Tuesday, November 5, 2013

My Heroine Addiction : Moon Girl


M. C. Gaines was a pioneer in the field of comic book production and a co-founder of the All American Comics line. That line merged with DC in the early 40’s and in 1944 Gaines sold his stake and went out to found Educational Comics. His goal was to offer America’s youth with a line that would enhance their knowledge and provide wholesome diversions. When he died in a boating accident in 1947 the company went to his son Bill. Bill had contrary publishing instincts from those of his father and he changed the editorial slant of the company. EC now would stand for Entertaining Comics and under Bill’s direction EC took up a number of popular genres like romance, crime and of course horror. But the outfit did take one stab at the superhero market with the character Moon Girl.



 
Moon Girl was a co-creation between writer Bill Woolfolk and cartoonist Sheldon Moldoff. “Shelly” is an artist most celebrated for his GA work on Hawkman and also for being one of Bob Kane’s primary ghost artists on Batman.



Moon Girl was clearly a knock-off of Wonder Woman and targeted to attract the same readership as the Amazon princess. From 1947 through 1949 she ran in the pages of her own book as well as in INTERNATIONAL CRIME PATROL and GUNFIGHTER. Regarding her own series, the title was variously known as MOON GIRL AND THE PRINCE, MOON GIRL, MOON GIRL FIGHTS CRIME and ultimately A MOON , A GIRL, A ROMANCE.



 
The Plunderers From The Past” is culled from the pages of MOON GIRL issue 6.


  

Issue 4 brings us “Vampire of the Bayous”, an interesting subject matter considering how EC’s future fortunes would be tied to the horror genre.



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