 "Big C" logo, used from September 1967 to September 1973 | |
| Industry | Comics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1945; 80 years ago (1945) |
| Founder |
|
| Defunct | 1986; 39 years ago (1986) |
| Fate | Library absorbed byDC Comics, including theFawcett Comics characters that were purchased by Charlton Comics. |
| Headquarters | Derby,Connecticut |
Key people |
|
| Owner | Charlton Publications |
| Divisions |
|
Charlton Comics was an Americancomic-book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name:T. W. O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based inDerby, Connecticut. The comic-bookline was a division ofCharlton Publications, which published magazines (most notably song-lyric magazines), puzzle books, and briefly, books, under the imprintsMonarch andGold Star. It had its own distribution company,Capital Distribution.[1]
Charlton Comics published a wide variety ofgenres, includingcrime,science fiction,Western,horror,war, andromance comics, as well astalking animal andsuperhero titles. The company was known for its low-budget practices, often using unpublished material acquired from defunct companies and paying comics creators among the lowest rates in the industry. Charlton was also the last of the American comics publishers still operating to raise its cover prices from 10 to 12 cents in 1962.
It was unique among comic-book companies in that it controlled all areas of publishing – from editorial to printing to distribution – rather than working with outside printers and distributors, as did most other publishers. It did so under one roof at its Derby headquarters.[2]
The company was formed by John Santangelo Sr. and Ed Levy in 1940 as T. W. O. Charles Company, named after the co-founders' two sons, both named Charles, and became Charlton Publications in 1945.
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(September 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In 1931, Italian immigrant John Santangelo Sr., a bricklayer who had started a construction business inWhite Plains, New York, five years earlier, began what became a highly successful business publishing song-lyric magazines out of nearbyYonkers, New York. Operating in violation ofcopyright laws, however, he was sentenced in 1934 to a year and a day at New Haven County Jail inNew Haven, Connecticut, near Derby, where his wife and he by then lived. In jail, he metWaterbury, Connecticut attorney Ed Levy, with whom he began legitimate publishing in 1935, acquiring permissions to reproduce lyrics in such magazines asHit Parade andBig Song Magazine. Santangelo and Levy opened a printing plant in Waterbury the following year, and in 1940, founded the T.W.O. Charles Company, eventually moving its headquarters to Derby.[3] Charlton purchased the company Song Lyrics, Inc., which publishedSong Hits magazine and was owned byLyle Engel in 1949.[4]
Following the adoption of the Charlton Comics name in 1946,[2] the company over the next five years acquired material from freelanceeditor andcomics packager Al Fago (brother of formerTimely Comics editorVincent Fago). Charlton additionally publishedMerry Comics,Cowboy Western, the Western titleTim McCoy, andPictorial Love Stories.
The company used a second-hand press originally used for printing cereal boxes.[5] These large presses were very costly to both stop and start, which only happened twice a year when they had to be cleaned, and so they started publishing comics as a mean to keep the presses going.[6] After the entry into the comic business, the company's first comic book wasYellowjacket, an anthology of superhero and horror stories launched September 1944 under the imprint Frank Comunale Publications, with Ed Levy listed as publisher.[2]Zoo Funnies was published under the imprint Children Comics Publishing;Jack in the Box, under Frank Comunale; andTNT Comics, under Charles Publishing Co. Another imprint was Frank Publications.
In 1951, when Al Fago began as an in-house editor, Charlton hired a staff of artists who included its future managing editor,Dick Giordano. Others (staff or freelance) who eventually worked with Charlton includedVince Alascia,Jon D'Agostino,Sam Glanzman,Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio, Bill Molno,Charles Nicholas, andSal Trapani. The primary writer was the remarkably prolificJoe Gill. The same year the company created an in-house comics department, where comics would make up 25% of Charlton.[7]
The company began a wide expansion of its comics line, which included notoriously gory[citation needed] horror comics (the principal title beingSteve Ditko'sThe Thing!). In 1954–55, it acquired a stable of comic-book properties from the defunct Superior Comics,Mainline Publications,St. John Publications, and most significantly,Fawcett Publications,[2] which was shutting down itsFawcett Comics division. Charlton continued publishing two of Fawcett's horror books—This Magazine Is Haunted andStrange Suspense Stories—initially using unpublished material from Fawcett's inventory.[8] Artistic chores were then handed to Ditko, whose moody, individualistic touch came to dominate Charlton's supernatural line. Beset by the circulation slump that swept the industry towards the end of the 1950s,[citation needed]Haunted struggled for another two years, published bimonthly until May 1958.Strange Suspense Stories ran longer, lasting well into the 1960s before "giving up the ghost" in 1965.
