Introducing Captain Atom - Ditko at Charlton 1960 is as the title advertises. It gathers together the work by Steve Ditko produced for Charlton during that year. All of the work here was also written by Joe Gill and he is the focus of the collection as much as Ditko himself. In this year, Ditko was working for Marvel and Charlton as well as others from time to time.
For those who might not know, Joe Gill was a writing workhorse for Charlton Comics. When I first discovered Charlton, I saw his name so much, I assumed it was a house name like "Kenneth Robeson", a name shared by many writers. Little did I realize the fecundity of Joe Gill's mind. He wrote with precision and skill, but mostly speed, hammering out scripts for Charlton's array of artists for wages at their cheapest in 1960 since this was after the company's famous flood, an event used by the owners to slash pay to the talent.
Beneath this wraparound cover is an essay titled "Into Outer Space" highlighting the fascination with space which marked the era and the historical events which sparked that fascination. "Introducing Joe Gill" offers up a short bio of the great writer himself. "The Life Story of Steve Ditko" offers a nifty chronology of the artist from his beginning right up to his demise and beyond. In between we are offered a bevy of stories by Gill and Ditko arranged by the titles in which they appeared.
Below is a cover gallery of those issues involved which featured Ditko artwork on the cover. At this stage, art from interior stories was rearranged by the editors for covers.
Much more on Captain Atom in April, but March will be for monsters. The Dojo welcomes one and all.
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I'm really surprised that Captain Atom never really had commercial success. I read many of his early stories in UK (Alan Class) reprint comics and they were excellent containing some of Ditko's best art. The stories were good but not "deep" but we're certainly up there with what DC was producing at the time. Joe Gill was a great writer no matter the subject matter it was always entertaining. Looking forward to more on Captain Atom in the coming months
ReplyDeleteI'm a big Captain Atom fan, at least the Charlton version. I know some of his DC history but not much really. I was annoyed that DC made his Charlton continuity a fantasy and wrote most of it out to revamp him. It bothers me less today, but back then it was irritating.
DeleteI didn't mind these montage covers at all, even with the ads on them!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this. I think a comic cover has one job, to entice a reader to buy it. That includes good artwork perhaps, but whatever it takes including ads.
DeleteI really like this type of cover they are similar to
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear the rest of this thought.
Delete...sorry about that my phone closed and I thought the msg was lost. I meant to say these Charlton montage covers with ads were similar to many UK weekly comics that had a similar design approach and showed free gifts on the cover.
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