Charlton's Fantastic Giants!

Fantastic Giants #24 (t is a continuation of the numbering of Konga) was one of the earliest comic books I ever got my little mitts on and it's a book that has at its center not a character but an artist. Steve Ditko (shown enigmatically as a quasi-human ink bottle) is what this book is about, his artwork on some vintage projects as well as two new stories by the maker of so many fascinating Charlton yarns. 

Konga was of course once upon a time a movie and then Charlton adapted it to comic book form. Ditko drew the adaptation and many of the better Konga stories from the reasonably long run of the title. This volume showcases that wonderful Joe Gill written and Ditko drawn debut story. 

On the other side we have Gorgo, another very successful giant monster flick adapted by Charlton using the same team. The oddly touching tale of an enormous monster and her giant offspring taking a walking tour of London is exceedingly well told. Given the price of special effects, both the Konga and the Gorgo stories add to the luster of the cinematic renditions. 

In addition to the classic giant monsters we get a then-modern Ditko tale called "Mountain Monster" which might've fit into Ghostly Tales or The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, but is given special prominence here. This story written by Dave Kaler gives us Ditko at the top of his powers just as the lead character of this story is at the top of that mysterious mountain. 

And finally, there's the secret gem of this set, the other new story scripted by Dave Kaler called simply "With the Help of Hogar" which set in the depths of Africa offers Ditko the chance at a splash page, one of his best. Ditko didn't create impactful splash pages like his colleague Jack Kirby and but for Kirby might never have done. But when he was given the nod, he created some of my favorites such as the outstanding splashes in the first Spider-Man Annual and the debuts of the redesigned Captain Atom and Blue Beetle. This image above really lives up to the book's title, and gives us a "fantastic giant", a creature which seems to lumber out of the pages of a Lovecraft story brimming with utter weirdness. All this heady stuff indeed for a youngster just shaping his initial impressions of what comic book art should be. A Steve Ditko special indeed and the true "fantastic giant" in this tome is the artist himself.

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Charlton Classic Covers - Reptisaurus #8!

Reptisaurus #8 was published in 1962. You can read the issue at this link. The cover art is by Bill Montes and Ernie Bache. 

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Charlton Classic Covers - Reptisaurus #5!

Reptisaurus #5 was published in 1962. You can read the issue at this link. The goofy cover art is by Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta. 

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Charlton Classic Covers - Reptisaurus #3!

Reptisaurus #3 was published in 1962. It is a continuation of the Reptilicus series with modifications to the creature's color and name. You can read the issue at this link. The cover art is by Sal Gentile and Nick Alascia. 

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Charlton Classic Covers - Reptilicus #2

Reptilicus #2 was published in 1961. You can read the issue at this link. The cover art is by Dick Giordano. 

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Monarch's Reptilicus!

Charlton also was associated with the paperback imprint Monarch and they too adapted Reptilicus using the writer David Owens. Pink took issue with some of the scenes created for the novel version which are reputed to have a somewhat lascivious quality. I've never read it, so I cannot speak first-hand about it. But apparently it upset Pink who pulled the license from Charlton.

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The Lonely One!

Konga is a name to conjure with. The movie, a bit of schlock from the 50's featuring a mad scientist (played to hilt by Michael Gough -- more on that tomorrow) who uses jungle potions to make things grow to vast proportions experiments on a monkey and gets Konga, a giant ape who prowls the streets of London before meeting his apparent doom. And that's the end. No sequels, no need. Konga the movie is a strange but oddly compelling flick

Konga the comic book series from Charlton is the same and different too. Konga survives the end of the first story and becomes something akin more to Godzilla than King Kong, his obvious inspiration. Konga of the comics can survive nuclear blasts and seems to wander the globe with great speed, impervious to the elements for the most part. He is at once part of the world and apart from it. Hence The Lonely One as the title of this Robin Snyder produced collection of some of Joe Gill's and Steve Ditko's most curious Konga stories. This was the very first Konga collection I ever purchased way back when. 

The first story in the collection is "The Monster Hunter" from Konga #11. It tells the tale of world-famous hunter E. Kellington Trent and his romantic partner Miss Lovejoy who want to trap the greatest game of all, and that happens to be Konga who is at once a real creature and almost a thing of myth. The pair stalk the great beast but become charmed by him, and the story ends much differently than expected.

"The Land of the Frozen Giants" from Konga #8 has Konga travel to the great white vastness of Antarctica where he gets frozen, becoming a living statue. He is discovered but before he can be captured and he falls into a sub-world filled with dinosaurs where he must fight ceaselessly for his life.

