Monday, July 3, 2017

Liberty Belle!


When George Wildman took over editing Charlton Comics there was a blush of creative at the little Connecticut publisher. Not that under the previous administation there hadn't been new titles, there had been, but there was a sense of something new under the Wildman brand, which was marked by the arrival of the Charlton Bullseye logo. One of the new titles was E-Man by Nick Cuti and Joe Staton which often sported new ideas in the back up feature. One such feature was Joe Gill's and Steve Ditko's offbeat superheroine Liberty Belle.


Here one and only appearance was in E-Man #5. To read this peculiar but still oddly fascinating debut, check out this link to read "Freedom's Star". The story is full of cliches and ends on a weird note, but still and all there's something compelling about this morsel. Perhaps it's just that, the sense of something left undone, a glimpse of something larger which when seen in full will merely be like most everything else. That's what I suspect.


Liberty Belle's singular appearance was a most memorable one indeed as evidenced by her joining Charlton Bronze Age powerhouses like E-Man, Nova and Yang on this nifty promotional piece by the great Joe Staton.

More wonky Liberty Belle please.

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2 comments:

  1. Hi Rip,
    You might be interested to know that Liberty Belle made her second appearance just last year, in Mr. Jigsaw #13 (http://www.indyplanet.us/product/115960/). The story was reprinted in color in two parts in the Charlton Arrow (#5 and #6).

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    1. I was but forgot it, even though I have the cover art for five in the post. Thanks for the heads up.

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