Joye Hummel

In 1943 Joye Hummel was a psychology student at Katherine Gibbs School. It was well known that one of the professors, William Moulton Marston, had created the character of Wonder Woman. Only a couple of years old, the character was already well-known worldwide. The comic reading public was rabid for new stories, and Professor Marston needed help with the scripts. To keep top with demand, he turned to 19-year-old Hummel for assistance. The deal was that the scripts had to remain credited under his pen-name “Charles Moulton.” Because of the character’s popularity, he didn’t want anything to jeopardize it. Hummel agreed, excited at the prospect, and began co-scripting the stories, which Marston would sometimes dictate.  

By the end of 1944, only a few months after she began working with Marston, he became ill with polio. Keeping up with his job, the Wonder Woman scripts, and his illness, took its toll. Hummel’s scripting duties increased until she became the sole voice behind Wonder Woman’s adventures.  

On May 2, 1947, Marston passed away, and Hummel’s work on the title ended. With issue #29, another writer, Robert Kanigher, stepped in to fill Marston’s shoes. 

Because Marston had insisted that Wonder Woman’s adventures during Hummel’s time continue under his name, her contribution as the first woman to write for the character went unknown for decades. Now officially recognized, Hummel received the 2018 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing along with writer/editor Dorothy Roubicek Woolfolk.

Joye Hummel (Joye Murchison Kelly) (b. April 4, 1924)