Ditko's Cannon!

Cannon was a Wally Wood project produced mostly for his military comic strips intended for soldiers in the early 70's. He used his whole studio of up-and-coming talents, but before all that, when it came to bringing Cannon to comic books, he turned to longtime pro and fellow renegade Steve Ditko. Below is a typical Ditko page produced for the above Cannon comic, similar to the work he'd done for Wood at Tower Comics a few years before. 

Cannon is in many ways Wally Wood's most mature creation. That might sound odd given the prurient nature of many of the panels laced both with brutality and with unmitigated misogyny. These rough and tumble adventure comic strips were originally produced beginning in 1971 for The Overseas Weekly, a newspaper for American soldiers stationed across the world. This is a mature audience indeed. I've always considered it the underground version of the THUNDER Agents.

Cannon is a "man's man", which mostly means he uses guns proficiently, is not afraid of a fight and does so, and treats women abominably in a morally ambiguous "cold war" of both personal and international proportions. That's not to say that some of the women he confronts aren't dangerous, but there's little doubt in Cannon's world that women are for screwing, whether you are screwing them or they are screwing you, both figuratively and literally.

The violence in Cannon is rugged, though hardly graphic by any modern definition. This is after all Wally Wood, and his lean craftsmanship shines through always in glorious black and white. The spare orderliness of Wood's designs gives the rugged world of Cannon a handsome veneer which makes it seem less grotesque than it actually is.

I first ran across the Cannon saga in four of Wally Wood's over-sized self-published comic magazines from the late 70's and early 80's. As the covers proclaim, these are for "Adults Only" and that's true enough. The sex and violence, which blends into a sado-masochistic mishmash at times is not for the kiddies. These are comics, but not those kinds of comics.

What they are though is highly recommended and nigh essential reading for any Wood fan. The color Cannon precursor stories produced independently by Wood with penciling help from Steve Ditko in Heroes Inc. Presents Cannon.  

There are two issues, the one at the top of this post from 1969 and a later volume from 1976 from the CPLGang. Both stories, one in splendid color and one in glorious black and white are included. Given the format designed for the Fantagraphics collection of Cannon to showcase the comic strip they reproduced somewhat smaller than the ideal, but it's good to have them. In the first story Cannon defeats an entire island full of Red Chinese soldiers and in the second he battles a small army of Neo-Nazis. 

Cannon is rough, Cannon is tough, but Cannon is worth it.

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New Blue Beetle #6 - The Specter!

When the Blue Beetle series was abruptly cancelled, Steve Ditko already had a full issue ready. Titled "A Specter Is Haunting Hub City!" this story pits our azure hero against a strange chap who uses a stolen gizmo to make himself mostly invisible. It's a weird visual as the cover above attests. Below is the complete story which did finally see publication in 1974. More on that after the story itself. 

And that's a wrap on Steve Ditko's final Blue Beetle yarn. Note that Professor Rodor from The Question series is featured in this tale. 

This story first saw publication in the Charlton Portfolio which was in actuality issues nine and ten of Contemporary Pictorial Literature, a fanzine published by the CPL Gang headed by Roger Stern. The cover for this publication was done by Don Newton who produced a delightful wraparound image featuring not only Blue Beetle, but other Charlton heroes as well such as Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Judomaster, Thunderbolt, as well as E-Man and Yang. Horror hosts get a look as well. It's a beauty and I picked up a copy somewhere long ago and added a second copy to my collection from Roger Stern himself at a convention many years later. Stern had a box full of these in prime condition. 

The story was published again for a wider audience in The Action Heroes Archives - Volume 2 from DC. For some reason they did not include the story in their more recent DC Finest Blue Beetle volume. 

This vintage ad shows us the cover in color and also reveals how close we came to getting it in real time way back in 1968. But it was not to be. 

A little more Blue Beetle tomorrow as we wrap up this look. 

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Atomic Reactions - In The Bullseye!

The Captain Atom saga stopped abruptly with the publication of the eighty-ninth issue of the comic, but there had been more work done as so often happened in those halcyon days of comics. The story of Captain Atom, Nightshade, and The Ghost was not finished. But it had been plotted and drawn by the team of Dave Kaler and Steve Ditko. It rested dormant until George Wildman gave some fans the golden opportunity to take the penciled story and apply the finishing touches. The group was the CPL Gang (Contemporary Pictorial Literature) who had proven their worth by publishing the one-shot Charlton Portfolio magazine. Charlton wanted a fan mag like Marvel's FOOM and DC's Amazing World of DC Comics, and so they let the CPL Gang do the honors. So, it came to pass that in the mid 70's the final Captain Atom story "Showdown in Sunuria" was at long last published in two issues of The Charlton Bullseye. The inking was done by John Byrne and the final scripting was done by Jon Michaels and Roger Stern. The outstanding black and white cover was drawn by Al Milgrom. 

So, without further ado, here is the belated "Showdown in Sunuria".  Enjoy! 

Here is the Joe Staton cover of Charlton Bullseye #2 which featured the second half of the story. I finally added this to my collection only this year, completing a search of decades. 

The story was reprinted in the second volume of DC's The Action Heroes. 

Here's a poster image by a young John Byrne and Jo Duffy. 

Here's an outstanding poster image of the good Captain by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom. That Captain Atom was an inspiration for Starlin's Captain Marvel is all too evident in this magnificent image. 

As the fires of Charlton Comics dwindled, the fate of their properties, in particular the high profile heroes such as Captain Atom and Blue Beetle became uncertain. Prodded by fanboy interest the company published a last-ditch effort in the early 80's called Charlton Bullseye. This second volume of the title featured work by fans using existing Charlton heroes as well as brand new characters. This was primarily a showcase for new up and coming talents, but along the way we got two new action hero stories.

And that was it. DC took over the character and after the Crisis On Infinite Earths (more on that next month) the Charlton characters (who lived on Earth-4 in the DC multiverse, albeit briefly) were fused into the DCU. Blue Beetle got his own series which lasted a few years then he joined the Justice League.

Captain Atom proved to be the most successful of the batch, with a run of his own title which approached sixty issues. He too joined the Justice League and was even a leader of sorts for different versions of the team. The folks at DC seemed oddly ashamed of Cap's origins and wrote off the Charlton stories as mere fantasies concocted by the military to hide the true nature of Captain Atom who was a much more grim character in the slightly darker DC Universe.

Captain Atom remains a reasonably potent part of the DC Universe, getting his own title from time to time. I don't follow these new adventures, so the details are a mystery to yours truly, but the images in which his classic look still supplies the inspiration sure can be compelling.

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