Heard that Peacemaker is going to be in the new Suicide Squad movie Also loved DC’s 80’s Captain Atom and Blue Beetle when he got paired with Booster Gold
Hi Jack of All Claws! Blue Beetle has been on my list since day one. The problem is my script was about an hour long. From time to time, I will break it out and give it a look-but I don't want to cut anything out. Every story is a gem.
The Peacemaker stands out with me as a potentially great character ahead of its time. At a later date with a superior company this could have been a really prestigious superhero....if there truly could be such a thing. What a character it would have been for today’s filmmakers. Even this hero’s costume says: not your garden variety superhero.
@@Ouja Yes, but the character as originally created had SO much potential. It could have taken superhero comics to an unprecedented level. DC didn't REALLY get this done.
Yo I'm from the future and he's in the new Suicide Squad movie and I'd say Gunn did really well with him and John Cena portrayed him excellently. Gunn just really knows how to bring underappreciated characters into the spotlight. Am a little curious about that new show but we'll see I guess.
I always loved the Charlton superheroes. Of all the many comics in my collection, the bulk of them are Charltons. And I have nearly every book shown in this documentary. Thanks for the retrospective!
The Blue Beetle is one of my favorite heroes of all time. I wish the writers of JLI took him more seriously (and that he survived past Infinite Crisis)
it’s sad that he died but he did so in a lasting way that made them see that things were bad for everyone…it was the greatest praise for a character: a meaningful death.
@@johnminehan1148 They were in Iowa. I remember reading some of their titles back in the late 70s. Mostly the horror titles, but I loved The Question and Blue Beetle.
At first, DC did an excellent job with these characters. Denny O'Neill's run on the Question was one of my favorites. Blue Beetle had a short solo run followed by a stint in the Justice League (where he became my favorite superhero). Captain Atom had a respectable run in solo adventures and became part of the Justice League. Pretty much most Charlton character were given a place in the DC Universe after "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Nightshade, Punch and Jewelly were in the Suicide Squad, Sarge Steel was part of Checkmate. ...And then Dan DiDio was put in charge of DC...
Nice montage and history piece on the Charlton characters and tie in to Watchmen. Thanks for the tip on the new movie. Considering the pay for artists was so low, I can see how the seeds of the publisher originated in a jail cell conversation.
Hi skrimshander! Thanks for noticing the montage! The owners of Charlton were always trying to do things on the cheap...cheap paper...cheap printing press...low wages. It's amazing they lasted as long as they did...but then, the magazines like Hit Parader kept them in business. I read that in the 1930s-60s, Hit Parader magazine was the leading mag in the music industry. It stayed on top until magazines like Rolling Stone came around in the 1970s.
@@FizzFop1 Machine lettering, too. Ditko loved working for them since editorial input was basically nonexistent. Joe Gill was among the most prolific comics writers of all time working for them, but the legend is that he made most of his money playing cards for money with the printers.
