Charlton Comics

Charlton Publications was a company based out of Derby, Ct. They started in 1946. They were know for publishing books and song lyric magazines and they had their own distribution company. It is rumored that they started publishing comic books just to keep their printing press running during the slow times. The first time their name appeared on a book was Marvels of Science #1. The company used low-budget practices. They used unpublished material that they acquired from defunct companies. They were known for paying comics creators the lowest rates in the industry. But if you were a new talent starting out it was a great place to start. It also became a place for older pros to go to when they became upset with the way the other companies treated them. Charleton aquired the rights to many other companies characters. Mostly Fawcett Publications. The only one that they didn't get from Fawcett was Captain Marvel as that character was involved in a lawsuit with DC comics. If they had gotten him perhaps Charlton might be around today. The licensed characters like Beetle Bailey from King Features, The Flintstones from Hanna-Barbera and TV shows like the Six Million Dollar Man and Space 1999 sold well as did the romance and horror books. The big superhero characters at the company were Captain Atom and Blue Beetle. Steve Ditko worked on Capt. Atom in the early 60's. Jerry Siegel, who created Superman, also worked their on Mr. Muscles and Nature Boy. Ditko left them to work at Marvel on Spider-Man and Dr. Strange but came back after a spat with Marvel and Stan Lee. While their he revived the Captain and made Ted Kord the new Blue Beetle. Dick Giordano was the editor in chief and saw Ditko's return as a chance to pump up their action hero line. They put out new heros like Peacemaker, Judomaster, Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt! and The Question. Upcoming talent like John Byrne, Jim Apro and Dennis O'Neal started at Charlton. Despite the new talent the superhero line was canceled by 1967 and the Ditko and the others went to work for DC Comics. They had to rely once again on licensed features to keep the presses running. By the 1980's they were in serious decline. Sales were low. Their press was getting old and they didn't have the money to replace it. Their newest star was from one of their companies graduates Jim Apro's co-creation E-Man. His super powers were not enough to save the dying company and by 1986 Charlton stopped publishing. Most of their characters were bought by DC. However, E-Man was not part of the DC acquisition. The rest were to be used in what was going to be the Watchmen limited series. DC changed their mind and decided to make Capt. Atom, Blue Beetle and the others part of the DC universe. Alan Moore had to create new heros to do his Watchmen series. By 1999 the building that Charlton operated from was demolished. When the building went down a part of comic book history went with it.