William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter’s original introduction to Wonder Woman – All Star Comics #8 – just sold for a record $936,223. Not a bad return for a 1941 comic with a 10-cent price tag on the cover.
The issue contains the first appearance of Wonder Woman as well as her origin story, and if there is such a thing as an ordinary All Star Comic #8, this eBay item certainly isn’t it. With a 9.4 CGC grade, it’s the highest Certified Guaranty Company-graded copy of this issue known, with the closest competition rated at 9.0, which was good enough to earn $411,001 at auction in 2016.
According to Bleeding Cool, who spoke with the seller, Darren Adams of Pristine Comics (who also sold that record-setting Action Comics #1 for a cool $3.2 mil), the original collector owned a mom-and-pop grocery store. For about the duration of World War II, Pop collected a core group of superheroes — including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. He used to buy the books, some 400 all told, directly from a magazine distributor, then take them home, “where they remained undisturbed, for over 70-plus years.”
Two other seminal Wonder Woman titles also sold from the collection yesterday. Sensation Comics #1, which came out about two weeks after All Star Comics #8, expounded on Wonder Woman’s origin story and also brought Diana Prince to “Man’s World.” This book, with an astounding 9.6 CGC grade, sold for a record sum of $399,100. And a 9.0-rated “solicitation copy” of Wonder Woman #1 from 1942 pulled in $226,877 (surprisingly, nearly $70,000 less than it sold for back in December).
