Wonder Woman: How Joye Hummel Was 'Discovered' as the Amazon's First Female Writer

In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, find out the "secret" first time that the first female Wonder Woman writer, Joye Hummel, had her identity revealed to the public.

Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and second installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for Part 1 of this week's legends.

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COMIC LEGEND:

Joye Hummel's identity as the first female Wonder Woman writer wasn't revealed until the 21st Century.

STATUS:

Basically False

In 2014, Jill Lepore released the excellent book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

Among the items discussed in the book was the fact that a woman named Joye Hummel wrote the main Wonder Woman feature for a few years from 1945-1947, at which point she got married and resigned (around the same time that Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston passed away). Lepore's book drew a great deal of attention to Hummel, who had been uncredited at the time and was largely unknown in the decades since. Hummel attended her very first San Diego Comic-Con in 2018 when she was 95 years old to receive the Bill Finger Award. So Lepore's book was a very important part of getting Hummel's story out there and made her name a lot more well known (to the point where, upon her death earlier this year, she received a number of notable obituaries in newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times (we covered her passing, as well, of course).

However, as amazing as a job that Lepore did, Lepore in the book specifically credited another person for turning her on to Hummel in the first place. You see, Jerry Bails had done a "Who's Who in Comics" feature on Hummel all the way back in 1972!

Jerry Bails (1933-2006) was one of the most notable figures in what we would now call comic book fandom. He did not CREATE comic book fandom and nor was he even the first person to create a comic book fanzine, but Bails' enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge still made him one of the driving forces of comic book fandom in the 1960s, like the creation of the awesome fanzine, Alter Ego.

In 1961, Bails also launched The Comicollector, a response to the science fiction magazine, The Fantasy Collector. You see, before specialty stores, the only way you could really buy back issues (if you didn't happen to live near somebody who sold old comics) was in advertisements buried in the Fantasy Collector. So Bails wanted a comic book specific place where fans could place ads for comic book sales. The Comicollector merged with the similar concept fanzine, The Rocket's Blast. Eventually, it was just known as Rocket's Blast Comicollector...

While he was no longer in charge of the magazine, Bails continued to contribute to it, especially as part of his long-running interest in doing a "Who's Who of Comic Books." Well, in a 1972 issue of Rocket's Blast Comicollector, Bails tracked down Humel and printed the following abridged version of her correspondence with him about her time in comics...

In regard to the artists connected with Wonder Woman in the three years I worked with Dr. Marston, 1945-47; only Harry G. Peters was the chief artist. Dr. William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman. Charles Moulton was a pen name. Moulton was Dr. Marston's middle name and Charles was Mr. Gaines' first name. This name was used as the author no matter who wrote the script. My association with Dr. Marston began when I graduated from Katherine Gibbs. Dr. Marston was my psychology teacher. He asked me to work for him as secretary-writer because I received the highest mark in his final exam and therefore would understand his theory behind Wonder Woman. Shortly after I was hired, Dr. Marston was stricken with Infantile Paralysis; therefore my duties increased. I also did lectures to schools, etc. on the strip which were well received partly because I rather resembled Wonder Woman in appearance.

Scripts were written in play form - some by me, some by Dr. Marston, others together. They were first submitted to Sheldon Mayer for approval. Then the scripts were given to Harry G. Peter and two women who worked under him. Explicit directions in the script explaining to the artists exactly what to draw, costumes, background. The first layouts were done in pencil and checked by me to make sure they followed the script. Then the layouts were inked and sent to the editing offices for final checking and printing. I do not recall the covers being done by Harry G. Peter except on the Wonder Woman magazine. He always signs his covers.

Dr. William Marston was an exceptionally brilliant psychologist. I suppose to know that he did original research on the lie detector at Harvard. He specialized in woman's psychology. Wonder Woman was not meant to be just an adventure story featuring a woman super-hero. This was why it was difficult to find writers for the strip after Dr. Marston died and I resigned because of marriage. Dr. Marston, long before women's lib, felt that women should have a stronger influence in the world.

What's interesting is that Hummel's Wonder Woman past appeared frequently in articles about her in the 1940s, like her marriage announcement:

Miss Joye Hummel, daughter of Mrs. Quinten Hummel of Shipherd avenue, Lynbrook has chosen August 17 as the date for her marriage to David Wood Murchison, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. David Murchison of Glen Cove.

The ceremony will be performed at 4 p. m. at the Rockville Centre Presbyterian church. The Rev. J. Milton Thompson will officiate and a reception will follow for the immediate family at the Elks clubhouse, Freeport.

Mrs. Kenneth Murchison of Glen Cove will be matron of honor and Mrs. James O. Wroten of North Bergen, N. J. and Miss Olive Ann Marston of Rye will be bridesmaids. Kenneth Murchison will be best man for his brother and the ushers will be Dr. William Martin of Glen Cove and Arthur Crowder of Sea Cliff.

Olive Ann Marston is, indeed, William Marston's daughter. Mrs. James O. Wroten, was Margaret Wroten, who was a comic book letterer at the time with her husband, Jim (they did the lettering on EC Comics when Wonder Woman publisher Charles Gaines formed EC Comics in 1946).

Obviously, Hummel's name ended up falling out of history, and Lepore deserves so many plaudits for getting her name back out there, so that Hummel's later years could be spent getting accolades for her work. I just think it's also worthy to acknowledge the important work that Bails did over the years, as well.

Thanks to Alex Jay for the scan of the Bails/Hummel article and the wedding announcement!

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