The Charlton Companions!

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

Ditko In 3-D!

For any fan of the work Joe Simon and Jack Kirby one oddity that always pops up is the single issue of Harvey's Captain 3-D from 1953. What we have is a full-blown superhero adventure, the first costumed hero the team had produced since the ill-fated Stuntman for Harvey many years before. What we have is a comic which makes pretty good use of a trendy technique which from time to time captures the whimsy of pop culture. Sadly, what we don't have is a very good comic book story.

Captain 3-D was one of several 3-D offerings from the company when the technique caught fire in the early 50's. But just as fast as it blazed into being it sputtered out. Harvey comics went away from the idea arguably because the craze was short-lived but also because they came under legal scrutiny for the way in which they used the technology which other comics publishers claimed was poaching. Whatever the reasons, the story of Captain 3-D lasted one single issue.

Briefly the tale is about a young lad named Danny Davis who is given a mysterious book by a mysterious man who is promptly melted into nothingness by another mysterious figure who likewise goes up in smoke, thus making Danny's pleas to the police seem like tomfoolery. But soon when he is alone, he activates "The Book of D" by putting on some weird glasses and out of the pages leaps a costumed hero named Captain 3-D who immediately battles some thugs who are breaking into Danny's digs. After dispatching the baddies, the Captain explains to Danny that the book is a relic of an ancient time and place dubbed "The Land of D" when the Captain's people (of whom he is the last survivor) and the "Cat People" battled for control of the world. Both were seemingly destroyed but not before the Captain was hidden as a safeguard in the book which had been passed down for generations beginning in mankind's prehistoric past. In the two remaining stories Captain 3-D emerges to battle Tigra the queen of the Cat People and a mobster by the name of "Ironhat McGinty" (because he has an iron cap surgically implanted in his noggin no less).

This issue is of particular interest right now because it is among the very first professional comics work of Steve Ditko who was part of the Simon and Kirby staff at the time and in particular was enamored with the work of Mort Meskin.

 

And that was that. To read the complete issue check this, but bring your handy 3-D specs if you want to enjoy it completely.

There was going to be a second issue of Captain 3-D but it was scotched when the bottom fell out of the extremely hot but extremely brief 3-D trend. The artwork for the cover of that never was comic was at long last published in 1999 by AC Comics for an issue of Golden Age Men of Mystery. The issue featured a lot of unpublished art for that book as well other features on the work of Simon and Kirby for Harvey Comics. It seems Greg Theakston had the unfinished artwork for one story from the issue and sent it to Ditko's studio since he had been scheduled all those decades before to ink the Mort Meskin pencils. Ditko though decided to pin up the pages around his studio for others to take their pick to ink and many of the pages went missing. You can see the penciled pages in small format in this issue from copies which were made. 

The character was impactful for more than a few future pros such as Roy Thomas, Bill Black and Grass Green among others. And he proved to inspire other creations as seen below. 

And that sums up how I feel about Captain 3-D too, an interesting curiosity, but less effective because of the special effects than without them. Reading the story sans the 3-D effects the panels are woefully static (for logical reasons) and that undermines the general fluid tendencies of the usual Simon and Kirby effort. Also, the story of Captain 3-D himself is in places robust but overall cumbersome and if it had been given a few more outings would've in my opinion worn itself out purely in narrative terms.

Captain 3-D is a lovely image, a great icon of a long-lost time when we like to imagine life was simpler to understand, but aside from that nostalgic impulse, he's a mildly mediocre hero, and not up to the usual standards of Simon and Kirby. But it did give Steve Ditko a place to begin. 

In the 90's Ditko produced two 3-D comics of his own. Both were written by Jack C. Harris and produced by 3-D Zone. I hope to review both of these later this year. I own one, but I still need to acquire the other. 

Rip Off

My Ditko Year!

"Sturdy" Steve Ditko was one of the true greats in comics during my lifetime. He had an instantly recognizable style which while sometimes not as sleek and handsome as some counted among its virtues nigh perfect clarity. Ditko was a storyteller through and through who seemed to have found his ideal calling drawing comics, which he did professionally all his adult life. In 2026 I want to take a long hard look at the work of one of the greats in the field. 

But that said, the Dojo is going to run at a more leisurely pace in the coming year. I've maintained pretty much a daily schedule for seventeen years or so, and frankly I'm getting a wee bit winded.  Last year saw a lot of reposts to fill in the schedule (my health played up more than a bit), and I think I did a pretty good job updating and enhancing them when necessary. But this year I want to make this blog more of a weekend event and less of a full daily grind.

