Hercules - Adventures Of The Man-God!

I begin today a series of reviews of Charlton's memorable late 60's series Hercules.

Hercules #1 is dated October 1967. The title on the cover and on the splash page reads "Adventures of the Man-God Hercules" but the official title of the book is just "Hercules". There are no credits for the opening story, though the script is attributed to Joe Gill and the artwork is undoubtedly by Sam Glanzman. The whole comic was edited by Dick Giordano. The story has no title other than "Adventures of the Man-God Hercules". The splash shows an unbearded Hercules facing off against the Nemean Lion.

The story though begins in the mountains as Hercules has sought the Gods. After the death of his mother Alcmene, he calls out to his father Zeus who responds to him by unbodied voice that he must complete nine tasks or labors and submit to the judgment of Eyrystheus before he can be allowed among the immortals. Hercules agrees to this and heads off to Nemea to confront the Lion, the first of his assigned labors. But a guard takes issue with Hercules leaving as King Phillip has ordered him to stay for the games. Hercules refuses and a fight ensues. Hercules is chased by the guards at the command of Phillip but he knocks over a bridge defeating his pursuers. He then saves a beautiful redhead from three thugs, only discover she is Princess Helen betrothed of Prince Alexander. This doesn't stop them from striking up a friendly relationship though so when Alexander sees Hercules later with Helen he's jealous but has to give Hercules his appreciation when he learns Hercules saved his intended. Hercules then joins Alexander and his troops in a battle agains Phillip and Hercules is instrumental in defeating the other army. Then Hercules at last turns his attention to the Nemean lion. Helen goes with him to the challenge, but he sends her away as he battles the beast. Using his massive strength, he subdues the lion and kills it. Taking the lion's skin as his mantle, he leaves after rejecting a sword from Alexander, saying he doesn't need weapons. As Hercules leaves, they speculate that he doesn't seem completely human.

The text feature in this issue is "Meeko the Microbe". It's the story of a classroom science experiment gone wild as a microscopic microbe grows to vast proportions but becomes the pet of a fifteen year old girl. She goes on to vast fame as scientists all across the globe come to see her remarkable pet, and they agree that she and she alone can make money from the creature. As the story closes her fortune is assured as many flock to see Meeko.

The second feature in the comic is Thane of Bagarth, a fascinating series done roughly in the style of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant. The story is set between the two halves of the epic Anglo-Saxon saga Beowulf. It's after Beowulf became killed Grendel and became King but before he confronted the Dragon and was killed. After the battle with Grendel, Beowulf gave "vast tracts of land" to his thanes. Wigmenric was made the Thane of Bagarth, and on his passing his eldest son Hrothelac became Thane. This is the story of Hrothelac. In this story titled "Chapter One: The Feud" written by Steve Skeates and drawn by Jim Aparo, we find a feud has been going on between Bagarth and Rothor. Some peasants are attacked and in retalation a Guardsman of Bagarth kills a Guardsman of Rothor. This comes to the attention of King Beowulf who demands the truth from his Thanes. Hrothelac comes and tells his side, the truth, but it differs from the story told by Garmscio Thane of Rothor. Beowulf demands evidence and the liar will be banished. Hrothelac goes to his younger brother Eowanda for help, but he doesn't suspect Eowanda wants himself to be Thane of Bagarth. On his way to see Eowanda, Hrothelac sees Freahulf the daughter of a local scholar. As the chapter closes both Garmscio and Eowanda plot to bring down the current Thane of Bagarth.


I'm fascinated by this comic. The idea to create an ongoing comic book featuring the labors of Hercules is a natural one, though I admit it doesn't seem all that marketable. Getting Sam Glanzman to do this was inspired. Backing it up with a series that echoes Prince Valiant is inspired and gives the complete package a real upscale adventure quality. Two great myths are adapted in one dazzling package by some really rock-solid professionals. Hercules #1 points to a fantastic series of stories which begin straightforwardly enough, but will becomes quite bizarre indeed. The comic was reprinted in Charlton Classics #1 in 1980, though Thane of Bagarth was not. Both got reprinted in 1968 in the one-shot black and white Hercules magazine from Charlton.

Thane of Bagarth was reprinted in Thane of Bagarth #1 in 1985. ACG (Avalon) has reprinted the stories several times.

To read this issue in its entirety check out this link to Comic Book Plus.

More to come.

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Creepy Presents Steve Ditko!

It was with glee that I collected up Creepy Presents Steve Ditko , the latest reprint from Dark Horse of their Warren Magazines material. I've yearned to get a glimpse of this Steve Ditko collection since it was announced months ago. It lives up to expectations. Steve Ditko famously left Marvel and his most famous creation Spider-Man after a creative dispute with Stan Lee. He then needed new work and found it at Charlton, Tower, and at Warren.

For a year, from 1966 through most of 1967 Ditko produced a monthly story for Warren which found its way into Creepy and Eerie. He delivered a range of compelling work, experimenting with his techniques, especially washes, and created some of the most memorable artwork of his career. This is Ditko at the height of his powers in glorious black and white.

The stories are nearly all written by the late Archie Goodwin, a revered editor and a masterful writer. So you can be certain the words live up to the art. This is an utterly fantastic package, and at a mere twenty dollars for one hundred and thirty pages of great material is a bargain. Here's a link which gives further details on the individual stories.

