Dick Giordano became editor at Charlton Comics in July 1965 with the idea of creating a line of what he called “Action Heroes.”
“I just made that phrase up because I thought we should be distinguishable from DC or Marvel,” Giordano said in TwoMorrows Charlton Companion. “We should publish adventures of heroes that didn’t have super powers.”
Giordano inherited a couple of super-powered heroes, Captain Atom and Son of Vulcan. But while Giordano’s newer ones were flamboyant, their feet stayed on the ground.
Take Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt for example. An orphan raised and trained in Tibetan monastery, Peter learned to focus his will to accomplish extraordinary feats. But he didn’t particularly want to.
“Judomaster was U.S. Army Sgt. Rip Jagger, fighting that war on the Pacific front,” Don Markstein wrote. “Early in the war, he saved a young native girl from a Japanese sniper. She turned out to be the granddaughter of the local chief, who gratefully taught the sergeant all the handiest martial arts. Fastest-learned ones, too, apparently, because Rip very quickly became so adept, it made him uniquely qualified to wear a fancy costume as leader of a guerrilla movement, which freed the island from the (Japanese). Afterward, he continued using the outfit as a superhero suit, maintaining a secret identity just like all the rest.”
In an ironic contrast to Captain America and the other flag-draped heroes, Judomaster’s costume resembled the bright colors of the Japanese flag.
Meanwhile, Charlton presses continued to churn out a wide variety of other genres — war, humor, romance, westerns, monsters and ghosts, and even hot rod comics (a surprisingly durable line for them).
‘Without the Charlton Comics set of heroes, we would not have had Alan Moore's Watchmen,” Paul Power noted. “I enjoyed Dick Giordano's line of action heroes. No wonder DC wanted him.”
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, I loved the Charlton line of heroes starting with the very first appearance of Steve Ditko’s Captain Atom. For a ‘cold war atomic age’ kid like me he was idea for the times in ways that even the much loved (by me and many others) Superman and Batman weren’t.
Then both Peter Cannon and Rip Jagger were particularly attractive to Me because they were both themed in tropes that I was obsessed with, Psionic powers and the Asian martial arts. It was impossible for me to Not like them both. Even if the writing or artwork had sucked (which they didn’t) I would have still been fond of the characters themselves and the concepts that they were built around. Btw, I had been reading Gunmaster and it was surprisingly well crafted.
Now, I don’t usually adhere to the idea of a ‘guilty pleasure’ because I seldom feel guilty about what I like/love regardless of what others think, but if I did have a guilty pleasure it would have been Charlton’s mid-60’s revival of the Golden Age character the ‘Blue Beetle’. On the surface that book seemingly had everything going against it thereby giving readers every reason to reject it, the art wasn’t spectacular, the writing could be bizarre, but worst of all its production and publishing schedules sucked big time. The issues came out haphazardly and that was very disappointing and frustrating for someone who actually enjoyed and watched for each and every issue because….
there was ‘Something’ about that title and run that completely captured my imagination, attention, and fandom. I have thought about it for Years and my analysis has changed over time, but the basic fact remains that I ‘loved’ that silly little book and I sometimes think that I was the Only person who did.
I also want to say that the transition from That Beetle to Ditko’s was brilliant, tragic, and personally frustrating to me. I liked the story and was a big fan of Steve’s new BB, but I was Not Ever satisfied with the final fate of the heroic Dan Garrett, the (then) loss of the scarab and the lack of resolution to what happened on Vatlo Island and Ted’s evil uncle Jarvis’s schemes.
I did finally years later see a couple of follow up yarns to that story but both were highly disappointing and dissatisfying and left me cold.
Finally, I met Dick Giordano once at a Chicago Comi Con and busy as he was (Dick was rushing off to somewhere) he Did take a few minutes to stop and chat briefly with me. I was grateful for that.
Bob Doncaster:
ReplyDeleteLoved the Charlton Action heroes. Didn’t love what DC did with many of them.
Salvatore Marlow:
ReplyDeleteCharlton, the literal “C” string heroes.
Dave Ratchford:
ReplyDeleteI actually really liked the concepts behind Thunderbolt and Judomaster. The stories, characterisation and artwork just didnt grab me the same as the Big Two.