I do plan to keep a daily schedule but Monday through Friday will harken back to the original days of this blog with the return of variations of "Favorite Cover of the Day". I'll feature comics, magazines and books that I like, but with only relatively brief captions or descriptions and pertinent links. Some of these will be covers by Ditko, while many others will not. More on that Saturday. 

I am planning on reading all the Steve Ditko work that I have in my possession, and that's a lot of material dutifully gathered up over the course of decades. Some of that work was for publishers who hardly lasted a year. He was an important artist in both Charlton's and Marvel's early development and later as a maverick artist dedicated to his specific philosophy of Objectivism. 

Ditko also spent some fruitful years working off and on for DC Comics as well as a host of others such as Tower, Dell and in later years Eclipse, Pacific, and many more. He was a guy always looking for a berth to place his work. In the end he opted to produce this material himself. 

He created many great heroes such as The Amazing Spider-Man and Dr. Strange alongside Stan Lee at Marvel. He created Captain Atom along with Joe Gill and later revamped The Blue Beetle for Charlton Comics. 

At DC he introduced The Creeper and Hawk and Dove when he worked briefly for Dick Giordano. But he soon left DC, returning years later with characters such as Shade the Changing Man and The Odd Man. 

At Marvel there was of course Spider-Man which he drew for several years, eventually becoming alongside Jack "King" Kirby one of the pillars of the Marvel revolution. He drew other features for the company such as the Incredible Hulk and in later years Speedball and even Squirrel Girl. He had a remarkable stint on ROM as well. 

At Charlton and Warren he became quite well known for his work on ghostly comics with weird tales featuring such characters as Mr. Dedd, Wendy the Witch and his most famous creation, Dr. Graves. 

Perhaps Ditko's most singular and personal work was done on Mr. A, a fascinating character who followed a strict code when dealing with crime. A softer version of the character was The Question who has become a regular part of the DC Universe. 

I'll almost certainly get into other items of interest as they occur to me. See you in the funny pages in 2026, especially those created by Steve Ditko. 

Rip Off

I Did It!

I survived what has been at times a harrowing year. This blog has been a wonderful place to check in and maintain some sanity. Tomorrow kicks off a new year and a new project. 

More to come! 

Rip Off

Just A Little More!

More to come tomorrow!

Rip Off

The Art Of Will Eisner!

It's been quite the year. My year-long look at the expansive Spirit canon by Will Eisner and others has been a project I've wanted to complete for quite a few years and I'm both happy and sad that's it's finished at long last. Will Eisner, aided by a talented team of assistants made some of the finest comics to ever appear in the field. Eisner was at once a great artistic talent, a gifted storyteller and a savvy businessman who was able to keep control of his greatest creation while most others lost theirs to faceless corporations. With the help of publishers such as Kitchen Sink he was able to produce new work as well as see his classic material reach fresh audiences.

Thanks to DC all of The Spirit's classic stories are in print. I was able to put together a full set of the archive editions from second-hand sources, though I confess I paid more for certain volumes than I anticipated I would when I began the gathering of resources. But I don't regret a dime spent on collecting up these gems. I've always had a healthy collection of Spirit stories, but now I have an even finer collection. And it might require a few years, but I cannot rule out another reading of these magnificent stories. Even the weaker tales by other talents have their charm. 

So let me close out this reflection after twelve months of heady reading. I'm sated for the moment and ready for a new challenge. More on that in a few days when we welcome in the new year, but for now a respite. Tomorrow and the day after expect something very different to cleanse the palate for what is to come next. Until then. 

Rip Off

Willie Lumpkin Day!

Stan "The Man" Lee was born on this date in 1922. Stan is a guy who gets too much credit for the wild success of Marvel, but that said there's no way it happens without him. He had much more help from other great talents. Still Stan was a great comic book writer, able to bring high drama to the antics of Marvel's heroes. Stan gained even more fame from his cameos in nearly all Marvel movies. My favorite is his appearance as Willie Lumpkin, the postman who delivers mail to the Fantastic Four at the Baxter Building. 

Stan Lee joined forces with Dan DeCarlo to create the comic strip Willie Lumpkin, comic strip designed to entertain in the "hinterlands" of the United States. his route was in the fictional town of Glenville. Stan was always looking for a way to break out of the comic book ghetto, and a successful syndicated strip was a good way to do it. The strip ran for a few years from 1951 until 1961. Later Stan used the name for the mailman who delivered to the Baxter Building in the pages of the Fantastic Four. Stan at last found the success he craved, but it was inside the ghetto, one he and his colleagues redesigned for a new audience and a new age. 

William Lemuel Lumpkin became a not infrequent visitor in the Marvel Universe even revealing his superpower, the ability to wiggle his ears. 

Rip Off