Time to wrap things up with Charlton, with a look at the talent. Now, I'm sure most here are familiar with the big names: Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Denny O'Neil, Jim Aparo. Ditko was Marvel's other wunderkind, producing moody, quirky characters like Spider-Man and Dr Strange, while Kirby was throwing out the FF, Thor and the Hulk. Ditko built a name at Charlton and Atlas, which led to him joining the company as the Marvel revolution unfolded. However, when he felt exploited by Martin Goodman and at odds with Stan Lee, he came back to help launch the Action Hero line (and dominate it). He then went to DC, where he put the word in about Giordano, prompting the offer that enticed Giordano to walk away from the fight with the bosses. Giordano took his talent with him, with Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo working on Aquaman, Denny O'neil dropping the pen name and using his own to revamp Batman and Frank McLaughlin eventually coming over to ink Justice League. Skeates, McLaughlin, O'Neil and Ditko are still with us. Dick Giordano passed away in 2010 and Jim Aparo in 2005
Sam Glanzman had started out in the 40s, working for Funnies, Inc, before enlisting in the US Navy and serving aboard the real USS Stevens. He saw action throughout the Pacific, across most of the war. When he returned home, he didn't return to comics straight away, working as a cabinet maker and for Republic Aircraft, installing machine guns into fighter planes. Eventually, he got back into comics full time, working primarily for Dell and Charlton, before following Giordano to DC, where he took over the Haunted Tank series from Russ Heath and began his USS Stevens stories. He created the autobiographical A Sailor's Story for Marvel's graphic novel line (in 2 volumes) and contributed historical pieces to their Semper Fi comic. He later reunited with Will Franz, to produce The Eagle, about the Roman Army. Sam lived to see his work and life introduced to a new audience by Dover and Drew Ford. Sadly, we lost Sam this past year.
Joe Staton started out as a rookie, working on Charlton's horror titles; but, soon launched E-Man, with Nick Cuti, and became one of their biggest artists, of the period. He would soon get the call from DC, working on the Justice Society, helping Paul Levitz create the Huntress. He would work for DC for many years, with a break in the early 80s to become art director for First Comics and revive E-Man, plus later work on the character at Comico and Alpha. He now puts out the Dick Tracy comic strip, for the Tribune Syndicate.
Don Newton was a fan, from Arizona, whose daytime job was teaching. He produced a ton of amazing art for fanzines, before being tapped by Charlton. There he produced some excellent horror stories; but really became a name with The Phantom. That would lead to the call from DC and an end to teaching, as he followed Aparo by first taking over Aquaman, then Batman, in the pages of Detective Comics. It was there that he and Denny O'Neil produced the classic story, "The Curse of Crime Alley," which introduced Leslie Tompkins and the idea that Batman revisited Crime Alley every year, to honor his parents. Newton also worked on Captain Marvel, in the pages of World's Finest, and had started to work on Infinity, Inc, when he passed away, in 1984, after suffering a massive heart attack.
Tom Sutton began his career in the US Air Force, creating the series Johnny Craig (named for the EC artist) in Stars and Stripes. After leaving the military and a bit of art school, he began producing stories for Warren and Marvel. He then started working for Charlton, in the mid-70s, producing some fantastic stories and covers, including several painted covers. He worked at DC on the I, Vampire... feature, in House of Mystery, as well as Starslayer, at First Comics. He used the pseudonym Dementia to produce work for Fantagraphics Eros line. He passed away in 2002.
John Byrne was born in England and raised in Canada and came up via the fanzine world. After a brief stint at Charlton, he faded into obscurity, having little impact on comics.
Bob Layton co-founded the CPL fanzine, which led to work at Charlton. That would lead to more work from DC, and then a long stint at Marvel. He followed that with work at Valiant, and then work for both DC and Marvel.
Sanho Kim was bon in Korea and lived through the Korean War, where he was a refugee from the fighting. His first work appeared in a local newspaper and he grew to become one of the country's leading manwa creators, with his sci-fi series Lifi. That series brought a new respectability to manwa and was immensely popular. He came to the US in the 60s and produced work across Charlton's line, including their western and horror comics. He also produced the period tale, House of Yang. He returned to South Korea, where he began creating epic historical pieces about Korea's history. He is probably that country's most noted and beloved artist.
Warren Sattler was an instructor for the Famous Artists School, an assistant on the newspaper strips Barnaby and The Jackson Twins, worked for Harvey Kurtzman on Help!, and produced numerous westerns for Charlton, as well as the western/kung fu hybrid Yang. He worked for National Lampoon and Playboy, before continuing in newspaper strips, including Gil Thorp.
Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, aka Charles Nicholas, was the co-creator of the Blue Beetle, at Fox and worked at the Iger Studio. He produced work for Timely/Atlas, until the falout of the 1950 witch hunts, when he went to work as a staff artist at Charlton, paired with inker Vince Alascia. Together, they produced thousands of pages of material fro Charlton, across their entire line. In later years he worked for Cracked magazine and on the Huly newspaper strip. he later produced artwork for children's books, based on the Transformers cartoon series. he passed away in 2001.
Vince Alascia also worked at Timely, where he drew Captain America for All-Select and the adventures of the All Winners Squad. Like Nicholas, he came to Charlton after the 50s upheaval and stayed for the duration. He passed away in 1998.
Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio started his art training at the School of Industrial Art, where he was a classmate of Joe Orlando. He first worked for Continental Comics and then All-American, doing production work. he enlisted in the USMC and ended up working for the Marine Corps Institute, doing illustrations and calligraphy, instead of wading ashore on beaches. After hsi service, he attended the School of Visual Arts, with Burne Hogarth as his instructor. He worked for several comic companies, including Avon, Harvey, and ACG, before coming to Charlton, where he worked on staff. He died of a heart attack in 1968, at the age of 40.
Bill Molno worked for several companies (Story, Ace and feature Comics) in the early 50s, producing crime and horror comics, before joining Charlton as a staff artist. He remained there for years. In his retirement, he produced landscapes and oil paintings from his home, near New Haven, CT. He died in 1997.
Jack Keller started working in comics in 1941, at Dell, then was soon working for Quality and on the Spirit newspaper feature (with Lou Fine). he was a staff artist at Atlas, where he produced numerous Kid Colt stories. For a time, he split his work between Marvel, doing Kid Colt, and Charlton, producing racing and hot rod comics. In his retirement, He turned his hobby of building model cars into a part time job, at a local model shop. he passed away in 2003.
Pete Morisi began working in comics in the 40s, starting as an assistant on the newspaper strip Dickie Dare, before working for such companies as Fox, Hillman, Harvey, Lev Gleason, Fiction House, Timely/Atlas and Quality. In the fallout of the 50s, he joined the New York Police Department, where he served as a police officer, until his retirement in 1976. He continued to freelance, using the pseudonym PAM (his initials) under which he produced work at Charlton. He passed away in 2003
Aaron "Pat" Boyette was born and raised in Texas, where he started a diverse career. He began in radio, as a teenager, on a local soap opera, before serving in WW2, as a cryptographer. he returned to radio and then transitioned into tv, where he eventually became the local news anchor. He also had a talk show, produced a puppet show and commercials, as well as directed several low budget movies. He grew tired of television and decided to give comics a try, submitting samples to Charlton. He waited over a year for a response, when Dick Giordano got in touch with him. His worked graced many an interior story and his painted covers helped Charlton standout on the few newstands that carried them. He also did some work for Giordano at DC, working on Blackhawk, after moving away from the infamous "superhero" experiment. He produced work for Warren and Atlas/Seaboard, as well as Archie/Red Circle, Renegade and Apple, in the 1980s and early 90s. He worked for Acclaim, inking Howard Simpson and his last work was for DC's Paradox line of Big Books. He passed away in 2000.
I can find absolutely no biographical information about Bill Montes, another staff artist at Charlton. His partner, Ernie Bache, worked for Timely/Atlas and Quality, before coming to Charlton. He passed away in 1968.
Wayne Howard was a fan, who had a poem published in Fantastic Four #22. he became an assistant to Wally Wood and debuted in DC's House of Mystery. He worked on a few stories for DC and Marvel, as well as on a couple for Warren. Charlton appeared to be his main body of work, where he became the first "creator" credited on a cover, for Midnight Tales. he later left comics and had little contact with the industry, turning down a request for an interview for the CBA articles on Charlton. He died of a heart attack in 2007.
George Wildman served in the US Navy during WW2 and Korea, serving on board the USS New Jersey (the battleship), as well as a stint as a navy recruiter. After leaving the Navy, he studied commercial art at Paier College of Art and worked in advertising. He began working for Charlton when he lost a couple of key advertising clients. There, he worked as an editor and artist on Popeye. He eventually became the line editor, but continued to draw Popeye and did so when it moved to Western. He freelanced after retirement, working on several projects for Disney and Warner Bros. He passed away in 2016.
