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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 7, 2018 15:32:22 GMT -5
pps. Sanho Kim's Wrong Country was eventually printed in Charlton Bullseye #3, devoted to martial arts. The full story can be read here
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 7, 2018 16:10:07 GMT -5
I recall reading several extensive posts about Sanho Kim some years ago at Rip Jagger's Dojo. Kim is indeed a fantastic artist, and I fully second your suggestion for some kind of full color omnibus reprint of this material - and Vengeance Squad for that matter (which would include the entire issues, meaning the Mauser stories as well). I have to say that the difference in the art from Bolle to Morisi is like night and day, Morisi's work looks so much better and better suited to the type of story being told.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 7, 2018 18:36:21 GMT -5
I recall reading several extensive posts about Sanho Kim some years ago at Rip Jagger's Dojo. Kim is indeed a fantastic artist, and I fully second your suggestion for some kind of full color omnibus reprint of this material - and Vengeance Squad for that matter (which would include the entire issues, meaning the Mauser stories as well). I have to say that the difference in the art from Bolle to Morisi is like night and day, Morisi's work looks so much better and better suited to the type of story being told. The major problem of reprinting Vengeance Squad, with the Mike Mauser stories, would be in the convoluted rights, caused by First Comics. First purchased E-Man and Mike Mauser from Charlton, with the idea that the rights would revert to Cuti and Staton, when the costs were paid off, while having first publishing rights for an extended period of time. First's contracts were highly convoluted and their rights were for at least a decade. Their bankruptcy added a new wrinkle, as Federal Bankruptcy laws treated the properties as assets of the company, trumping the civil contracts governing the publishing rights. In The Comic Book Artist #12, Joe Staton says, as he understands it, he and Cuti own the rights to E-Man and Mauser for new stories, while rights to the old material rest with the asset holders of First. However, the properties are jointly represented by the same lawyer, in efforts to exploit them in other media. So, Staton and Cuti can do all the new stuff they want; but, it gets complicated if they want to reprint the Charlton (and First) material. Now, that interview was over 10 years ago; so, I don't know if that is still the case. That last sentence just made me feel even older. The interview I have been reading for background are from 2001 or before. That is over 15 years ago, getting closer to 20! Even my nostalgia reference is old! I need to lie down...
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 9, 2018 18:09:22 GMT -5
He did several B&W comics--an early one was something like Gods of Mount Olympus, then he did a 3-book graphic crime novel, Family Man. Also work for Hamilton's horror line, Negative Burn, etc. Among the oddities that I'm proud to possess is a full run of Gods of Mount Olympus with all art by Joe Staton:
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 9, 2018 18:14:50 GMT -5
Another unique item in my collection is an early (1973) graphic novel - Sword's Edge by Sanho Kim with Michael Juliar: {The cover is NSFW (breasts)}
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 10, 2018 5:17:08 GMT -5
Wow, that looks awesome...
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Post by mikelmidnight on Jan 10, 2018 13:22:04 GMT -5
Among the oddities that I'm proud to possess is a full run of Gods of Mount Olympus with all art by Joe Staton Nifty! I don't think I've ever seen the books, although some of the stories appeared in an anthology title I own (trying to recall which one, probably Star*Reach).