"The Peacemaker" from Konga #13 has Konga get a bad cold and then invade a southern clime where he finds healing mud in the steamy swamps. While taking the cure, he finds himself at odds with a tinpot dictator who is kept in power by nefarious foreign powers. Konga saves people from broken train tracks and battles the full force of the dictator's military.

Finally, there is "The Lonely One" from Konga #12 a story which reprises Konga's origin story from the movie adaptation, then has the great beast become stranded in the snow in the alps after a mighty avalanche. There mankind must decide whether to save or slay the beast and bring two of the humans who first cared for Konga back again to deal with his current situation.

Also on hand in this collection are two one-page gag comics from Henry Boltinoff and a Ditko short about the origins of mankind.

To say this is an idiosyncratic package is to understate it. But oddly the Konga stories themselves have a neat cohesion. The stories published in the order that they are, have something of an arc to them as Konga prowls the world looking for peace and companionship, and all too often finding only strife and combat. The stories stand on their own well enough, but when taken together to seem to work even better. The ending is a happy enough one.

Konga stories have a humor and a charm not found in just every comic, at least these by Gill and Ditko do. Konga is an absurd character who seems to absorb atomic blasts, yet at the same time remaining an identifiable personality. He's big but not beyond the scope of human character. These are wonderful little morality fables with more to say about the human condition than might at first be surmised.

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The Charlton Reptilicus!

Reptilicus was the least successful of Charlton's monster trio, likely because the monster is the least identifiable of the three monsters. It's just an animal, large and often ferocious, but still difficult to get any sense of what Reptilicus is thinking. Also, Reptilicus never was graced with the artistic power of Steve Ditko, instead had to deal with the competent but less exciting duo of Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia. And besides that, there are only technically two issue of "Reptilicus", because Charlton lost the rights to the name. 

Sid Pink was not happy with the sexual elements added to the novelization of the movie story published under Charlton's Monarch brand. He pulled the rights I assume, and Charlton was left with only two comics titled Reptilicus. 

The first issue featured a great Rocke Mastroserio cover while the second featured the artwork of Dick Giordano with the Nicholas and Alascia combo still on board between the covers. Reptilicus revives and threatens areas of Africa in the sequel. As far as I can tell Joe Gill wrote all the issues of the run. 

With the third issue the title of the comic is changed to Reptisaurus and the artwork is by Bill Molno. Sal Gentile and Nick Alascia supply a less than satisfactory cover. Reptisaurus is red where Reptilicus was green and gets a mate and a family. But don't wait to see what happens as continuity on this comic is pretty much nonexistent with each issue seeming to start from scratch. 

The artwork is then taken over by the team of Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta and their work here is even less impressive than it was on Gorgo. Part of that is that Reptisaurus is hard to draw in any way which allows the reader to get a sense of his feelings. The rendition by the team makes him quite comical in places. 

Eventually like all the other monster series, the art team of Bill Montes and Ernie Bache take on the book toward the end of its run and they redesign the monster quite a bit, making him much less like the original Reptilicus. This is not a bad idea and we get some decent storytelling in the final issues of the original run. 

Following the cancellation of the original run after a meager eight issues we are treated to a special edition which puts a wrap on the character sort of.

Reptilicus the movie is a guilty pleasure of mine and I watch it on the regular, and I was pleased to finally get to read all the Reptilicus/Reptisaurus comics despite the meager quality. I am always curious and like a bad movie, even bad comics can be entertaining in their own way if you adjust your expectations. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #11!

Gorgo #13 was published in 1963. You can read the issue at this link. This cover is derived from images from inside the comic book. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #4!

Gorgo #4 was published in 1961. You can read the issue at this link. 

This cover was derived from the splash page of the debut issue. The interior art on this issue was by Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #82!

 

Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #3!

Gorgo #3 was published in 1961. You can read the issue at this link. This is an original cover by Ditko showcasing Gorgo under the control of a Commie scientist. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #2!

Gorgo #2 was published in 1961. You can read the issue at this link. This is an original cover by Ditko, an iconic image of Gorgo's mother demolishing the United Nations Building. 

Here the cover art is used for Fright Monsters magazine cover. This fun magazine was supposedly discovered after many decades in the hidden basement beneath a store in Derby, Connecticut, the home of the defunct Charlton Comics brand. Great back-story yarn for this retro Druktenis 2020 publication. 

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Monarch's Gorgo!