Nicola Cuti served in the Air Force, with the Air Police, before becoming an assistant to Wally Wood. he published many stories at Warren, before joining Charlton, as an assistant editor and writer, and occasional artist. He went back to work at Warren, before coming to DC as an editor, where he oversaw their digest comic line, as well as writing Spanner's Galaxy, with Tom Mandrake. From there he moved into animation and also produced his own low budget sci-fi serials. He's still alive and kicking, with a recent E-Man story at the Charlton Arrow, with Joe Staton.
John D'Agostino was another School of Industrial Arts grad, who worked at Timely/Atlas, before coming to Charlton. he left Charlton for the greener pastures of Archie. He did some work for Marvel, both on the superheroes and their Star line of children's comics, before returning to Archie. He passed away in 2010.
Charlton had several Spanish and Latin American comic artsist working for them, in the late 60s and 70s. Most notable is Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (praise be his name), who worked on their romance comics, before moving to DC. He became noted for his dynamic and beautiful art on Superman and other stories; but, made his biggest impact creating the syle guides for DC, which were used both for in-house artists and for commercial licensed work, featuring DC characters. he also created model sheets for the update look of the Super friends characters, as seen in The Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
Other artists include Demetrio, Enrigue Nieto, Colmeiro, and Jose Delbo. Demetrio was Demetrio Sanchez Gomez, a Spanish artist who worked on adventure and historical material in his native country, as well as for American and German companies, with much work for UK publishers. Enrique Nieto was from Argentina and was part of the Latin-American Union Studio, working extensively in Charlton's war, horror and romance comics. Colmeiro was Argentinian Antonio Colmeiro, who served in their military (retiring as a colonel) before working in comics, including adaptations of Jules Verne. Jose Delbo was also an Argentine, before moving to the US. he worked on Billy the Kid, for Charlton, before moving on to Western, where he had a long career. He then moved to DC and followed with Marvel, before becoming an instructor at the Kubert School. he retired to Florida where he runs cartoon camps for young kids.
Charlton saw many artist for brief stints, between better paying giggs. Wally Wood had some material there, though that might have been stories acquired from other companies. John Severin did several issues of Billy the Kid, before moving to greener pastures. Alex Toth did the Charlton Bullseye and another story or two. Roy Thomas produced his first professional stories at Charlton, before moving to DC and Marvel. Chic Stone stopped in for some work, Dick Ayers (in Eh!), and Jack Sparling. Others started there and left or came there after long careers elsewhere: Tony Tallarico, Murray Postell, Ernie Hart, Maurice Whitman, and Sal Trapanni (Dick Giordano's brother-in-law). Al Fago came in as the Editor, from Funnies, Inc, before moving on. he passed away around 1978. Pat Masulli succeeded him as editor, before concentrating on the magazine line. He died in 1998.
Will Franz was a teenager when he sold his first story to Charlton. He produced war comics with Sam Glanzman and followed to DC; but, found that his material was not sought. he later heard that someone registered as a conscientious objector, during the Vietnam War, citing his war stories as an influence. Franz was never sure if that factored in the sudden lack of work; but, moved on and later taught writing and worked with people with disabilities (he has Type 1 diabetes, himself). he later reunited with Sam Glanzman and created an ending to Willy Schultz, which Roger Broughton is sitting on. he also takes part in medieval military reenactments and is a noted fencer.
There is one name that is most closely associated with Charlton: Joe Gill. Gill started in the 40s, working for Funnies, Inc, where he met another budding writer: Mickey Spillane. After military service, he went back to Timely, before moving to Charlton. There, he produced thousands of stories, in every genre. his best work were in adventure stories, especially atmospheric tales, like the adventures of the Phantom, the hard-hitting Fightin' Five and Vengeance Squad, and hardboiled PI Johnny Dynamite. he also wrote for DC, on such titles as the Secret Six and Hot Wheels. he continued working for Charlton, up to the end. He then retired, with one final story published in Ebony Warrior, for Ania. He passed away in 2006.
This was a fun exercise, allowing me to explore a lot of Charlton material I have had sitting around, as well as explore some great webistes. I am deeply indebted to the Comic Book Artist (issues 9 and 12) for their in depth interviews and articles, the websites Rip Jagger's Dojo, Diversions of a Groovy Kind, Charlton Comics Reading Library, Four Color Shadows, Beach Bum Comics, Bronze Age Blog, Lambiek Comiclopedia, and Mile High Comics for both story excepts, creator credits, and info about some of the lesser known artists.