Okay, to wrap up the look at Charlton's superhero and action/adventure comics (non-licensed division) we pretty much come to the very end. First up is Yang.
Yang sort of came about by accident. In 1973, one of the hottest shows on television was Kung Fu, with David Carradine. Much as we would later run around the playground in slow motion, when the Six Million Dollar Man hit the airwaves, we children of the 70s were busy trying our best kicks and praying mantis hands, while spouting broken english. Well, never one to pass up a chance to rip off an idea, Charlton decided to do a martial arts comic. However, the one they intended to do was not Yang; is was Wrong Country, from Korean artist Sanho Kim.
Kim was born and raised in South Korea, having lived in a refugee camp, during the Korean War. It was there he saw a comic strip, Mr Manhong that stirred his desire to be a comic artist. He would go on to become one of the top
manwha artists. In 1966, he came to the United States, where he worked in magazines and comics, including extensive work for Charlton, where he excelled in horror comics, as well as produced some war and western comics. He was tapped to do Charlton's martial arts comic; but, the artwork was waylaid by the US Postal Service. In a rush job, a different martial arts comic was put together: Yang, by Joe Gill and Warren Sattler.
The noble Chung Yuan is murdered by an assassin, sent by the criminal Chao Ku. His son, Chung Hui, gives up the life of an academic and seeks vengeance on Chao Ku. However, he is tricked by a beautiful woman, when he infiltrates Chao Ku's junk (that's a boat, smart alec)...
The woman is Yin Li, daughter of Chao Ku and the regular antagonist for Yang, across the series. Yang is taken prisoner and carted across the Pacific, on a clipper ship, to San Francisco, where he is to become a slave laborer. He breaks free; but, keeps ending up in traps and recaptured. Basically, Yang is dumber than a bag of hammers. This chucklehead keeps falling for the same plot from Yin Li, who professes love, then slips him a mickey or bashes in his brain. The guy was thinking with the wrong head. Chung Hui adopts the name Yang, to represent the white, good portion of Yin and Yang (according to Joe Gill), while Yin is the black, evil side. However, Yin and Yang (the symbols) each have a spot of the other, meaning no one is completely good or evil, as they have some of the other side. Thus, Yin Li often aids Yang's escapes and attacks, while also turning on him constantly. Yin has more babyface and heel turns than Superstar Bill Dundee, in Memphis pro wrestling (a regular partner/enemy of Jerry "The King" Lawler). Yin is pretty much swiped from the Dragon Lady, in Terry and the Pirates.
Yang lasted for 13 issues, before the rug was pulled out from his feet.
Along the way, Yang fights Bigfoot (issue 5), a wolf woman, trains some women who have been conned into being sex slaves (well, they are supposed to be married off; but, it is sort of implied that they are being sold as prostitutes) and battles/woos Yin Li.
Yang would be brought back with issue #15 (there was no issue 14) and ran for three more issues, all reprints. It was also partially reprinted (1 or 2 issues) under the Modern Comics banner.
Meanwhile, Sanho Kim did finally get to work on Yang, sort of.
In 1975, Charlton launched a spin-off of Yang, House of Yang. Joe Gill was still the writer; but, Sanho Kim was now the artist. This series focused on Sun Yang, a cousin of Yang's, who was also trained by Chung Yuan. Sun Yang becomes a sort of hero of the people, defending the weak against warlords, foreign invaders, and other troublemakers. This series was set firmly in China, in the 1880s/90s, with much of the period thrown in. Where Yang was a martial arts western, House of Yang was pure Kung Fu adventure, reflecting much of the content of the kung fu films from Hong Kong, which were hitting America at the time. The first adventure is more Terry and the Pirates.
The main villain is Eva Ku, half-sister to Yin Li and the other daughter of Chao Ku. In the first issue, she has blond hair, suggesting her mother is European, though she has black hair in subsequent stories. She and an American gun runner set up operations in the ancestral home of the Chung family. Sun Yang, having escaped from a warlord, has come south to the property, expecting to find his uncle and cousin. Instead, he finds opium and guns and proceeds to attack the operation. He's done in by Eva Ku's feminine wiles; but, he doesn't prove as stupid as his cousin and doesn't walk blindly into traps, left and right.
The first thing that is apparent is that Sunho Kim knows his martial arts...
Warren Sattler tended to draw Yang punching and using a jumping kick that looked more like a Captain Kirk thing, rather than a Bruce Lee thing. In The Comic Book Artist interview (issue #12), Sattler said his son was studying karate, so he helped him get the poses right. Um, yeah, not so much. Besides, karate is the wrong style for a Chinese hero (well, karate as Sattler and Gill were thinking). Kim had studied some martial arts (presumably tae kwon do or hwarang do) and his poses are crisper and more correct. Sun Yang throws more accurate flying kicks, while using more open-handed defensive techniques. The other readily apparent facet is that Kim's art has a more stylish quality. Sattler was a seasoned cartoonist, who had done plenty of newspaper strips and comic book westerns, as well work for National Lampoon and Playboy. With Charlton's rates, Sattler wasn't exactly putting in the same caliber of work, though his art is good throughout Yang. Kim, on the other hand, is using a more lush, moody style, bringing in his Eastern sensibilities to American comics. His details are excellent, especially architectural touches. he also drew more accurate clothing, as Sattler tended to draw the stereotype and stuff he recalled from Milton Caniff.