Alan Moore was not hired to do a Charlton-based mini. Watchmen was pitched as a separate idea, with Moore proposing using old, possibly public domain heroes. He actually suggested the MLJ/Archie line of heroes, though Archie was then trying to revive them with their Red Circle imprint. After DC bought the Charlton characters, it was suggested to use them for the characters in the Watchmen proposal, until the finality of the story was considered and they took that idea off the table. The Comedian started out as being Lancelot Strong, aka The Shield (the Simon & Kirby version), before becoming a takeoff on the Peacemaker. Ditko wrote his own material at Charlton; but, would use other people's names to cover the fact. Giordano and others have confirmed this. DC Glanzman, brother of artist Sam Glanzman, was used on several of Ditko's stories. Glanzman worked production for Charlton; but, never wrote material for Ditko. Thunderbolt's costume was inspired by Daredevil (and the Web, who did a similar spit design); but, the main basis for the character was Centaur's Amazing Man, from Bill Everett. He was trained by monks, in Tibet, and put through a series of trials, before being sent out into the world. Morisi confirmed this in the Comic Book Artist interview, from the issues shown at the end. Morisi started working in comics in the late 40s, but, things became tight and he became a police officer. He continued to moonlight doing comics, which is why he signed his material as PAM. He bought the rights to Thunderbolt, during the Charlton sell-off, and allowed DC to use it for a limited period of time, which ended up being a couple of panels in Crisis and a much later brief series (12 issues). The rights reverted back to him. Frank McLaughlin was the main force in Judomaster. He was the artist and a long time judo player. The character did appear in the DC Challenge and was intended for a Secret origins issue, as well as an anthology that was intended to showcase the Charlton heroes. The anthology was canceled before it was published. Judomaster and Tiger finally appeared in the LAW mini-series. Charlton could have been a real top player in the field, as they controlled the creation, editing, printing and distribution of their own comics. The only other company to do this was Western, who published the Dell and Gold Key comics. However, both were more focused on their other enterprises, which were far more lucrative. Charlton made way more money on their music magazines, while Western made more money, via the Whitman brand name, on puzzles and games, as well as the Little Golden Book line of children's books. Meanwhile, it is pronounced San-Tan-gelo, not San-Tangle-o, and Ge-or-dawn-o, not Gee-or-dane-o. Also, Oz-ee-man-dee-es
"However, both were more focused on their other enterprises, which were far more lucrative" Rather like British publisher DC Thomson, which released comics from the 1930s onwards but always made more money from printing wallpaper.
@@PurpleWarlock yeah, no attack directed at her could hit her but if you tossed a grenade in her general direction the explosion could hurt her since it wasn’t aimed.
Funny that one of the masterpieces of modern fiction only exists because DC wanted to do something with some characters that didn't even end-up getting used.
That's because it was originally intended for Watchmen to be about the Charlton heroes but the DC higher ups said no. So Alan Moore created various versions of them for his graphic novel.
I remember another Charleton book I loved, I think it was later than the others: E-Man. As in e=mc2. He was not a human at all, but a pure energy being that stumbled across this exotic dancer and they have adventures saving the world. I remember the funny screwball comedy dialog back and forth between the two, like the thin man films, or topper, or bringing up baby, or his girl friday. And of course a lot of cheesecake illustrations. Maybe it wasn't the dialog that attracted me after all...hmmmm.
I DO enjoy watching your videos explanations over and over! I really like the fact that you RESPECT your audience and don't start SCREAMING at any certain spot of your content!! Thank you so much for your effort and for keeping me ENTERTAINING while LEARNING something!
Awesome video! I feel like DC could have done more with the characters. Charlton was sort of the Grindhouse of comics, but they still had some great books.
The Charlton Heroes line is what got me into comics really. First comics I bought with my own money were Modern Comics reprints in the three packs they sold for a dollar. What made Ted Kord Blue Beetle my favorite character of all time. You did miss one of the heroes that was not really part of the Action Hero line. E-man who also deserves special mention.
Charlton's reason for printing comics (to keep the presses running) wasn't exactly unique. From what I've heard the Pulps of the 30's were created for the same purpose and then led to the first comic books on the same presses for the same reasons - to keep the presses running.
Nope. First off, the pulps weren't created in the 1930s, but in 1890s. The pulps were created because the paper was very cheap, so the cost of creating them was less. They sold a LOT of them, and some publishers ONLY did pulps, but other publishers were part of conglomerates like Charlton that did other magazines, comics, and sometimes books. Tho not sure if they used the same presses. Not all publishers owned their own presses. I know Street & Smith did. But I doubt that was true of Popular, Thrilling, Dell, Fiction House, and others.
I have always had a soft spot for Charlton's Action Hero Line's characters, especially the ones where Steve Ditko was involved (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Question and Nightshade). When DC launched their version of the Blue Beetle in the post-crisis universe of 1980's, writer Len Wein wanted to do an old school fun type of superhero adventure in a DC universe that was then slowly getting darker and serious. Paris Cullins, who had gained some recognition for his work on Blue Devil, was perfect choice for this. The tone was very different for DC's Captain Atom who was more like the rest of the post-crisis DC universe. Still, I liked the first two years or so of the title then dropped out. DC's Question written Denny O'Neil was not just dark, but depressing and I didn't liked it at all with terrible art by Denys Cowan who was trying to be a poor man's Bill Sienkiewicz. Loved Nightshade in the much underrated Suicide Squad run scripted by John Ostrander. All this time, I kept hoping that DC would get a decent creative team behind a team book that would bring all the Charlton heroes together. At the height of the popularity of the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League (with three regular titles Justice League, JLE, Justice League Quarterly, plus annuals, mini-series, etc.), I was always hoping for the Charlton heroes to get their own chapter.