The Monarch Books (a Charlton brand) novelization of the Gorgo saga by Carson Bingham (the pen name of Bruce Cassiday) is much different from the movie. The story is told from the point of view of Sam Slade and his partnership with Joe Ryan is much more tempestuous than in the film. They first joined forces in the Korean War and later as gun runners for the Cuban revolution. Both are rough and tumble, but Joe is much more imposing and dangerous than in the film. The biggest change is the addition of Moira, the sister of Sean, the kid from the film. We get some exceedingly sexy scenes between her and Sam as he is smitten immediately. (She has a very difficult time keeping her clothes on.) She's presented early in the book almost as a mystical figure, mysterious and strangely aloof. But the description of their lovemaking is very salacious in the spirit of that era. I'd imagine more than a few kids had eye-popping moments as they awaited the monster to emerge. The attack on Nara Island by Gorgo's mother is much more impressive in the novel though there is a limitation to the descriptions of the destruction of London as we are hampered by seeing only through Sam's eyes. 

To read the novel version of the story by Carson Bingham check out this link to the Internet Archive. 

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Ditko's Monsters - Gorgo!

This YOe Books collection brings together all of the Joe Gill and Steve Ditko stories about the giant monster Gorgo. Gorgo stories were produced by other talents in the Charlton stable, but it's only the Ditko material which is on display here (for the most part).

Likewise, both monsters are getting the collected treatment from YOe Books and IDW Publishing. The Konga collection, which is even larger  that the pretty hefty Gorgo book, is due to arrive in a few months.  The stories by the ever-ready scripter Joe Gill are solid and as illustrated by Steve Ditko, give the reader a incredible but entertaining thrill ride as the monster Gorgo, almost presented as a stranger-in-a-strange-land, deals with the wide world.

It's a lot of Gorgo to read, and truth told not all of the stories are gems. But they are all a hoot, an echo from a time when comics were such plain unabashed fun, that stuff like this could be published without apology or qualm.

All of the Ditko Gorgo stories are here, as well as all the covers he produced for the series. Also showcased is some really great info on the classic movie and how the comics were an integral part of the marketing of the flick. Great Gorgo lore for any fan of the movie indeed.

Here's a cover gallery. Enjoy! The debut cover is by Dick Giordano if I'm any judge.

This final cover is by Bill Montes and Ernie Bache. These artists did a gaggle of Gorgo stories themselves and they did the cover here for an issue featuring Steve Ditko material inside. (It might be heresy in a post celebrating the great Ditko's art, but I actually prefer the Montes and Bache version to Ditko's.  Sadly, I doubt we ever see a collection of those stories, but there's always hope.)

Monsters are at their most fantastic when they are giant. More Charlton giant monster goodness tomorrow. 

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The Charlton Gorgo

Gorgo was Charlton's other monster comic. Like Konga it began as an adaptation of a movie, then transformed into an ongoing series. It was a tougher go than Konga because the monsters were less identifiable and lacked an ability to show much emotion if any, unlike Konga. They couldn't be humanized in the same way. Also, the comic lacked the talent of Steve Ditko after the first several issues. Ditko illustrated Joe Gill's scripts at first but stepped away when the comic was first picked up by the Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia team then by Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta. The latter duo produced several issues of the run early on and most all of them are poor even by Charlton's rather lax standards. Later Ditko returns for several issues before handing the comic over to Bill Montes and Ernie Bache, the same team that took over Konga after Ditko's departure. If anything, the Montes and Bache version of the great monsters was successful at finally giving the monsters some character. 

One aspect of the Gorgo saga which makes it difficult for the comic is that there are two monsters -- Gorgo and Gorgo's Mother. It reminds me of the monster Grendel from Beowulf who also had a more powerful and deadly mother. Having to work in both monsters is difficult given the space allowances in a comic tale, and often Gorgo's mom just sleeps for most of a story. The stories are strongest when just Gorgo is the focus. Like Konga, we are often presented with human lovers who find one another amidst the conflicts which Gorgo's presence generates. Gorgo battles aliens (two separate invasions from Venus for instance) and Commies. He and his mom find lots of other monsters above and below the sea to fight as well. Reptilicus (or as he's renamed Reptisaurus) even makes a guest appearance in the Gorgo comic run, showing the only instance of continuity inside the Charlton monsterverse. 

Here's a cover gallery of the complete run of the comic. 

Gorgo's Revenge is a strange comic, in which Gorgo is associated with the dragons of myth. This story is drawn by Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia. 

The two issues of The Return of Gorgo were both illustrated by Steve Ditko though as usual he only creates one cover. Many of the covers in the main series and otherwise were created by Dick Giordano. This series seems to be a continuation of Gorgo's Revenge. 

The Gorgo comic saga is well captured in these two volumes which reproduce the stories from scans of the comics. Some of those scans are pretty meager, but it's still nice to have all the issues at hand. 

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