His imaginative first script and cover design, drawn by Carmine Infantino, proved hugely popular, and ushered in a new age of superheroes. In 1956, Kanigher devised the original for a trial revival of DC's Flash, now thoroughly modernised. Having won the second world war, these superheroes had lost their relevance by the late 1940s, and most had vanished. A fresh start came in 1958 with his new art team, penciller Ross Andru and inker Mike Esposito, and his additions of a teenage Wonder Girl, a baby Wonder Tot and some increasingly bizarre boyfriends and villains.īyt the time he left, in 1968, Kanigher had steered Wonder Woman, sometimes erratically, through two decades as the only superheroine to star in her own comic book since 1941. With this exceptional editorial freedom, he tried various approaches to update the Amazon princess, from love stories to Hollywood glamour, with mixed results. Mayer was keen to return to his drawing, so he groomed Kanigher to replace him as editor on the character, which Kanigher accepted in 1948, on condition that he was also appointed as writer. The following year brought the death of psychologist William Moulton Marston, the inventor of the lie-detector and creator and writer of Wonder Woman. In 1946, Kanigher was hired by Sheldon Mayer, editor at All-American Comics - as one half of DC was then known - who first assigned him to Black Canary, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Justice Society Of America. In 1943, he wrote the bestselling How To Make Money Writing For Comics, the first guide of its kind.
He scripted the exploits of Blue Beetle, Steel Sterling, The Web, Captain Marvel and others.
In 1932, he won the New York Times collegiate short-story competition, and went on to write and direct and stage plays and radio shows, including House Of Mystery and Cavalcade Of America.įrom 1940, he branched out into the burgeoning comic book market, where superheroes fought the Germans and the Japanese - "all in colour for a dime". Born in New York, Kanigher was selling short stories and poetry in his teens.
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