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 10, 2018 13:52:05 GMT -5
Among the oddities that I'm proud to possess is a full run of Gods of Mount Olympus with all art by Joe Staton Nifty! I don't think I've ever seen the books, although some of the stories appeared in an anthology title I own (trying to recall which one, probably Star*Reach). Exactly right, most of the contents were reprinted in Star*Reach #5-7, reduced to regular comic size. The originals were tabloid/treasury size.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 10, 2018 16:01:10 GMT -5
Despite what Hollywood and mainstream news media think, comics are a medium, not a genre, filled with all kinds literary genres; comics for just about anything. Want some pirates? There's a comic of two for that. Sci-fi? Tons of 'em. Religious? Yep, a few. Most publishers covered all of the big genres of their day: superheroes, war, westerns, romance, crime, horror/mystery, humor.......except.......cars. No one was doing comics about cars and car racing. It was a growing thing, with the post-war boom and the expansion of car culture. Freeways and interstates were being built, gas was cheap and people were taking long trips. Young men fixed up old cars into hot rods and raced them, as witnessed in George Lucas' American Graffiti. There were car magazines; so, surely there was a market for comics aimed at car enthusiasts, right? Charlton thought so. In 1951, they launched Hot Rods and Racing cars. If you look closely at those covers, you might recognize the name of the artists: Dick Giordano. This was early in Giordano's career and he excelled at these books. Giordano's father Graziano "Jack" Giordano owned and operated a cab and did his own maintenance. Eventually, he switched to running his own autoshop, as it proved more lucrative. Dick picked up a lot about cards from his father and it showed in his work. The comics themselves featured the usual suspects for Charlton: Bill Molno, Vince Alascia, Rocke Mastroserio and Giordano, who was the young pup. One of the regular features was Clint Curtis and the Road Knights, about a racing team and their adventures. Other stories would be one offs, about drag races, gearheads, hotrodders and teenagers getting into trouble on the highway. These things were like an anti-matter version of the romance comics; geared towards young males and their love of cars. Let's look at a couple of typical examples, from the early ones... There you see, we have expert racers, young turks who have rebuilt old cars, racing drama, and even some moral lessons. Here, we get a morality tale about reckless hotrodders endangering their passengers and other drivers, destroying cars that people worked hard on, then disappearing when the heat is on. Not bad; but, not likely to have a huge appeal, outside of a very narrow audience. Well, that would change, a bit, with the entry of an artist who became almost the entire hot rod comic industry: Jack Keller. Keller was an artist who had been around a while. He started out submitting a comic, called The Whistler, to Dell, in the early 40s. From there he went to Quality, where he worked on backgrounds for the Lou Fine run on The Spirit and did some work on Blackhawk. He worked for Hillmen and the had a long stretch at Atlas, on Kid Colt, Outlaw. In fact, if you search for Keller on the web, you'll find a heck of a lot more Kid Colt than hot rods. With the ups and downs of the 50s, Keller found his assignments go up and down. He heard about Charlton and took a look at Hot Rods and Racing Cars and felt he could do better. In 1958, he put together some racing samples and took them to Derby, CT and showed them to Charlton. he left with an assignment for a story about a Mexican road race. He would also pick up some western stories (he also had some of his Kid Colt pages) in Billy the Kid and Cheyenne Kid. Keller's love of cars was immediately clear, as he drew the real thing. As he remarked in the Comic Book Artist, most of the artists, apart from Giordano, drew cars from memory and he drew them as they were. He was a model car enthusiast and used models to keep that authentic look, using them to get different angles for his stories. He even went so far as to invest in drawing templates for car wheels, as used by car illustrators and designers (which weren't cheap). Thus, his wheels were always in the right perspective, no matter the angle. Soon, Keller was writing his own stories. After Dick Giordano became the editor of the comics line, he offered Keller the chance to do his own thing, with complete freedom, for $35 a page. Keller, who was still doing Kid Colt for Marvel, told Stan Lee of the offer and Stan made a counter-offer that was higher; but, Keller took the Charlton offer because it gave him the freedom to do what he wanted. He wrote and drew Hot Rods and Racing Cars and was pretty much the entire production line for Charlton's subsequent car comics. Probably the most unique of all of these books was the short-lived Surf 'N' Wheels. Where else but Charlton would you find surfing comics and motorcycle comics, let alone, in the same title? Keller did car comics for Charlton for 15 years. However, by the 70s, the market had dwindled and Charlton focused more on licensed comic. Westerns were also out of vogue and Keller drifted out of the field, apart from a couple of Hot Wheels comics for DC, brought to him by the editor, Dick Giordano. Keller, who had worked as a