Charlton published a wide line ofromance titles, particularly after it acquired the Fawcett line, which included the romance comicsSweethearts,Romantic Secrets, andRomantic Story.Sweethearts was the comic world's first monthly romance title[9] (debuting in 1948), and Charlton continued publishing it until 1973. Charlton had launched its first original romance title in 1951,True Life Secrets, but that series only lasted until 1956. Charlton also picked up a number ofWestern titles from the defunct Fawcett Comics line, includingGabby Hayes Western,Lash LaRue Western,Monte Hale Western,Rocky Lane Western.Six-Gun Heroes,Tex Ritter Western,Tom Mix Western, andWestern Hero.
Seeking to save money on second-class postage permits, Charlton, like many comic-book publishers of the era, frequently changed the titles of their comics, rather than start new ones at number 1 (a new publication required a new postal permit, while an existing publication that just changed its name could use its existing permit).[10] Notable examples of this practice include the titlesBilly the Kid (originallyMasked Raider),Blue Beetle vol. 2 (originallyThe Thing!),Blue Beetle vol. 3 (originallyUnusual Tales),Fightin' Air Force (originallyNever Again),Fightin' Army (originallySoldier and Marine Comics),Fightin' Marines (originallyThe Texan),Fightin' Navy (originallyDon Winslow of the Navy),Ghostly Haunts (originallyGhost Manor),Ghostly Tales (originallyBlue Beetle vol. 3),I Love You (originallyIn Love), andSweethearts (originallyFawcett'sCaptain Midnight).
Al Fago left in the mid-1950s, and was succeeded by his assistant,Pat Masulli, who remained in the position for 10 years. Masulli oversaw a plethora of new romance titles, including the long-runningI Love You,Sweetheart Diary,Brides in Love,My Secret Life, andJust Married; and the teen-oriented romance comicsTeen-Age Love,Teen Confessions, andTeen-Age Confidential Confessions.
On August 19, 1955, the company was hit hard by aflood. The water was rising so fast that vital office records was all that could be saved. $300,000 in paper inventory, plates, mats and original comics artwork were lost, including the artwork the company had bought fromFawcett Comics, in addition to printing presses and typesetting machines. Several issues of comics were destroyed, and some titles abandoned completely.[11][12] Due to the shutdown following the flood, the comics were outsourced to outside presses for some months.[13]
Superheroes were a minor part of the company. At the beginning, Charlton's main characters wereYellowjacket, not to be confused with the later Marvel character, and Diana the Huntress. In the mid-1950s, Charlton briefly published aBlue Beetle title with new and reprinted stories, and in 1956, several short-lived titles written bySuperman co-creatorJerry Siegel, such asMr. Muscles,Zaza the Mystic, andNature Boy (the latter with artist Mastroserio).[14]
The company's most noteworthy period was during the"silver age" of comic books, which had begun withDC Comics' successful revival of superheroes in 1956.[2] In March 1960, Charlton'sscience-fictionanthology titleSpace Adventures introducedCaptain Atom, by Gill and the future co-creator ofMarvel Comics'Spider-Man,Steve Ditko.[15] (After the mid-1980s demise of Charlton, Captain Atom went on to become a stalwart of the DC stable, as would Blue Beetle, the oldFox Comics superhero revived by Gill and artistsBill Fraccio andTony Tallarico as a campy, comedic character inBlue Beetle #1 [June 1964].)
Charlton also had moderate success withSon of Vulcan, its answer to Marvel'sThor, inMysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46 (May 1965).
During the Silver Age, Charlton, like Marvel and DC, publishedwar comics. Notable titles included the "Fightin'" line ofFightin' Air Force,Fightin' Army,Fightin' Marines, andFightin' Navy; the "Attack" line ofArmy Attack andSubmarine Attack;Battlefield Action;D-Day,U.S. Air Force Comics, andWar Heroes. Though primarilyanthologies of stories about 20th-century warfare, they included a small number of recurring characters and features, including "The American Eagle",[16] "Shotgun Harker and the Chicken", "The Devil's Brigade", "The Iron Corporal", and "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz".Army War Heroes andMarine War Heroes depicted stories based on actualMedal of Honor recipients.Space War, first created in 1959 becameFightin' 5 in 1964.
With the mid-1960s fad forJames Bond secret agents such asNick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Charlton turned their Vietnam veteranMike Hammerhardboiled detectiveSarge Steel into a special agent after the sixth issue, later renaming the comicSecret Agent.
Charlton threw itself into the resurgenthorror comics genre during this period with such titles asGhostly Tales,The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, andGhost Manor. It also created a pair of identical horror-movie magazines:Horror Monsters (1961–1964) andMad Monsters (1961–1965). Additionally, Charlton produced comics based on monsters featured in motion pictures such asKonga,Gorgo andReptilicus.