I had not realized until I assembled these covers that Ditko's contribution to Warren had been so rock steady. In a further demonstration of his complete professionalism, he did not miss a month alternating stories between the bi-monthly Eerie and Creepy magazines for well over a year.

Get this collection. You won't regret it. Here is a gallery of the issues in which Ditko had a story featured.

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

Gray Morrow

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

Gray Morrow

Gray Morrow

Frank Frazetta

Gray Morrow

Frank Frazetta

Gray Morrow

Dan Adkins

Frank Frazetta

Gray Morrow

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Ditko At Charlton - 1971!

A Touch of Genius - Ditko at Charlton: 1971 is the first of five tomes dedicated to gathering Steve Ditko's output for the little Connecticut company year by year. This lovely book gathers together mostly ghost stories from the titles Ghost Manor, Ghostly Tales, Haunted, and The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves. There are also two romance stories by Ditko for the titles I Love You and Just Married. 1971 is according to the preface, a unique year for Ditko in that all his output for the year was published by Charlton and written by the uncanny Joe Gill. This volume is no less a celebration of that rapid-fire scribe. The duo of Gill and Ditko had birthed Captain Atom a decade earlier and now they teamed up to scare young readers in Charlton's many ghost host titles. The hosts in these stories include the Imp from Haunted (Gill and Ditko did the entire debut issue), Winnie the Witch from Ghost Manor, Mr. Dedd from Ghostly Tales and of course Dr. M.T. Graves from his self-titled book. One of the things I love about Ditko's work on these stories is how he infuses the hosts into the storytelling, on nearly every page we get them reacting to the story they narrate. In tale I was most surprised to see Mr. Dedd actually assume a more human appearance and actually help save a damsel in distress. There are threats from malignant spirits, greedy relatives, long-dead mummies, mad musicians, and tempting witches. 

On that last note let me stress the appearance of Winnie the Witch, who had been created by Gill and Ditko for the first volume of Ghost Manor and who would continue in that role in the second volume. This buxom verdant beauty was perhaps created in the wake of the success of Vampirella at Warren Magazines, but whereas the latter is a fetching modern lady, Winnie seems to hearken back to an earlier era of bosomy pin-ups, despite her miniskirt. She seems more of the time of Betty Page than Bridget Bardot. 

Here are the covers reprinted in this issue. 

More to come next week when we explore what Gill and Ditko serve up in 1972. 

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Steve Ditko's 160 Page Package!

Steve Ditko's 160 Page Package is one of my favorites of his Indy productions with Robin Snyder. It hit the market two decades ago and it was at the time one of the exceedingly few collections of Charlton stories anywhere not featuring some of the "Action Heroes" (and even those were rare). It contains work by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko from 1971 to 1975 when the duo were at a long time teamed to create scary yarns to fill the pages of Charlton's ghost-host books such as Ghostly Tales, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, Ghostly Haunts, and more. The tome includes a passage from both Joe Gill and Ditko reflecting on their work together and their friendship because as unlikely as it seems for two men with such divergent personalities, they were friends apparently. There's also a biographical sketch about Joe Gill by Robin Snyder I assume. 

One of the real treats in a Ditko ghostly tale was the clever ways he'd incorporate the host into the story. Some artists were content to have the host pop up at the beginning and again at the end, but Ditko regularly had Mr. Dedd, Dr. M.T. Graves, Winnie the Witch, Mr. Bones (or even Impy who Bones replaced in Haunted) hang around panel after panel and page after page mouthing off giving the whole affair a nifty fourth-wall-breaking illusion. 

These are done in tasty black and white and that's an advantage in many respects since Dtko's work holds quite well in black and white. I have many if not most of these in the original and some in later reprint volumes and the color is great, but this dandy too. Now Steve Ditko didn't create Mr. Dedd, the host of Ghostly Tales, that was mostly likely Rocke Mastroserio, but when Ditko drew him he made him his own. 

Likewise his Dr. Graves is more or less definitive for me, as Dikto took him and often fashioned him into a low-key Dr. Strange. But no one drew the eventual hostess of Ghostly Haunts Winnie the Witch like Ditko. She was demure in the hands of Pete Morisi or Wayne Howard, but beneath the inky pen of Ditko Winnie was buxom and bold and intoxicating. It's like she might want to smack you around any moment if you didn't pay close attention to her tale, and who could ignore her tail when Ditko drew it. 

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Man-Gods And Mad Monsters!

This October it's all about gods and monsters. Expect a ton of coverage of Steve Ditko as has been the focus all year. This month the spotlight is on his work at Charlton. More below. 

But also on the schedule is Charlton's magnificent Hercules series by Joe Gill and Sam Glanzman. These talents gave us the most reliable telling of the classic Hercules myths that I'm aware of. 

Hercules is almost certainly the most famous name in Greek mythology and certainly worthy of a thorough consideration. Before I re-read those Charlton tales, I took a closer look at the classic myths themselves as retold by Robert Graves in his exhaustively researched collection. That fresh information made the reading of the Charlton tales even more entertaining.

But on the weekends, it will be about Steve Ditko, often partnered with that same Joe Gill. Famous Comics have collected these Ditko classics year by year with five handsome and sometimes hefty collections already available. I'm eager to dive into these handsome books brimming with vintage Charlton material by Ditko and Gill, and a few other Charlton talents. 

Look for more than a few surprises as this Halloween month tumbles along. 

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