car salesman, during slack periods in comics, took up the vocation, in earnest. He also continued to collect model cars and, after retirement, began to work par-time in a local model shop, until his death in 2003. He was interviewed for The Comic Book Artist #12, in 2001, one of the few interviews he ever did. Here's a bit of story art from him... The hot rod comics are somewhat harder to come buy than most of Charlton's line. It would seem that their audience had a love for them and hung on to them or trade them within the car world. Charlton's only real rival in all of this was CARtoons, which was sold on the adult magazine stands, and paid better rates. It was also geared more to single panel gag cartoons than comic book stories. Next, a look at Charlton's unauthorized (and brief) Jungle Tales of Tarzan and the 12 Labors of Hercules; puls, The Thane of Baggarth.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 10, 2018 18:40:29 GMT -5
A funny thing happened in the 1960s. Many believed that Tarzan had fallen into the public domain and they rushed out their own versions of the material, both in prose reprints of the Tarzan books and in comics. Pat Masulli, at Charlton, launched their version, the Jungle Tales of Tarzan. Masulli did the first cover, seeking to emulate the physique of Gordon Scott; but, the interior stories, with Sam Glanzman on the art, were more in the tradition of the legendary Hal Foster. There were no word balloons; just captions, as Foster did it. Also,rather than following the line of the Weismuller Tarzan, this series hewed closer to Burroughs. Tarzan is the noble savage, with perfect English, at home in either world but loving the untamed jungle. Glanzman's sketchier line, but more dynamic style would stand in contrast to Western's Jesse Marsh, though it was never as slick as Russ Manning. In many ways, Glanzman's work was the precursor to Joe Kubert's work on the character, which some fans consider to be the definitive comic Tarzan. Glanzman did the first three issues and issue 4 has Bill Montes and Ernie Bache. Joe Gill did all of the scripts and adapted Burroughs' stories. Then, ERB, Inc came knocking. They put a kibosh on the unauthorized material, leaving the newspaper Tarzan and Western as the place for the official stuff. However, there are rumors that ERB preferred the stories in Charlton's 4 issues to what Western was doing and that would be the catalyst for ERB yanking the character away from Western and handing it over to DC and Joe Kubert. Eventually, the Charlton material would be republished by Dark Horse, in The Unauthorized Tarzan. The subject of Tarzan became a taboo at Charlton and had echoes of the same problems that sent Joe Santangelo Sr. to jail for his song lyric magazines. Charlton stayed away from adapting anything other than licensed comic books as a result. ERB took possession of the artwork and destroyed it. What they didn't know was that Glanzman and Gill had prepared a potential Tarzan comic strip and that artwork remained at Charlton, eventually ending up in the hands of Roger Broughton. Those strips were included in the Dark Horse reprint. Though Tarzan had a short life, Glanzman would end up doing another muscle-bound hero for Charlton: Hercules. In 1958, Joseph E. Levine bought the US distribution rights for an Italian film, Le fatiche di Ercole and released it in the US as Hercules, starring American bodybuilder=turned-actor, Steve Reeves. The film proved a hit, both in Italy and the US and was followed by a sequel, Hercules Unchained. It was followed by various muscle-bound hero films, including the Maciste and Ursus films. About 14 of these films were packaged for tv syndications as The Sons of Hercules. This would spawn a bit of a Hercules mania, as Mighty Hercules would hit Saturday morning tv. Marvel wasted no time and added their version of Hercules to Thor's comic. In 1967, Dick Giordano thought Charlton might do well with it's own Hercules. However, unlike Marvel, they would actually adapt the myths, particularly the Twelve Labors of Hercules. The first had a script from Joe Gill, where he got his math wrong and said Hercules had to accomplish 9 Labors. Maybe he figured Charlton couldn't keep it going long enough. Whatever the case was, the series was launched, with art from Sam Glanzman. Makes Marvel's Herc look like a bit of a sissy! The Labors start out with the Nemean Lion and a beardless Herc. After the somewhat gruesome death of the lion, Herc skins it and wears it as his armor, in keeping with the myths. Issue 2 features a script from Sergius O'Shaugnessy, a writer of little note. He corrects the mistake of the first issue about the number of labors (which Giordano cops to in the letters page) and we see Zeus and Hera for the first time. As in myth, Hera is the antagonist, though Herc kind of earned it in the myths. With issue 3, Herc gets his beard and is wearing the Nemean lion skin. Glanzman starts out tackling the material in a fairly straightforward manner; but, as Giordano gives him his freedom, he starts to play around with things, adopting different story angles and adding baroque art touches. The action is always top notch and there is plenty of meat to the stories. Sergius writes through issue 5, before it goes back to Joe Gill's hands. This is truly one of Glanzman's real works of art, especially in the latter issues. The series lasted 13 issues. Once they were done with the labors, they really had