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Charlton Comics
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| This small publishing house (known mostly for printing cereal boxes) had a slogan in the mid-sixties - 'Buy Charlton Comics, we need the money'. This was indicative of the attitude brought about in 1966 when Dick Giordano became the editor at Charlton.
Plagued by spotty distribution, poor production and inferior printing, titles like 'Charlton Premiere',' The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves', and 'The Fightin' Five' occasionally featured quality material by young up and coming writers and artists like Denny O'Neil and Jim Aparo. Charlton Comics is where Steve Ditko (Spiderman, Doctor Strange) concentrated his efforts after leaving Marvel, and he produced some of his finest work on Charlton's super-hero, science fiction and horror comics well into the Seventies. Here are some examples of the best comic books produced under the short Giordano rein. |
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| Fantastic Giants vol.2 no. 24 September 1966
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Captain
Atom no. 82 September 1966
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| The Peacemaker
no. 1 March 1967
"A man who loves peace so much he is
willing to fight for it!" Hey, that's right in step with today's thinking,
with our President calling the troops 'Peacemakers'. Drawn by Pat Boyette
in his distinctive, old world style, 'Peacemaker' was a cold war classic,
us against them. I guess 'they' won, because Peacemaker lasted only
5 short issues.
When I was younger, I didn't appreciate Pat Boyette's style, it was too stiff and it reminded me too much of woodcuts, but now I see that he was an artist with a unique vision and he told a story well. While Boyette's style was much more suited to mystery stories and such, his approach to super heroes was still refreshing and effective in a strange way. This issue has two excellent short stories by the underrated Boyette as well as a bio and photo of the artist.
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Al Williamson & Archie Goodwin All characters shown here are TM © Charlton & DC Comics. |
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This comic book is a Steve Ditko special,
it even says so on the cover. Perhaps the first and only time an artist's
name appeared in type on a Charlton cover.
The same month
you bought 'Fantastic Giants', you could have bought this comic book,
featuring the revival of Captain Atom, a late fifties Charlton character
drawn (then as here) by Steve Ditko and written by David Kaler. The
next issue of this great run of comics (that starts with issue 79 and
ends with number 89) brings the revival of The Blue Beetle plotted,
penciled and inked by Ditko.