Hi Rangersly! I loved the first ten issues of that DC Blue Beetle revival with Len Wein. There was some seriously good stories there. For some reason, DC just doesn't know what to do with these guys. I think they would be better as a stand alone line than mixing them into the DC Universe at this point.
I thought O'Neil's Question was a great book, but it has always bothered me that it exists as a repudiation of Steve Ditko. It was basically Vic Sage being "educated" out of his Ditko-era beliefs, which I found very disrespectful to Ditko. I mean, like Denny O'Neil, I'm not an objectivist either (though I agree with them on some things), but I'm open-minded enough that I can read about an objectivist-inspired hero without denying him his basic ideological foundation.
I can't remember the name of it, but DC did release a 6 issue mini series with alll the characters working together. When you laid all the covers together side by side, it made a huge collage of them all in one expanded picture. I've always liked how many of them became naturals in the DC universe, and how effortlessly they fit in with Crisis On Infinite Earths (not to mention great Charlton villains like The Ghost and Punch and Jewelle).
@@dfcsons Yeah, I remember as well. But the creative team didn't interest me, the art was bland, and the reviews were nor good. I would have loved to see John Byrne tackle this project.
I really enjoy hearing about these heroes because besides just learning about heroes that aren't from Marvel and DC (well, they weren't originally), it also tells me why some things in Watchmen happened. After watching Linkara's retrospective on Blue Beetle, the fact that Nite Owl started to get fat made sense as it was likely in reference to Ted Kord gaining weight and now I also know why Silk Spectre was in a relationship with Dr. Manhattan, because their inspirations were too. I also learned which Charlton hero Ozymandias was based on as I could never recall that one. I knew all of them except him and Silk Spectre. As for if DC has done a good job, I'd say so for Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, The Question and Peacemaker. All four of them got more use once they were bought, Blue Beetle having a pretty decent run where he goes from a serious vigilante to a goofball to a good support role to dying a hero and having someone take on his mantle and respect it, Peace Maker became a supporting cast member for Jaime so he's still somewhat relavent and seemed cool in the Blue Beetle retrospective. Captain Atom seems to have gotten a really big power boost in DC and he seemed interesting in the Justice League cartoon. Question was AWESOME in the Justice League cartoon and that version is one of my favorite characters on that show because he's just a bad ass. I don't think they have done much with the rest of them, I have seen Judo Master, or at least a female version of him show up in the JSA but that's about it so I can't say if DC did good with them but the four I mentioned, they did.
What DC did initially with Blue Beetle was good. Later on, no. Captain Atom. Ehhh. Not so good. Question. Nope. They changed him then killed him off. Tho the version in Justice League Unlimited was good
Blue Beetle number one is public domain, just the name is trademarked. But that only applies to covers. I dont get the current DC Blue. Beetle with the weird super suit. Isn't it just a knockoff of a minor Marvel character?
@@johnnyplunkett8532 I Know how to use blue beetle , is very simple , I will give him a name like : Dark Beetle. Is the same carachter ,same history but he changes his name .
@@JoaoGabriel-et4kq That would work, they have done the Golden Age Daredevil as RedDevil and some other variations by minor companies. Stan Lee swiped the DD concept of an acrobat with a boomerang. They just gave him a new outfit and radar sense. Shakespeare swiped, all great writers do. Alan Moores Nightowl swiped the look from an old Worlds FInest villain more than from the Golden Age Owl characters. I always liked the look of that WF bad guy whose name escapes me.
