Cover Girl: Lynda Carter's WONDER WOMAN

Dabblers love comics; they lust after comic book cover art. We know those action-packed, brightly-colored faces of our favorite four-color books are more than the marketing tools they - like all covers of books and magazines - have traditionally been. Mark our words, we'll have plenty more on the art form that is the comic book cover coming your way this week. To fulfill this promise, we had to dive in someplace, and the Wonder Woman works of  Ray Caspio, graphic designer and illustrator, were an ideal place to begin.

Caspio's love of DC Comics' Amazonian Princess finds it roots in the live-action Wonder Woman television series starring Lynda Carter, which enthralled audiences first on ABC in 1975, then later on CBS until 1979.   In what we think is a very innovative move, Caspio's represented his favorite episodes as comic book covers, each one true-to-form and perfectly capturing all the essentials -- like "The Deadly Dolphin" of Wonder Woman episode 45, which aired back in December of 1978.

In order to best translate his comic book homages to Wonder Woman's episodes,  Caspio's numbering is slightly different than what's given in most episode guides -- although it makes far better sense. Caspio counts the two-part 1975  Wonder Woman pilot movie as his Episodes One and Two, then continues his counting right through the show's two-part finale, which finish out his full 61-episode system. For a full episode listing of Wonder Woman, go HERE.

To date, Caspio's completed four in his ongoing series of comic book covers based on Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman:  The Return of Wonder Woman (Episode No. 15), The Deadly Dolphin (No. 45),  Skateboard Whiz (No. 44 ), and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (No. 61).  

We think they're all really cool -- and even cooler, Caspio's made each available as an 11x17 print. If you're interested on framing one of his wonderful homages to Lynda Carter as much as Wonder Woman herself, you can contact him HERE.  If you're fave happens to be his latest work, Wonder Woman No. 15 (just below), you're in even better shape: you get your choice of either a print HERE or a T-shirt HERE.   We're thinking No. 15 as a tee, while "The Deadly Dolphin" already has the perfect spot over the kitchen pantry. 

Ray's comics illustrations don't quit with Wonder Woman, though.  You'll find much more of his amazing work and superheroine homages on his blog and website, HERE.