Charlton continued its commitment toromance comics with such new titles asCareer Girl Romances,Hollywood Romances (later to change its name toFor Lovers Only), andTime for Love.
In 1965, Charlton revived the Captain Atom character inStrange Suspense Stories numbers 75, 76, and 77, reprinting the Steve Ditko-illustrated stories that had originally appeared inSpace Adventures in the early 1960s. Retitling the comic,Captain Atom Volume 2 #78 (cover dated Dec. 1965), Charlton began publishing newly created stories by Ditko of the superhero. In 1967, Ditko stopped working at Marvel and returned to Charlton full-time. After his celebrated stint at Marvel, he had grown disenchanted with that company and his Spider-Man collaborator, writer-editorStan Lee. Having the hugely popular Ditko back helped prompt Charlton editor Giordano to introduce the company's "Action Hero" superhero line, with characters including Captain Atom, Ditko's theQuestion, Gill and artistPat Boyette'sThe Peacemaker, Gill and companyart directorFrank McLaughlin'sJudomaster,Pete Morisi'sPeter Cannon... Thunderbolt, and Ditko's new "Ted Kord" version of the Blue Beetle.[17] Because Giordano had a personal dislike for superheroes and wanted to keep them in a pulplike realm of relative believability, all the characters in his Action Hero line, except for Captain Atom, were ordinary humans which used their skills and talents instead of superpowers.[18][19][20] The company also developed a reputation as a place for new talent to break into comics; examples includeJim Aparo,Dennis O'Neil andSam Grainger. As well, Charlton in the late 1960s published some of the firstmanga in America, inGhost Manor and other titles (thanks to artistSanho Kim), and artistWayne Howard became the industry's first known cover-credited series creator, with the horror-anthologyMidnight Tales blurbing "Created by Wayne Howard" on each issue—"a declaration perhaps unique in the industry at the time".[21]
Yet by the end of 1967, Charlton's superhero titles had been cancelled, and licensed properties had become the company's staples, particularly cartoon characters fromHanna-Barbera (The Flintstones,The Jetsons,Top Cat,Korg: 70,000 B.C., others). Charlton took over publication of a number ofKing Features Syndicate characters from that company's short-livedKing Comics, includingBeetle Bailey,Blondie Comics,Flash Gordon,Jungle Jim,The Phantom, andPopeye. Charlton also publishedBullwinkle and Rocky, andHoppity Hooper, based onJay Ward Productions'Hoppity Hooper, andRocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show.
Charlton dabbled occasionally in adaptations of live-action TV comedies. The most successful wasMy Little Margie, based on the 1952-55 network series starringGale Storm; the Charlton version ran for a full 10 years (1954-64, 54 issues) and inspired two spinoffs,My Little Margie's Boy Friends (1955–58, 11 issues) andMy Little Margie's Fashions (1959, five issues).Abbott and Costello, debuting in 1968, was based on the syndicatedAbbott and Costello animated cartoon series of 1967-68 and ran for 22 issues.Hee Haw, a remarkably faithful rendition of the then-currentCBS-TV series, bowed in 1970 but ran for only seven issues. Both theAbbott and Costello andHee Haw comics were discontinued in the summer of 1971, although Charlton'sHee Haw was revamped for general audiences as a 50-cent magazine, printed in black-and-white with cast photos and jokes supplemented by advertising. The last of the comedy vehicles wasThe Partridge Family, based on the then-currentABC-TVsitcom; launched in 1971, the comic book ran for 21 issues until it was cancelled in 1973.
Nicola Cuti made creative improvements to Charlton's line in the early 1970s, which had been referred to ascomics' Bronze Age, during which he worked as assistant editor underGeorge Wildman, who was occupied primarily with administrative duties. Cuti broughtMike Zeck, among others, into Charlton's roster of artists, and his writing enlivened theGhostly titles, now includingGhostly Haunts. Other Bronze Age Charlton horror titles includedHaunted,Midnight Tales, andScary Tales.
In 1973, Charlton debuted thegothic romance titleHaunted Love, but this same period saw the mass cancellation of almost all of Charlton's vast stable of traditionalromance titles, including such long-running series as;Sweethearts,Romantic Secrets,Romantic Story,I Love You,Teen-Age Love,Just Married, andTeen Confessions, all of which dated from the 1950s.