Right. Do you want your comic book characters to be pretty good, or do you want them to be great? Underselling your characters can harm the bottom line,
Holy cow! Has no one ever pointed out the similarity of Captain Atom and Doctor Manhattan? (Later) Holy COW! I should watch the entire video before commenting!
If Ted Kord's Blue Beetle had been part of the Marvel universe being done by Ditko, it would have been giant! He would have Marvel's Batman without the grimace and bad attitude. Unfortunately, Charleton didn't have the oomph or readership to produce high-quality comics and DC already had a batman. For all the push Kord was given in the DC universe (and it was substantial), the writers and editors just didn't know what to do with him and he was soon stripped of his riches, respect by others, self-esteem and finally his life as a result. Shameful! Wasteful! Disrespectful of the creator.
Excellent work! My wife & I love it! And the Watchman twist totally caught us off guard. Another fine job. 👍 One afterthought, we miss the cowboy at the end of your videos. 😉
Lol! Thanks Ryan! I didn't think anyone even noticed the cowboy! It's cool that you watch comic book videos with your wife. You are lucky to have her. A friend of mine dumped his comic book reading girl friend in college. He was your typical blond haired blue eyed surfer type and women threw themselves at him. He decided he wanted to "play the field" and dumped her. He's in his late 40s now and says that was the biggest mistake of his life.
FizzFop1 Right On. My wife reads comic books, watches all the comic book related movies, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc... It’s wonderful! Thanks again for all of the videos. We look forward to them and get “Christmas-style” excited when we find them in our notifications box. 👍
Thanks for these videos on these vintage Glad that their ties to Alan Moore's Watchmen was noted. I think only Marvel/DC/Fawcett really got the superhero genre right. Charlton's lacked... pizzazz? Still, I did have several Charlton books like Judo Master. And I liked the Sarge Steel strip.
I think the thing was they had all this talent there before they totally crafted their skills. Fredrich went on to Marvel, and with Stan Lee as editor, his writing really took off. At Marvel, he won writing awards for Sgt. Fury and went on to create the updated Ghost Rider. Dick Giordano went to DC and took half of Charlton's talent pool with him. All of those guys took their skills to another level there.
I'm glad you did an in-depth story on Charlton Comics Group as not many has done it. These characters were quite underrated until some of them were written in Justice League of America in the '90s which became my favorite due to the comedic dialogues.
I remember seeing these comics in the 70's, "left behind" in used book stores and old comic racks... remember thinking the art on "Captain Atom" looking reminiscent of "Spiderman" LMAO I was like 8/9 yrs old, didn't know any better. Loved the look, and characters like Night Shade and Punch and Jewley.
I really enjoyed this. I learned a few things that I didn't know. The Action Hero line had bad timing. They started at a time when the news stands were flooded with superhero comics and never really had a chance. Charlton's poor distribution certainly didn't help. One minor quibble, while Nightshade was co-created by Ditko, the pages from her backup strip you displayed were drawn by Jim Aparo. He was another major talent to get his start at Charlton. A quick mention of his name would have been nice. You did a great job here.
Hi Calvin, I can't believe I didn't mention Aparo. He's one of my favorite artists. Ditko did Nightshade in the Captain Atom stories...Aparo drew the back up stories where she appeared as a solo character. I should have mentioned that.
Oooh Watchmen is an alright link but you are in remiss to omit how they joined the DCU during Crisis! I have the secret origins issue with silver age Blue Beatle but never read any Charleston stories. Love Ted Kord + Booster Gold in late 80s Justice Leage
Blue Beetle was the single biggest character that got incorporated into DC, it was so integral to the Justice League of the 90s that they used him as the single linking spark for their 2005/2006 epic crisis event…he made it into multiple DC shows in the 2000s and is beloved enough to have sparked his own meme
DC wrecked the Question by taking the character away from his original role as Steve Ditko's Objectivist mouthpiece. And Alan Moore's Rorschach, while a brilliant creation, also showed Moore's misunderstanding of Steve Ditko's thinking. Mr. A is more or less an uncensored version of the Question, but Ditko was smart enough to retain ownership of that later character.