nowhere to go and it was probably a good idea to do this as a limited series from the start, if such a thing had existed. It would later be reprinted in Charlton Classics, which reprinted the first 9 issues, while issues 10 and 11 were repackaged under the Modern Comics banner. I first encountered the series in the Modern Comics version, with issue 10, in a bagged set with E-Man #1 and Attack #13. Issue 10 has the truly awesome rendering of Hercules battle with the Lernaean Hydra and it is a lulu. Unfortunately, I do not have the comic anymore, nor have I found scans online. For my money, it is some of Glanzman's best work on Hercules, though the issues that followed are very good, too. Roger Broughton ended up with the artwork and published one issue of the Tales of the Man-God Hercules. Unfortunately, that little hurdle is among the reasons why we haven't seen a full reprint of Glanzman's work, along with some of the other material that Drew Ford has been able to put out. He's keen to do it; but, the legal complications currently prevent it. Man, I'd love to see a nice color collection of that material! While herc was starring in the front of the book, the back was taken up by a series, called the Thane of Baggarth. The story was by Steve Skeates, with gorgeous art by Jim Aparo, in their best rendering of Hal Foster and Prince Valiant. The series takes its cue from Beowulf, as the German hero rewards his loyal Thane's, from his battle with Grendel, giving them lands to rule. One such Thane is Hrothelac of Baggarth. he is in the midst of a border dispute with the neighboring Rothgar, when two of his serfs cross into their lands to obtain water. They are spotted by Rothgar guardsmen, who chase them back to baggarth soil and slay them. The deed is witnessed by a Baggarth guardsman, who attacks the invaders. News gets back to Beowulf and he summons Hrothelac and hears his side, that Hrothelac, decided against marrying the daughter of Garmscio, Thane of Rothgar. However Garmscio claims Baggarth has allied with the enemy Swedes. All of this leads to some feudin' and a-fussin'. Jim Aparo handles the artwork for most of the run, with a interruption of Nicholas and Alascia handling the art in issue 6. Aparo continues through issue 10; then, Sanho Kim takes over ver issues 11-13. The material was later reprinted in 1985, in two issues of The Thane of Baggarth Roger Broughton reprinted some of it in a single comic, using the cover from Than #25 and just adding an ACG logo. Some of the material was also reprinted in A+ Comics' Swords of Valor, which was a mixture of Charlton and ACG material, as well as some new stuff. Surprisingly, that is about it for Charlton and fantasy material, apart from some of their horror material which straddled the line. They had looked at Conan, before Marvel; but, the license was too expensive and the people in charge couldn't be persuaded to shell out the money. Wildman and Cuti were keen to try fantasy adventure; but, their bosses weren't. Too bad, as Sam Glanzman would have been perfect for the material. Charlton did have a Robin Hood series (as did Quality and DC, who continued it)... The story and art was nothing to right home about. Sam Glanzman later did a Robin Hood mini for A+; but, only one issue saw print. It was some of Glanzman's best work, by his estimate. The Comic Book Artist #9 features a panel or two and it is beautiful. Next, a look at Charlton's humor and licensed cartoon and comic strip material. Come on back for Atomic Mouse, Atomic Rabbit/Bunny, Thunder Bunny, characters from King Features newspaper strips (Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois), Hanna-Barbera, Total Toons, and Jay Ward Productions. We'll have the successful Flintstones comics and even Miss Bikini Luv!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2018 23:04:52 GMT -5
I've encountered the Charlton fantasy stuff in reprints (I have a couple Charlton Classics issues of Herc, one of the Thane of Bargath issues and the Swords of Valor series, but none of the original issues. It's excellent stuff form what I have read of it.
-M
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 11, 2018 1:48:01 GMT -5
One of the things that didn't hit me originally; but, is perfectly clear is that Glanzman morphs Herc into looking like the depictions of the Greek heroes and historical figures in art. The stylized profiles, the way he did the beard, the costuming...Sam was really doing something with this. Sam was a tremendous storyteller, first and foremost; but, it seems like something here really inspired his artistic talents to stretch into greater expression. maybe it was the freedom that Dick Giordano accorded him, maybe it was the material. In the Comic Book Artist interview, Sam said he enjoyed herc more than the war books; but, the interviewer never follows up (one of the frustrating elements of some of the interviews in fanzines). He was also heavily inspired when he did the Robin Hood thing later and he put tremendous detail in it. Sam's work was always good, though he put more into things like the USS Stevens stories and the haunted Tank than Willy Schultz or the Iron Corporal, as good as they are. Sam was a professional; but, better pay, makes for better work as you don't need the volume to make up the income. Artistically, I think Hercules and Robin Hood were some of Sam's best work. From a story standpoint and personal expression, you can't top A Sailor's Story.
