69 Years Ago This Month: prehistory of Charlton

February 1946, and Charlton has a total of 4 titles on the shelves this month. Well, sort of Charlton, anyway. At this point Levy and Santangelo are putting out books under a variety of publishing names, seeing what sticks, what doesn't,dodging taxes and permits and such.

Two titles, TNT COMICS and JACK IN THE BOX COMICS are under The Charles Publishing company, while YELLOW JACKET COMICS is under The Frank Publishing Company, and ZOO FUNNIES is published under the name of Children's Comics Publishers.
This is a practice they will continue to do for a while longer with even more publisher names, as they eventually settle in to rounding them all up under a singular mast of Charlton.
We will continue to look at the various publishing names in future posts.

Charlton Arrow #4 is coming!

The third issue of THE CHARLTON ARROW has shipped (after an unavoidable delay) and the fourth issue is going through the final editing and tweaking process now.

Here's a sneak peek at the cover!

SPACE WAR #26 January 1964

SPACE WAR #26, on first glance appears to be just another issue with the regular stories of invading aliens, robots, and warring factions.
However, nestled in in the middle of these stories (the entire issue's stories are drwan by the capable hands of Bill Molno, and Rocco Mastroserio) is an a story that jumps out as quite different than the usual fare for this series.
The story, titled "Capture", is one of an interplanetary detective named Captain Bee and his mission to track down a beautiful blonde spy from the planet Cuda. A little macho, a little misogynistic,totally in line with the era's attitude's, and a hilarious and fun read. The entire concept is ripe for a recurring character (on one wonders if that was the intention of writer Joe Gill at the time). Indeed, the character , which I brough to the attention to our Arrowheads over on my Charlton Arrow facebook page some time ago, was a hit, and Mort Todd will be bringing Capt. Bee back for a sequel , "Re-Capture" in the fourth issue of THE CHARLTON ARROW.
Below is a quick sneeky peeky at the sequel, and of course, the entire original story.

POPEYE #108 January 1971

POPEYE #108 was written , in part, as George Wildman's 50th anniversary tribute. In the lead story he throws in a short history of the series and has a some fun with a great splash page depicting himself at the drawing board (wearing a Charlton Comics shirt!) surrounded by the cast of characters who are interacting with him. He also gives mention to writer Joe Gill.

The entire issue is Wildman art, with many of the cast getting their share of the action. There's even a filler story involving some whales , also drawn (and likely written by) Wildman that's quite fun, if a little out of place; especially in this particular issue.