Loved what Charlton did with the "Watchman" inspiration characters, and I do think DC look those characters to new heights. However, the Charlton Blue Beetle is a fun read. Very much like a Spider Man story.
Hey Steve, I stuck with the mid 1960s Action Hero line. I need to do an E-Man and Doomsday +1 videos. I've been collecting runs of both books...fun stuff. I think I'm down to one issue to complete the run. I have some Vengeance Squad books. If my memory is correct, I believe the back-up was a detective series called "Mauser?" It strikes me it blew away the lead stories.
My all-time favorite DC artist, Jim Aparo--renowned for his work with The Spectre, Aquaman and multiple Batman titles--got his start at Charlton too! (The video shows his work on Nightshade.) I never knew the fascinating story behind Charlton. These mini-documentaries are great, thank you so much! How has DC handled the Action-Heroes, you ask? Terribly. There seems to be a strange hate-on among DC staff for properties obtained from other companies, a desire to kill them off and replace them with "pure DC" alternatives whenever possible. Nightshade's a relatively lucky one; she was placed in minor roles in Suicide Squad and Shadowpact, but at least she didn't wind up in the refrigerator (yet). Ted Kord got his brains blown out and replaced (although they can't stop bringing him back), The Question died of cancer and was replaced, an entire string of Peacemakers have been blown away, and an aborted attempt was made to turn Captain Atom into a villain and replace him with an alternate version named Breach (ugh). This was after DC failed to imitate the success of "Watchmen" with a terrible miniseries featuring the actual Charlton characters ("The L.A.W."). I'm so glad DC didn't get their hands on E-Man, easily my favorite Charlton superhero (although other companies would do their damnedest to ruin the property). Mike Mauser's adopted daughter would turn out to be the villain behind the murder of Nova Kane and Teddy Q or some other sick grimdark edgelord nonsense.
Hi Screaming Scallop! I agree. DC really hasn't done a good job on these characters. Jim Aparo is one of my all time favorite artists. His work on Spectre (I think that was in Adventure Comics?) was awesome. E-Man is a quirky character. I can't imagine what some lame brain mainstream writer would do to him...whatever they would do, it would be awful.
@@elfascisto6549Cohesive? By that logic wouldn’t marvel be more cohesive if every superhero was a mutant? Or if every superhero got their powers from the same thing?
I grew up in CT not far from where Charlton Comics HQ was. Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, old Charlton Comics would show up in library books sales and used book stores, often selling for next to nothing. I ended up with a large collection of Charlton Comics buying them at these places. The writing was never that great, and the artwork was never impressive, but they were a fun curiosity to have as a kid.
Charlton (almost) always came off as what it turned out to be in reality, an incidental, fill-in-the-gap comic line that was not wholly committed to its largely derivative characters. There were exceptions that managed to shine from time to time, like Capt Atom, which was kind of like Gold Key comics (using a lot of established works from TV) but had some interesting characters of their own. For me, Gold Key character of Dr. Spektor and Magnus, Robot Fighter stood out.
Magnus Robot Fighter is a fantastic character and concept. I bought a graphic novel that was only produced a couple years ago (I think by Dynamite) with all new stories, and loved it. Those covers back in the day were gorgeous too.
Good hero's dc sucks when it come they should give them a chance They put out rebirth whey can day do that now they have sideways brimstone come on now i know why your movie stinks
great video, son of Vulcan wasn't the only hero to get the shaft due to there fantasy leanings, Dr. Death, Dr. Huant, Nature boy/man [and girl], Ibis the Invincible, Spookman and Hercules all got put on ice, Giordano also didn't seem to like science fantasy character much such as Time Skipper, Spurs Jackson, Tyro team, Prankster and mercury man they all when bye bye, humor character had it worst however, Shape, Sinestro the boyfriend [what if Archie became a supervillian] and Atom Mouse and Timmy the Timid Ghost, only couple of appearances apiece. whenever DC redoes the earth 4 or earth Charlton concept I hope that the non-watchmen affiliated characters will get a shot but they never do. also captain atom wasn't originally a Charlton character he's a swipe of a previous steve diko character called Nulka who was made for Dell comics and might have been made to ride the coattails of dell's business partner [gold key comic's Dr. Solar. I always wondered why the non-hard science Charlton characters were unpersoned and thanks for giving me the answer, have you ever thought of doing a video about Dr. Solar and by extension valiant comics [not valiant entertainment that's a mass hallucination propped up by journalists] like what you did with the Destructor and Atlus Comics [checked them out btw got sad since I could revive them because they weren't public domain and were doomed to limbo].
