Paul Smith's Wonder Woman

[samurainoir]

http://paulmartinsmith.com/blog/love-and-war

He quit because they wanted him to draw Wonder Woman as she looked in the ongoing series at the time...

[samurainoir]

[Earth 2 Chris]

Yeah, I read about that over at "Comic Book Legends Revealed" on Friday. That's a shame. I'll take Smith any day over Wonder-Butt-Floss.

Chris

[huedell]

Hmmm... it's not bad---I'm split---on one hand that "not long pants, yet not swimsuit" look appears more masculine than my expectations...HOWEVER, that may be the very thing Wonder Woman needs to define who she is as far as her beautifully feminine figure and her deliberately masculine approach to battle, and, frankly, her POV on "politics of the sexes" (i.e. her Amazonian belief "women that can be everything that men can be") which is a big part of the character.

[The Toyroom]

[Earth 2 Chris]

I believe Trina Robbins wanted to use the long shorts (as actually seen in the Golden and Silver Ages) in her "Legend of Wonder Woman" mini series, but DC insisted on the then-current higher-cut version.


She got to lengthen them slightly for the Golden Age WW's Who's Who entry:



So DC had a history of wanting to keep Wonder Woman's underwear in a wad...but they just went to extreme measures in the 90s!


Chris

[Figuremod73]

I'll take Smiths version over that one in the panels. Its interesting, Nov. 94 is just a little ways before John Byrne started his run on WW. It was one of the last books I read on a regular basis during that decade.

[huedell]

I'm really "feeling" the Smith design at the moment. I'm thinking it would be cool to see a costume like this on the big screen at some point. It just feels right to hearken back to the Golden Age look, particularly for the shorts for this particularly more masculine female character...sure, as far as live-action adaptation, the shorts risk looking too pedestrian by appearing too similar to familiar gym-wear on the big screen, but done right, the shorts can look less "sports fitness" and more "warrior" imposing...

...heck, blueish-gray chain-mail with bright silver stars (that would match her silver bracelets) would work. And, maybe, the decorative stars could double as weapons---mini-throwing stars (as in Asian-type weaponry).

[kingdom warrior]

Granny shorts bleh......pretty bland, Sorry I dug Mike Deodato's WW version a whole lot more than that frumpy version Paul Smith sketched.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^When I was a teen I liked it, but it's honestly a bit too over the top for my tastes now. It's so overtly sexy...it's not. To me, anyway.

Chris

[palitoy]

Yeah, I hated the Russ Meyer turn comics took in the 90s.

[huedell]

Granny shorts bleh......pretty bland, Sorry I dug Mike Deodato's WW version a whole lot more than that frumpy version Paul Smith sketched.

Shorts? Yes. Granny? No. They're skin-tight. They may not be borderline pornography, but they DO show a woman's curves.

[Hedji]

I don't really dig the bike shorts. But I'm not into the 90s aesthetic either. Middle of the road is just fine, thank you.

[samurainoir]

the irony being... Diana was in fact running around in Bike shorts at that point as well. I believe there is some debate about how much of that run Deodato himself was drawing as it progressed after his big North American breakthrough. He was on close to six monthly books or something at that point (Thor, Lady Supreme, Avengers, etc) with really mixed results, and employing a studio of assistants (many of whom have come into their own in subsequent years).

With that said, Deodato is a hugely skilled and versatile artist... it's likely his ability to find and exploit whichever style is popular at the time which accounts for his longevity. From his heavily Warren influenced look at the start of his career, through to the Liefeld style he was doing on Wonder Woman and other 90's books, to his contemporary stuff which leans much more heavily towards Hitch widescreen and photorealism (folks have noted how much his Norman Osborn channels Tommy Lee Jones).

This run was quite well written actually... folks should pickup the trades if only to keep those royalties rolling over to William Messner Loebs, a lovely man who fell on hard time in the past decade.

[samurainoir]

and think it all generally worked out for the best with Paul Smith ending up on a creator owned book with Starman writer James Robinson (his Golden Age co-creator) aimed at the then virtually non-existant market of young girls. With the explosion of fantasy graphic novels for that age group and gender in recent years (Amulet, Zita the Space Girl, Drama), it was twenty years ahead of it's time with the wrong distribution channels. I really liked Leave it to Chance a great deal and still appreciate it, and would hope for it's return.

Buy this Book if you have daughters! It's Harry Potter and Orphan Annie rolled into one.


Smith's work on The Golden Age was frickin' awesome too!