The interview with Sam elicited feedback from Tim Truman, who worked with Sam on some stuff at Eclipse and Sam inked his Jonah Hex work and he praised Sam and his talents to the heavens. They did make a great pair, when they worked together.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2018 1:51:10 GMT -5
One of the things that didn't hit me originally; but, is perfectly clear is that Glanzman morphs Herc into looking like the depictions of the Greek heroes and historical figures in art. The stylized profiles, the way he did the beard, the costuming...Sam was really doing something with this. Sam was a tremendous storyteller, first and foremost; but, it seems like something here really inspired his artistic talents to stretch into greater expression. maybe it was the freedom that Dick Giordano accorded him, maybe it was the material. In the Comic Book Artist interview, Sam said he enjoyed herc more than the war books; but, the interviewer never follows up (one of the frustrating elements of some of the interviews in fanzines). He was also heavily inspired when he did the Robin Hood thing later and he put tremendous detail in it. Sam's work was always good, though he put more into things like the USS Stevens stories and the haunted Tank than Willy Schultz or the Iron Corporal, as good as they are. Sam was a professional; but, better pay, makes for better work as you don't need the volume to make up the income. Artistically, I think Hercules and Robin Hood were some of Sam's best work. From a story standpoint and personal expression, you can't top A Sailor's Story. The interview with Sam elicited feedback from Tim Truman, who worked with Sam on some stuff at Eclipse and Sam inked his Jonah Hex work and he praised Sam and his talents to the heavens. They did make a great pair, when they worked together. Just curious where you would rank his Atu stuff in the oeuvre of his work? -M
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 11, 2018 2:39:48 GMT -5
One of the things that didn't hit me originally; but, is perfectly clear is that Glanzman morphs Herc into looking like the depictions of the Greek heroes and historical figures in art. The stylized profiles, the way he did the beard, the costuming...Sam was really doing something with this. Sam was a tremendous storyteller, first and foremost; but, it seems like something here really inspired his artistic talents to stretch into greater expression. maybe it was the freedom that Dick Giordano accorded him, maybe it was the material. In the Comic Book Artist interview, Sam said he enjoyed herc more than the war books; but, the interviewer never follows up (one of the frustrating elements of some of the interviews in fanzines). He was also heavily inspired when he did the Robin Hood thing later and he put tremendous detail in it. Sam's work was always good, though he put more into things like the USS Stevens stories and the haunted Tank than Willy Schultz or the Iron Corporal, as good as they are. Sam was a professional; but, better pay, makes for better work as you don't need the volume to make up the income. Artistically, I think Hercules and Robin Hood were some of Sam's best work. From a story standpoint and personal expression, you can't top A Sailor's Story. The interview with Sam elicited feedback from Tim Truman, who worked with Sam on some stuff at Eclipse and Sam inked his Jonah Hex work and he praised Sam and his talents to the heavens. They did make a great pair, when they worked together. Just curious where you would rank his Atu stuff in the oeuvre of his work? -M I have not sen Attu, apart from a couple of panels, in a preview. I never came across it. I need to double check if I have it in any of my Eclipse digital collections; but, I don't recall it being in them. There's a lot of Sam's work I haven't seen, though I've gotten more of it, in bits and pieces digitally. It's quite possible that if and when I do see it, I may revise that statement.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 11, 2018 15:12:17 GMT -5
Time for a bit of fun, with Charlton. In days of yore, the comic companies had a healthy line in humor titles, either Archie knock-offs, funny animals, or licensed properties based on comedians, cartoons, or comedy tv shows. Charlton was right there in the thick of it. The did a few funny animal books... Zoo Funnies was one of Charlton's first comics and consisted of what you would expect. Funny Animals was left over material from Fawcett, which Charlton purchased. Some of the rest may look a bit familiar, but a bit off. Pudgy Pig is pretty much a Porky rip-off and even Al Fago's Atomic Mouse, as good as it was, owed more than a bit to Mighty Mouse. Charlton continued with other knock-offs... Freddy is their Archie swipe. Timmy the Timid Ghost is a Casper double. Atomic Mouse at least had good material, with Al Fago, the earliest Charlton editor doing the strip for some years. It was popular enough to spawn the Atomic Rabbit/Bunny and Atom the Cat strips, creating a whole Atomic Family. Too bad they never crossed over with Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny. Here's