Comic Book Artist # 12 March 2001 (magazine review)

As can be seen from this edition of ‘Comic Book Artist’ from 2001, the subject is ‘Charlton Comics Of The 1970s’. Even in the opening introduction, Charlton gets a slamming for being cheap on everything but artistic freedom and way down the list from the Big Two. However, it was a training ground for mostly artists before they went up through the ranks. As editor George Wildman pointed out, with the Big Two there were corrections and such biting into their time and if you took that out the rates were comparable. I have to confess that I’m not totally sure about that although Charlton’s rates did go up eventually from $6.50 to over $55.00 per page if only for them to live. The super-hero aspect was only small compared to the other genres they covered, included tie-in franchises. Significantly, they were the starting ground for Joe Staton, John Byrne, Mike Zeck and Bob Layton when they couldn’t get their foot in the door at the Big Two.

Jon B. Cooke’s interview with editor/artist George Wildman (1927-2016) about his tenure at Charlton reveals he got into comics late at the age of 40. Proving he was no good at romance comics, he excelled at cartoon and became the Popeye artist which he kept doing when he became editor. He gives a fascinating insight into the people he worked with and raising Charlton’s profile, having their logo on their van deliveries being one of them.

The interview with Nicola ‘Nick’ Cuti (1944-2020) is also awfully revealing. Cooke notes him as among the top 5 nice editors from the 1970s. He saw himself as a plot-driven writer and wasn’t really interested in writing super-heroes. Yet he created ‘E-Man’ with artist Joe Staton. As he points out Charlton’s ‘E-Man’ comic did marvellously on subscriptions but failed in the mass-market and was stopped. His tenure as sub-editor at Charlton switched to just writing for them and then being fired for making too much money doing a story a day. Bear in mind that Charlton did not pay well and you had to be prolific to make money shows how hard he worked. This interview is a long but rewarding read.

Rocco Nigro interviewed Joe and Hilarie Staton about his time at Charlton about his work there. I met them and rescued them to get them someone quiet for them to get a tea-time snack at a British Comicon back in the late 1970s and he never stopped sketching over his meal. He’d never seen Phoenix at the time and did me a sketch of her once I showed what she looked like so I actually have a first. Had I seen his E-Man mags earlier, I think I might have gone for Nova Kane. This interview gives a lot of insights and I hadn’t known he did layouts for Gil Kane for a year.

There’s a two page interview with John Byrne about his time there which includes his how to draw Rog-2000 page which I originally saw in the ‘E-Man’ comic.

The Tom Sutton (1937-2002) points out how he rose out of a rather insular Massachusetts town, always drawing, a spell in the military and then as a comicbook artist capable of doing funny, as in ‘Not Brand Eech!’, where I first came across his art, to later drawing horror.

The Mike Zeck interview fills in a lot of gaps about his early career and especially when he worked for Wallace Wood. I suspect Woody’s liking for guns helped a lot when it came to drawing the Punisher much later.

Artist Jack Keller (1922-2003) had a speciality in drawing accurate cars and did many comicbook stories doing them that way. With Charlton having many comicbooks using them, he felt right at home. When he wasn’t doing them, he did westerns.

Warren Sattler (1934- ) was more a satirist although could turn his hand to anything. For Charlton, he did the kung fu comicbook series ‘Yang’, with one of his sons advising him on martial arts that he was learning at the time.

Artist/etc Bob Layton in interview explains how the ‘Charlton Bullseye’ came about and how much trust the company gave to put it in print. I hadn’t realised until now how deep his original fanzine roots were.

Writer Roger Stern was also associated with ‘Charlton Bullseye’ and was mostly responsible for getting John Byrne a chance there and they both ended up going professional.

There’s more but that little lot should get you looking for this edition of ‘Comic Book Artist’.

Although I’ve never heard of several artists here, I have come away with a lot more information about Charlton Comics than I otherwise had. Creating comicbooks was more a bi-line to keep their printing presses ticking over so they had no regard to the content really but it was also a cheap learning ground for several of the top pros. In today’s comicbook climes, with little in the way of outlets beyond comicbook shops, I doubt if such a situation would arise again today.

GF Willmetts

August 2024

(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 110 page illustrated magazine. Price: varies. ISSN: 401-783-1689. Direct from them, you can get it digitally for $ 5.99 (US))

check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_56&products_id=528&zenid=3ctfau61b4kuirf64gt6jpabu2