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Post by MWGallaher on Mar 21, 2020 4:53:50 GMT -5
One of my co-workers, Ken King, is a motorcycle driver and enthusiast. He was surprised and delighted when I mentioned during a meeting that there was a "Ken King" who headlined a lot of motorcycle comic books at Charlton. I gave him some keywords to search (in particular, "Charlton"), and a week later, he showed up at the weekly meeting with an issue of World of Wheels he'd bought on Ebay!  Charlton had pretty good distribution when I was growing up in Memphis in the 1970's, but I rarely even opened their books when I was browsing through the spinner racks. I ignored romance comics and war comics and cartoon/comic strip adaptations, which is where Charlton were putting the most effort. Their few action/adventure comics like Doomsday+1, Vengeance Squad, 6 Million Dollar Man, and Space:1999 merited browsing, but didn't appeal to me enough to earn my limited spending money. |
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Post by jason on Mar 21, 2020 21:43:22 GMT -5
When did Charlton stop printing new stories in their comics? Going by cover galleries, they were able to survive on reprints as late as 1986, but what was the final original story?
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 21, 2020 22:42:25 GMT -5
The very first comic-books my parents ever bought for my brother and me were both Charltons. They would often buy 2 different items, one for each of us, based (presumably) on our different tastes or personality. My brother got " BATTLEFIELD ACTION". I got " BLACK FURY". (The horse-- I often joke, no, it wasn't a "blaxpoloitation" book, thought that would have made a good title for one.) This was in the summer of 1963. I was 4 years old, my brother was 5. They got them from the coffee shoppe onboard the Chesapeake Bay Ferry Boat (the bridge was under construction at the time). Funny enough, decades later, I noticed Luis Dominguez had a story in BOTH books! I showed a scan of the splash page to Luis' friend, writer Arnold Drake, and Arnold said, "That doesn't look ANYTHING LIKE his work!" And yet-- his signature was clearly visible. I guess it was a case of Charlton getting what they paid for.
My Dad was always budget-conscious-- often to an excessive degree. We got newspapers with comics sections 7 days a week. The thinking was, those comics were "free", as we were getting the papers anyway. Comic-BOOKS were a "luxury" item, and so, few and far between. At least, for me, until the early 70s.......
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 21, 2020 22:47:21 GMT -5
When did Charlton stop printing new stories in their comics? Going by cover galleries, they were able to survive on reprints as late as 1986, but what was the final original story? It was around 1977 was when they were largely focusing on reprints more than original content, though there were occasional exceptions like Charlton Action: Featuring "Static,” which made a point of having “ALL NEW!” on the cover and were being published as late as December, 1985:  |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 22, 2020 13:11:43 GMT -5
Last issues posted on Mike's Amazing came out in October 1985: Prof. Coffin #21; Iron Corporal #25; Doctor Graves #75; Punchy and the Black Crow #12; Yang #17. Yang and Graves came out on October 7; Corporal and Punchy on October 21, and the last act was Prof. Coffin on October 28.      |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 22, 2020 16:42:37 GMT -5
Iron Corporal was a reprint series, with Will Franz and Sam Glanzman's stories of an American serving with the Australians.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 22, 2020 17:50:50 GMT -5
Iron Corporal was a reprint series, with Will Franz and Sam Glanzman's stories of an American serving with the Australians. All these other final Charltons were reprints as well, as were most of the covers, although three were flipped: Prof. Coffin, Graves, and Yang. The Punchy cover was recolored, and the Iron Corporal cover was actually a reprint of a splash page from a story that didn't feature the IC. |
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Mar 22, 2020 19:24:33 GMT -5
Whenever I see Charltons from that last gasp in 85/86, I feel compelled to buy them since you just don't see them often in the wild. Easy to find online since they aren't worth anything, but more rare than the internet might suggest.
I even have a couple that have date stamps on them, which is particularly rare given how few date stamps were still being done by the mid 80's.
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 22, 2020 23:32:07 GMT -5
And now for what was perhaps Charlton’s most prominent superhero, Atomic Mouse (Atomic Mouse #1, March 1953). Art by Al Fago:  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 23, 2020 11:18:34 GMT -5
Iron Corporal was a reprint series, with Will Franz and Sam Glanzman's stories of an American serving with the Australians. All these other final Charltons were reprints as well, as were most of the covers, although three were flipped: Prof. Coffin, Graves, and Yang. The Punchy cover was recolored, and the Iron Corporal cover was actually a reprint of a splash page from a story that didn't feature the IC. Yeah, but the question was what was their last with original content; which is what I thought you were answering. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 23, 2020 12:00:21 GMT -5
All these other final Charltons were reprints as well, as were most of the covers, although three were flipped: Prof. Coffin, Graves, and Yang. The Punchy cover was recolored, and the Iron Corporal cover was actually a reprint of a splash page from a story that didn't feature the IC. Yeah, but the question was what was their last with original content; which is what I thought you were answering. D'oh! Read the post too quickly, I guess. Mea culpa.
Looks like the last books with any new material were published in June of '78. Maybe a story or two popped up after that, but a quick perusal showed no sign of any after that month. Their last licensed titles, as best as I can tell were Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man, which both ended in March of '78. Hope I'm answering the question first posed.  Thanks to Mike's Amazing World, an invaluable resource! Link here: www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?type=calendar&month=6&year=1978&publisher=charlton&sort=alpha&checklist=null |
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 29, 2020 19:25:05 GMT -5
Tom Sutton, starting with Ghostly Haunts #41, is why I own as many Charlton comics as I do. His artwork is amazing, despite his tragic, but relateble life. Indeed. He really tried his best to flare up his horror art: From Ghost Manor #9 and The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #50 (1973-1975):    |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 29, 2020 21:24:59 GMT -5
Joe Staton also did some great horror work, with his cartoony style, really giving some of the imagery a twist. Mike Zeck also cut his teeth on Charlton's horror books, especially the covers.
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Post by rom on Apr 9, 2020 11:44:02 GMT -5
Great thread & fantastic scans! Great artwork here. I was especially impressed by the art in some of the '70's Charlton Romance comics, which I normally wouldn't be into. Thanks for posting these.
As a kid, I do remember flipping through/reading some Charlton comics on the stands in the late '70's/early '80's. I don't remember any specific titles, but did like their horror series. I also remember seeing at least one issue of Yang. They were definitely a very underrated comic book company, and they were 'independent' long before that became much more common in the '80's with the advent of the direct market, etc.
I would definitely be all for a series of reprints of some of these, especially their Horror, War, and Kung fu titles.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2020 11:57:15 GMT -5
Trying to locate a Charlton horror comic I read when I was around 9. The story was called 'Murder by Proxy' and involved a deadly board game with several players. Whenever something happened in the game, someone, somewhere else would be killed in said fashion. I can't remember the cover, just that particular story. Is anyone familiar with it?
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