Ditko & the Wonder Woman Spectacular

In late 1977, I became the writer for Wonder Woman. This came about for several reasons. I had been writing Isis, DC’s adaptation of The Secrets of Isis, a CBS Saturday morning children’s television series produced by Filmation. I had been writing the Supergirl stories appearing in Superman Family, some Black Canary stories for World’s Finest Comics, and I was editing the Starfire series by Dave Micheline and Mike Vosburg. I had inadvertently become DC’s “heroine” writer. That, and because I was one of the only two married DC

Woodchucks (Bob Rozakis being the other), DC felt I “understood women.” (This, of course wasn’t at all true, but I was going to run with the opportunity).

My first Wonder Woman writing assignment was to be for DC Special Series #9, the Wonder Woman Spectacular. DC Special Series was a catch-all title with a rotating editorship. Instead of publishing separate “annuals” for any given title, extra-length tales and collections would appear under this blanket title. I had already edited DC Special Series #6, which featured a Secret Society of Super-Villains special. Later issues of the DC Special Series title would include some DC Digest Comics and various super-sized special publications. The Wonder Woman Spectacular was to be a 64-page epic, featuring the Earth-2 Wonder Woman in a World War II blockbuster adventure, since that was what was currently running in the regular monthly Wonder Woman title. Larry Hama would be the editor. I do not recall if it was for a deadline or creative purposes, but it was decided that my first Wonder Woman story would be illustrated by four different pencil artists. The pages featuring the heroine would be drawn by José Delbo, the regular series artist. The villain pages would be created by veteran comics legend Dick Ayers, who had been drawing my Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth stories. Russ Heath would be lending his considerable talents to the pages featuring the Amazons. The mythological gods pages would be drawn by