There were six issues, in all, for House of Yang; but, Kim only did the first 4. Issue 5 features art from Demetrio, aka Demetrio Sanchez Gomez, one of the Latin artists used by Charlton (which also included Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, praise be his name) and issue 6 is from Warren Sattler.
Aside from the difference in setting and art styles (and mental acumen of the heroes) there is a major difference in the stories of Yang and House of Yang. Joe Gill gave artists free rein to alter his scripts as they saw fit, if it worked better. It seems apparent in reading House of Yang that Sanho Kim took that to heart and greatly improved Gill's scripts, adding more authentic detail (or perhaps suggesting it to Gill), while Sattler's stories tended more to stereotypes and outright Kung Fu plot rip-offs. It would seem that Sattler was probably working more directly from Gill's scripts, though that is just a guess, on my part.
Yang would essentially be the second American martial arts comic (after Judomaster) and would beat Marvel to the martial arts craze. There was a delay between issues 1 and 2, due to a paper shortage in the country (which affected much of the publishing world, including DC and Marvel). During that time, marvel launched their martial arts books with Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist (and, later, Deadly hands of Kung Fu magazine). Thanks to their better distribution, more of those made it into reader's hands than Yang. Yang has its weaknesses, especially the repetitive nature of Yin Li's betrayals; but, House of Yang stands toe to toe with anything from Marvel.
House of Yang would get a single reprint, in 1998, from Roger Broughton's ACG...
Note the attempt to appeal to the exploding manga audience, with a comic that mas neither Japanese nor done "manga" style. Technically, it is manga, in that manga is just the Japanese term for comics. It is manwha, the Korean term for comics. It is also pretty darn good.
Warren Sattler would continue to work in newspaper comics, ghosting strips like Bringing Up Father and Gil Thorpe, while also producing Comics For Kids (a comic/activity strip run on the Sunday comics page, in many papers). Sunho Kim returned to Korea and began working on more historical comics, relating to Korean and Chinese historical relationships. Kim is one of the leading lights of Korean comics and his series, Lifi was a massive influence on young post-war Koreans, during times of economic hardship, promoting the spirit of Korean ideals and their future, via its science fiction stories. Comics had been seen a low grade material in Korea, up to that point; but, Lifi became a massive success and did much to elevate the status of manwha. His History of the Great Korean Empire, The Duman River, and The Story of the Buddha have continued to have massive influence on Korean culture.
Now, we switch gears to something more American: pulp crime fiction, with Vengeance Squad.
Joe Gill, as usual, provides the scripts and Frank Bolle did the art on issue one. PAM, aka Pete Morisi, did the art and cover on the other 5 issues.
Issue one introduces us to ex-Treasury Agent Eric Redd, who was framed by the mob and did time in Federal prison. He brings a wealth of knowledge of criminals and law enforcement to the team. Candy Orr is a police woman who resigned, in disgust, at police corruption and a revolving door that saw criminals go free. Ex-Marine Tulsa Coyle is a deadly hand-to-hand combatant and weapons expert and is also in love with Candy.
In their first adventure, they take on an international slimeball, who is trying to hold up an arms dealer for ransom.
Candy goes undercover, as a jet-setting friend of the arms dealer's wife; ut, the crook isn't buying it...
Candy summons the boys and all three proceed to chew bubblegum and kick @$$ (and the run out of bubblegum quickly).
The dialogue is a bit rough; but, the plot and action are great and the series harkens back to the hard-hitting stories of Sarge Steel. They get even better when Morisi comes on board.
Nothe the resemblance between the thug with the walkie talkie and a certain former Charlton editor, known for his action/adventure stories, including The Human Target.
Here's some more Morisi...
Each issue was better than the last and Morisi really made the action leap off the page. If Charlton had been able to get their comics onto stands this book could have been big. Had it appeared about 10 years later, in the Direct Market, it could have sat alongside such indie favorites as Ms Tree and Jon Sable.
While Gill and Morisi were cooking in the front of the book, Nick Cuti and Joe Staton were having fun in the back of the book, with Mike Mauser.
Mauser appears in all 6 issues of Vengeance Squad; and, like E-Man, would find new life at First Comics, as well as Alpha Productions' The Detectives.
This was a one shot, celebrating detective characters, with Mike Mauser appearing alongside Jennifer and Gabe, from the Maze Agency, Mike Mist, and Johnny Dynamite.
Charlton's last fling with adventure material ended up not changing their fortunes and it pretty much ended their run of original material. After that, they pretty much stuck with reprints and licensed material (mostly Hanna-Barbera). Soon, the Hanna-Barbera stuff was at Marvel and Charlton was almost entirely reprint material, before closing its doors for good. There were plans to continue some of it in the 80s, with Vengeance Squad set to continue in a Charlton Bullseye Special, when Charlton started selling properties and undercut the man behind it, TC Ford. Ford had a tacit agreement that any properties to be used in the special would not be sold until it was published; but, he kept hearing about things being sold and couldn't get phone calls returned by Charlton. So, he dropped the project, which would have featured art from such talent as Amanda Connor.
Next, we take a step back and begin looking at some of Charlton's genre comics, starting with one almost unique to Charlton: hot rod comics!