserves extra consideration. It debuted in winter 1940 and ran for 69 points till August 1948, that includes work by CC Beck, Otto Binder, Dave Berg, and even Jack Kirby, amongst many others. But the sequence actually began to shine when Mary Marvel arrived, with lovely covers and inside artwork by artist Marc Swayze.  There’s a copy of Mary Marvel’s sequence debut in Wow Comics #9 (Fawcett Publications, 1943) Condition: Apparent GD up for public sale on the 2023 March 19-21 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122312 from Heritage Auctions.

Mary Marvel debuted within the Wow Comics title about three weeks after her first look in Captain Marvel Adventures #18, with cowl and paintings by Mary Marvel co-creator Marc Swayze.  As Swayze would later recall, “I laid aside the Captain Marvel story I was working on in the Captain Marvel production line and whipped up some sketches as requested. There was only one character to create, inasmuch as she was to remain the same with only a costume change. I didn’t work up a variety of poses and expressions, as I was certain that my first drawings were going to come back, time and time again for revisions before final approval upstairs.  ‘Holy Moley,’ as Billy would have said, the drawings were accepted without a single change or even any suggestions! I was given the script for the first Mary Marvel story and went to work on it.”

That script would have been by the character’s co-creator Otto Binder, who would later co-create Supergirl for DC Comics (amongst many different issues) for the Silver Age.  Like a lot of the remainder of the Wow Comics sequence, Mary Marvel’s Wow Comics debut is a gem of artistic execution on the quilt, story, and paintings and there is a copy of her sequence debut in Wow Comics #9 (Fawcett Publications, 1943) Condition: Apparent GD up for public sale on the 2023 March 19-21 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122312 from Heritage Auctions.

Affiliates of Bleeding Cool purchase from and/or consign to Heritage Auctions.