In addition to my year-long reading of the many, many works of the late, great Steve Ditko, I will be rekindling my longtime love of Charlton Comics, the company which welcomed and to some degree nurtured the work Ditko. He loved the artistic freedom he enjoyed at the company which paid such low page rates that they didn't dare tell him what to do. But the company was the home to more than a few wonderful talents such as Dick Giordano, Pat Boyette, Jim Aparo, Denny O'Neil, Steve Skeates, Sam Glanzman, Frank McLaughlin, Pete Morisi, John Byrne, Joe Staton, Mike Zeck, Wayne Howard, William Sattler, Joe Gill, Nick Cuti, and many more.
To assist my long look at the Derby, Connecticut publisher I'll be using The Charlton Companion from the friendly folks at Twomorrows. This is a great history of the company, giving proper attention to the company from before its birth in a jail cell in the 1940's until its demise in the 1980's.
There's also Charlton Neo to consider, a small outfit which reprinted some choice material as well as produced some new adventures of long forgotten heroes. Many of Charlton's best have appeared under the labels of other companies such as DC and AC among others. There's a lot to explore.
The Charlton Companion is a derived and expanded upon from two seminal Comic Book Artist magazines from years ago. The first focused on the early years and the explosion of the "Action Heroes" line in the 1960's. The second looked at the rollicking 1970's spurt of horror titles and brand-new heroes such as E-Man among others. I've long loved Charlton Comics, so expect to see lots of covers as more of my vintage "Charlton Reports" posts. Charlton was a company eager to license characters, and I'll be looking into anything tied into such as that including the creations of Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward and others. You might well be surprised how far that can be expanded.
I will also revisit the delightful Charlton Spotlight fanzines from Charlton super-fan Michael Ambrose. This little magazine entertained me off and on during its intermittent but relentless run. Sadly, Ambrose has passed away, and I dedicated this year to him, arguably Charlton's finest fan.
So, hang in there this year. I hope to take it a bit easier, but at the same time I want to deliver some fun. Look for Charlton-related reviews on Saturdays throughout the year.
Rip Off
I have a soft spot for some Charlton titles and artists/writers so I will be looking forward to this Rip. I wasn't aware of the Charlton Spotlight mag it looks interesting .
ReplyDeleteCharlton Spotlight was a fanzine made out of pure love for a little company that made an out-sized impact on me and inspired me to create this blog. Each precious issue was a joy.
DeleteThis is gonna be good! I will look forward to your posts on this fascinating publisher. I still kick myself for not getting The Charlton Companion. I don't know what I was thinking. I have an aversion to reading book-length documents on my computer screen, but I still might break down and get the digital edition. I can't seem to bring myself to pay 40 bucks for a used hard copy, which is about the cheapest I've seen it going for. All is not lost, as I do have both the two Comic Book Artist issues, the first 5 Charlton Bullseye's and a run of Charlton Spotlight.
ReplyDeleteI kick myself for not having got hold of The Blue Beetle Companion. I am missing Charlton Bullseye #2 and that might have to be fixed. We'll have to see if I can scout up a copy.
DeleteCharlton Spotlight was indeed a great fanzine. I contributed something to one issue, though I don't remember what right now. I remember that I thought Ambrose's interview with Tom Sutton was much better than the one the JOURNAL printed roughly around the same time, and the interview with Joe Gill was a standout too.
ReplyDeleteI'll look for your article as I plumb these precious tomes again during the year. Agree on the quality of Ambrose's interviews.
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