I looked it up. Nukla was created by Joe Gill and Sal Trapani in the mid-60s, first appearance dated Oct-Nov. 1965. It lasted for four issues, and Ditko only drew the last issue, dated September 1966. Captain Atom, on the other hand, was created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko, first appearance dated March 1960! So Captain Atom pre-dated Nukla. However, I have heard the rumor that Captain Atom was based on Atoman, a character created by Ken Crossen and Jerry Robinson. Atoman's first appearance was in 1946. And Atoman and Captain both had red and yellow costumes, although I think the later Firestorm character from DC has a costume that looks more like Atoman's than Captain Atom's does. Captain Atom's revised blue and red costume with silver skin looks a bit more like Nukla, but not too much, so maybe Ditko was inspired to revise the costume after working on Nukla.
oh bugger I made a boo boo, thanks for pinting it out I couldhave spread bad infomation then, the site I used must have had incurrect info or an out of date page. atoman I looked him up same guys who did the Green lama comics, he's not the first atomic superhero either thought that would be american crusader who strangly was the visual inspiration for red robin's coustume.
@@springheeledjackofthegurdi2117 I also found an earlier character with the name Captain Atom, published by a small outfit called Nation-Wide Publishing back in 1950-51. It lasted for only 7 issues, apparently. comicbookplus.com/?cid=2071
Hi SpringHeel! I've seen Nukla around...but I've never picked up a copy. Dr. Solar is on my radar, but I've never read that either. It's sad that the Atlas Seaboard characters are in limbo and likely to stay that way. Those characters have so much potential. The Goodman family released a few books a few years ago. I think it was done only to keep the copyrights alive. The books didn't look good. They did the Grim Ghost but made him look more ghost-like instead of a highwayman. It just wasn't sexy like the original. They did some other things like putting Wulf the Barbarian in modern times. None of it worked.
@@FizzFop1 I heard about that, some bloke online started using the atlas name and logo to acquire the trademark and it worked, the revival was meant to build support for their legal case, it's why the titles were so rushed and had so little to do with their original concepts, they were only meant to last a couple of issues at most. the guy who stole the trademark [according to Wikipedia, the atlas fan sites are skeptical of this] he gave the trademark to dynamite, I have no idea why he did this as he only got the right to the name, not the characters. I wonder however if it would be possible to bring the characters back under a new company, with Marvel on the edge of liquidation every quarter a marvel substitute could do well theses days.
Thunderbolts: will be returned to its creator after a miniseries and its appearance in crisis (as curious data editors of dc believed he was a speedter) is currently published by dynamite entertaiment. Captain atom: It was successfully integrated into the dc universe, becoming a fan favorite and one of the most important and iconic b / c list. Blue beetle: was successfully integrated, but during the events of infinite crisis was kill to make way for a new and definitive blue beetle until the resurrection of teed in new 52. The question: he was integrated with great success even had an important role in the justice league cartoon but after the miniseries 52 Charles Victor Szasz died and was replaced by Rene Montoya (one of the main characters of gotham sentral and original secondary batman animated series characters) until his return in the new 52 / rebirth. nightshade: after crisis she was made part of several teams like the suicide squad and shadow pact but never standing out. peacemaker: would have counted appearances and several other incarnations that would be not relevant, beyond a small role in the history of the third blue beetle, currently it is rumored that the character will appear in the sequel of suicide squad replacing deadshot. judo máster: will have several cameos and will be used as cannon fodder in infinite crisis, it would be replace by a woman (inspired by kingdom come) of no relebance in the pages of jsa, continuing with the cameos. vulcan: would be introduced in crisis but in a smaller role than his peers, would have a more important role in war of the gods then he would disappear for a decade (more or less) to return in a miniseries that altered his origen to then kill him and introduce an inconsequential new and modern young version that will join the titans for a single issue before falling into the cameos territory.