In the mid-1970s, a brief resurgence of talent occurred, energized by Cuti, artistJoe Staton, and the "CPL Gang" – a group of writer/artist comics fans includingJohn Byrne,Roger Stern,Bob Layton, andRoger Slifer, who had all worked on the fanzineContemporary Pictorial Literature. Charlton began publishing such new titles asE-Man,Midnight Tales, andDoomsday + 1. The CPL Gang also produced an in-house fanzine calledCharlton Bullseye, which published, among other things, commissioned but previously unpublished material; including the company's lastCaptain Atom story. Also during this period, most of Charlton's titles began sporting painted covers.
Early in 1975, Cuti, already writing freelance for the company in addition to his staff duties, quit to write freelance exclusively for Charlton when its line expanded to include black-and-white magazines in addition to the King Features and Hanna-Barbera franchised titles. He was replaced byBill Pearson, who became assistant editor after promotingDon Newton as the newPhantom artist and writing scripts for that title.
Charlton's black-and-white comics magazines were based upon currenttelevision series and aimed at older readers. One of these wasThe Six Million Dollar Man #1–7 (July 1976 – August 1977). Retailing for $1, it featured art byNeal Adams' studio,Continuity Associates, as well as some stories by veteran illustratorsJack Sparling andWin Mortimer. Also published in magazine form were adaptations ofThe Six Million Dollar Man spinoffThe Bionic Woman,Space: 1999, andEmergency!, as well as a comic based on teen heartthrobDavid Cassidy, then starring in the musicalsitcomThe Partridge Family.
By 1976, however, most of these titles had been cancelled,[22] and most of the company's remaining titles went on hiatus during the period January to August 1977. Much of the new talent took the opportunity to move on to Marvel and DC.
By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic-book industry was in a sales slump, struggling to reinvent a profitable distribution and retail system. Charlton's licensed titles lapsed, its aging presses were deteriorating towards uselessness, and the company did not have the resources to replace them. In 1981, yet another attempt was made at new material, with a comic-book version ofCharlton Bullseye serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic-book fans,[23] and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles. A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under the Modern Comics imprint and sold in bagged sets in department stores (in much the same wayGold Key Comics were published under theWhitman Comics moniker around the same time). None of these measures worked, and in 1984, Charlton Comics suspended publication.[24]
In 1985, a final attempt at a revival was spearheaded by new editorT. C. Ford with a direct-to-marketCharlton Bullseye Special.[25][26] Later that same year, though, Charlton Comics went out of business;[27] Charlton Publications followed suit in 1991, and its building and presses were demolished in 1999.
EditorRobin Snyder oversaw the sale of some properties to their creators, though most of the rights were purchased by CanadianentrepreneurRoger Broughton.[28] He produced several reprint titles under the company name ofAvalon Communications and its imprintAmerica's Comics Group (ACG for short, Broughton having also purchased the rights to the defunctAmerican Comics Group properties), and announced plans to restart Charlton Comics. This did not occur beyond its publishing a number of reprints and changing his company name toCharlton Media Group.[29]
Most of Charlton's line of action heroes were acquired in 1983 for $5000 a character byPaul Levitz atDC Comics, as a gift to managing editor and former Charlton editorDick Giordano.[30] These "Action Hero" characters were proposed to be used in the landmarkWatchmenminiseries written byAlan Moore, but DC then chose to save the characters for other uses. Moore instead developed new characters loosely based on them.[2] The Charlton characters were incorporated into DC's main superhero line, starting in the epicCrisis on Infinite Earths miniseries of 1985.
Charlton's original strength, doing everything in-house, like art, lettering, editorial, printing, packaging and distribution, had helped them survive when America's largest distributor,American News Company, closed its doors.[31] But this gradually turned into a weakness as their old equipment was stuck in the past, while other companies used more modern equipment that was faster, had higher quality and was more efficient, which contributed to their decline and fall.[32]
In 2000,Charlton Spotlight, afanzine devoted to Charlton, began publication.
In 2014, comics writersMort Todd,Paul Kupperberg, andRoger McKenzie founded a revival imprint named Charlton Neo, which relied heavily oncrowdfunding, and printed stories featuring Charlton characters and titles not owned by DC.[33] In May 2017,AC Comics announced that they had entered into an agreement to bring print versions of Charlton Neo's comics to the direct-sales comic shop market, starting withCharlton Arrow #1 in September.[34]The Charlton Arrow, an anthology series featuring many Charlton characters, was the company's main product and only title sold in stores, but the company ran a number of other titles through mail-order and digital sales.[35] In January 2018, citing poor sales and "a variety of financial calamities,"[36] Todd launched aGoFundMe campaign to "help save" the company.[citation needed]
Captain Atom was born in a tale by artist Steve Ditko and writer Joe Gill.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Additional on June 11, 2011| Key People |
|  | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publications | |||||||||||
| Universe | |||||||||||
| Lines and imprints |
| ||||||||||
| Adaptations | |||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||
| National | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
