Doomsday +1 was a most memorable comic book from the friendly folks at Charlton. Produced by the combo of wily veteran Joe Gill and upstart John Byrne, this comic told the tale of three astronauts who find themselves in orbit when society is largely destroyed by nuclear attack. They return to a ruined world and find an ally in a giant ancient Goth released after centuries from his icy tomb and together these four stalwarts battle against aliens, mutants, robots, and more for six ferocious issues. For more detail go here.
The book was cancelled with a seventh story finally seeing publication in a few issues of The Charlton Bullseye. Then Charlton decided to reprint the six original comics and sales early on suggested it might be time to try a new installment, but with John Byrne unavailable editor George Wildman turned to Tom Sutton to whip up a new chapter. But then final sales reports were less impressive and the new material was tucked away for decades until Mike Ambrose, publisher of Charlton Spotlight got hold of it through auction and just this month has published this time-lost gem for all true-blue Charlton fans.
The artwork needed a script so Mike contacted Nick Cuti to do the honors along with Bill Pearson on letters and Donnie Pitchford on colors. What we have is a four-color blast from the past as the Doomsday +1 team set out to solve one more mystery on the devastated Earth. The threat this time comes from what was once Southern Europe and the team finds mysterious high-tech warriors in the garb of the Roman legions awaiting them, but that's just one of many secrets in this story's raucous fifteen pages. No decompressed storytelling here.
Here's a glimpse of the complete Tom Sutton cover from the back of Charlton Spotlight. After hearing about this lost story for years, it's exceedingly sweet to finally get a chance to enjoy it.
And one more time here is the front cover. To order your own copy go here, and tell Mike that I sent you.
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