Charlton Comics Part 1

Welcome back to the Ottawa Comic Book Guy blog. This episode will (and probably the next) will feature Charlton Comics, a company that existed in one form or another from 1944 (although they didn't start doing comic books until after World War II in 1946) until 1986. Although they never quite got as big as the big two, or Gold Key/Dell, they managed to stay alive by having some great characters, great talent working for them (very cheaply) and having some serious business savvy to stay afloat during the lean times.

The company known as Charlton began as a partnership of John Santangelo Sr. and Ed Levy in 1944. The founders had one of the most unusual origin story's for a partnership, they met while in prison together. Santangelo had been sent up river for a year and a day for violating the Copyright Act of 1928 and publishing sheet music without proper licensing and Levy, an attorney by trade until he was convicted of illegally appropriating trust funds. Once they were both released, they decided to get into publishing together legitimately. They founded the company T.W.O. Charles Company (as both men had sons named Charles, which they later changed to Charlton Publications. Beginning with magazines (including Hit Parader making this one of the most longest running music magazines, which ran until 1991, when the hair band metal fad was fading and it finally closed shop. Interestingly enough, the magazine was mentioned in a Guns'n'Roses song the year it ceased publication. See,you learn something every day,) and legitimate music publishing. They were constantly looking for ways to expand their business, and the acquisition of their own printing press, they made the decision to start publishing comic books.

Yellowjacket Comics #1 was published on their behalf by the Frank Comunale Publishing Company (who allegedly owed Santangelo a big favour for one reason or another.) Sales of this book (at the height of the Golden Age Superhero phase) convinced the partners to continue and in 1945, Yellowjacket Comics was carrying the Charlton Comics tagline in the indicia. Adding a second title called Zoo Funnies was next, but this was also published under a different company. In fact, like Martin Goodman over at Timely Comics, the partners made and published comics under various company names for taxation purposes and it wasn't until the mid 1950s that all of the comics carried the Charlton logo and company name in the fine print.

1946 was when the partners began their usual business method of purchasing other properties from comic book companies that were going out of business. They began by buying properties from freelance editor and comic packager Al Fago, which included the titles Cowboy Western Comics (issue 20 pictured above,) and Merry Comics. They began publishing other titles as Tim McCoy (a cowboy title) and Pictorial Love Stories. 

This is where their history share similar themes as Timely/Marvel. Goodman was known to tell Stan Lee to publish whatever was trendy (and selling) at the time, and the guys at Charlton did the same, especially after Fago was hired as Editor-in-Chief in 1951. Having the advantage of being able to do everything onsite from publishing, printing and distribution out of the warehouse location in Derby, Connecticut, and by paying the lowest rates for art and writing for a major comic company in the USA, the company managed to stay afloat (They were also printing cereal boxes at the same time. That income helped a little.) They created books for every genre of comic there was: Superhero, Crime, Horror, Romance, and despite their low pay rates, were beginning to attract a staple of solid artists to put primary writer Joe Gill's stories on the page. They hired Vince Alascia (Blue Beetle), Jon D-Agostino (Rocky Jones, Space Ranger; went on to work for Marvel and Archie Comics), Sam Glanzman (Fightin' Army), Charles Nicholas (Blue Beetle), and a huge hire, Dick Giordano.

The company's biggest acquisitions (1954-55, after the birth of the Comics Code Authority) were from the defunct Fawcett Publications Comics Line and Fox Publications. They had access to a large number of superhero titles (but couldn't publish Capt. Marvel as it had lost the big lawsuit to National Periodical). From Fawcett Comics , they continued to publish most of the horror and romance titles (the biggest being This Magazine is Haunted, Strange Suspense Stories and Sweethearts.) Sweethearts is known for being the first monthly romance title, having made it's debut at Fawcett in 1948 (it's isn't the first romance comic, however, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby have that distinction with Young Romance #1, October 1947); and it managed to stay afloat until 1973, one of the longest running Charlton books ever. However, when it came to the super-heroes, Charlton barely published enough to retain the copyrights of Yellowjacket and Blue Beetle before the arrival of the Silver Age (that will be covered in the next installment.)

Charlton's main focus in the late 1950s were the Western and Romance comics. Under Fago, the Western books were given priority, especially books like Gabby Hayes (issue 55 pictured above) that were purchased from Fawcett. Although they sold well for a few years as the Western craze continued in B movies and television (this was the Golden Age of Television where every third show was a western), after Pat Musilli replaced Fago as Editor-in-Chief, romance became the new focus, with a plethora of new titles such as I Love You, Brides in Love and Sweetheart Diary. As this was now 1956, a new trend started in comic book sales, and Charlton was not far behind.

Next time, we will cover the Silver Age for this company, which is probably the most interesting time for this publisher.

Ottawa News and Notes - The monthly Capital Trade show is at the Jim Durrell Arena again this weekend (on Sunday the 9th of September). I hope to see you there.

Lindsay Comic Con is also this weekend (September 7 and 8, Friday and Saturday), at the Lindsay Square Mall. This is about a four hour drive from Ottawa, so it is close enough that I will mention it here. (https://fancons.ca/events/info/10612/lindsay-comic-con-2018 )

Anyway, enjoy your books and I will be back soon.