a Christmas Atomic Mouse tale... (Read the whole thing here) Charlton also had kid comics... These didn't last very long, with Li'l Genius getting the most mileage, though he is pretty much a Dennis the Menace swipe. The bulk of Charlton's humor material came in the form of licensed titles. King Features Syndicate had licensed their books to Western for some years, then tried to go it alone with their King Comics. It was an experiment that didn't last long and they soon licensed out the books again. Charlton was the recipient, which gave them many newspaper favorites. These were typical licensed newspaper comics, credited to the creators; but done by others, emulating their style. The stories would be short pieces, filled with gags, with even some reprints of newspaper material (or adaptations). Tiger was always a particular favorite of mine, as a kid, in our local newspaper, though I never saw the comic book. Sarge Snorkel even got his own spin-off, from Beetle Bailey. Probably Charlton's biggest humor strip success was Popeye. Charlton's Popeye comics were the domain of editor George Wildman. For the most part, as editor, Wildman stayed out of the comics; but, Popeye was a special exception. Wildman's style was a bit off from the classic EC Segar and Bud Sagendorf comic strips; but, the stories were lively and fun and featured the rest of the gang from Thimble Theater. Charlton prepared a new comic for Hagar the Horrible; but, either King Features didn't go for it or the license was pulled before they published it. It ended up in Roger Broughton's hands, who published it under his ACG banner. Note the homage to the famous Silver Warrior painting, by Frank Frazetta. Charlton had a comic devoted to Abbott and Costello, based on the cartoon series (which I loved, as a little kid)... Charlton also published comics based on cartoons, including Jay Ward's productions... Total Television and Hanna-Barbera... These were all done based on H-B model sheets, with typical stories. There wasn't much difference between these and the previous Gold Key/Western strips, except Western put a little more money into it. Charlton had pretty good luck with a Flintstones range of titles. As you can see, just about everybody except Mr Slate got their own comic. The main Flintstones title lasted for 50 issues and featured the work of Ray Dirgo (who also did the Jetsons). Dirgo was a Connecticut local who had worked in commercial art, especially for GE. He came to Charlton in the 70s and did much of their Hanna-Barbera line; but, most especially, the Flintstones. These are well on model and the stories capture the flavor of the cartoons. Hong Kong Phooey and The great Grape Ape were the last hurrah for Charlton and Hanna=Barbera, as the license would soon go to Marvel, who by the mid-70s was hurting for material that would sell (as was DC, only worse). Marvel ended up licensing a lot of material by 1977, which helped save their bacon, when a certain sci-fi movie license fell into their hands. There is one more Hanna-Barbera comic to discuss, if only because the artist in question would go on to other things: Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch. The reason this comic is important? It was the first regular comic assignment for one John Byrne. Byrne only illustrated the text story, in issues one (which has Joe Staton art on the main stories); but, he was doing the whole thing with issues 2. Byrne was also doing Rog 2000 in E-man, which was also in a humorous vein; but would soon end up at Marvel, doing more serious fare. The Charlton Bullseye comic version also contained a few humor pieces, including an early Thunder Bunny, in the final issue... Now, the bulk of the licensed material came in the george Wildman era, while the early humor stuff was under Al Fago and Pat Masulli. However, Dick Giordano did dabble in a humor comic, exploiting the considerable talents of Jim Aparo. That comic was called Go-Go and featured the character Miss Bikini Luv. The comic was a mixture of humor material and pop music pin-ups, as well as other material aimed at pre-teen girls. It also featured some material for the boys (I don't know too many who had pin-ups of Petula Clark, though), such as Bill Dubay's Blooperman. The real draw, though, was Aparo's Miss Bikini Luv. Aparo had a wonderful style for humor material, which he never really got to show, at DC (who often lacked a sense of humor about their comics). Giordano made good use of that talent, both in Go-Go and in the Prankster strip. Charlton had other humor material, such as Cuti and Staton's E-Man and Mike Mauser, as well as Ditko's satirical Killjoy, as well as some of their sci-fi and horror material (especially some of Cuti and Staton's pieces). However, like most publishers, it was never their bread and butter, though the licensed material was their focus, after Giordano left. Humor wasn't their only licensed material and next time we will look at a few of their adventure titles, especially one of their most popular: The Phantom.
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