I absolutely loved the 80s Blue Beetle series and wish they would do more with him now that Ted Kord is alive again in DC continuity. Action heroes just isnt a team name and every series done with these really fun characters has kind of unappealing names. Sentinels of justice was kind of generic and Living Assault Weapons wasnt even a good name for a limited series. I loved the Grant Morrison Pax Americana issue of his Multiversity but it was just super dark like watchmen. I want an unapologetically adventurous DC series with these characters with the meta narratives about heroes and power left for another time.
Hi Andrew, I know. It's a cool concept...it could easily be updated for modern audiences. It would start somewhere in the middle east at the ruins of a Temple of Apollo that had been desecrated by ISIS. That story writes itself! Vulcan gives Mann updated looking armor and weapons. That would be a sweet re-telling.
I know that DC at one point had somewhat of a newer story at one point, in the early 2000s, but I don't remember much of it. I think it was by Keith Giffen, but it might have been similar only in name (Been a while since I saw it)!!! @@FizzFop1
Generally speaking, DC did a horrible job with these characters. *Alan Moore* did awesome things with his rendition of them. The use of *Blue Beetle* at least eventually became an excellent thing, despite DC's worst efforts. It is shameful that so many other characters were simply thrown away, just as it seems the entire purpose of *Charlton Comics* was to create forgettable copycat disposable throwaway characters to begin with. The complete disregard for fantasy/mystical characters was a definite missed oportunity to simply apply good storytelling techniques. There is more to our world than just science and space.
Wow! I have an old black and white book called the "Encyclopedia of Superheroes" that had only small descriptions of some of the heroes on this chanel. It's great to finally see colored featurettes!
In case you didn't already know, DC Comics published a six issue mini series in 1999-2000 called L. A. W. (Living Assault Weapons) that kind of served as a launching point for many of the newly acquired Charlton heroes including: Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Judomaster, Nightshade, The Peacemaker, The Question and Sarge Steel. Pretty cool series if you can find it.
I remember getting a fevv Charlton comics as a kid in the 70's, but they vvere vvar comics & I stopped getting them after discovering Sgt. rock & DC's line of vvar comics but gave them up for star vvars ,, &then finally "matured" into superhero comics.
@@FizzFop1 Thanks, I think the change happened vvhen my mom brought home Heavy Metal Magizine , kick started my interest to dravv & began to raise my reading scores in school
Actually.... Objectivism came from Ayn Rand, Ditko just popularized it with The Question. Also, didn't Charlton do Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolfman as superheroes...?
As far as Charlton is concerned I mainly collect the military titles such as Fightin' 5. Fighin' Army,' Fightin' Navy, etc., although I do have several issues of Space: 1999 and Space Adventures.
Nice history rundown. But PLEASE stop saying “GEE-or-DAYno?” Closest pronunciation should be “jorDANNo” or “Jor-Dah-no.” Millions of Italian Americans will thank you.
I remember getting Blue Beetle vibes from that character in The Watchmen; now, I know why. I've always thought that I was the only person who ever read Charlton comics.
Hi varanid9! When I was a real little kid (5-8 years old), I bought mostly horror, war, and western books. I thought Charlton was bigger than Marvel.lol
I've Read Charlton Comics, Dell comics, Tower Comics, Harvey Comics, Image comic, Archie Comics, etc. lots of other comics beside DC and Marvel comics.
@@hydrolito Harvey comics, weren't they the ones that published Sad Sack, Richie Rich, Spooky, the Tuff lil' Ghost, Casper, The Ghostly Trio, Wendy, the Good lil' Witch, etc.? Never bought any Archie comics, but, I had plenty of Dell, though, I often confuse their titles with Charlton's, now.
@@FizzFop1 Was it Charlton or Dell that published 'Ghost Stories'? I think it was Dell that published a UFO comic that printed supposedly true flying saucer encounters.
