The Ottawa Comic Book Guy

Good day everyone. When we left our last column, we had come up to end of the Atomic Age at Charlton, which was an era of acquisitions for the partners in creating their staple of characters. They had begun to expand into various genres that make up the variety of the hobby we love, and they had begun to collect the talent that they would be known for. Before we go any farther, we need to discuss Dick Giordano's contribution to the company. Originally hired as a freelance artist in 1952, by the mid-sixties he was promoted to executive editor, replacing the very successful (for a middle of the road comic publisher) Pat Masulli. Before his promotion he had done just about every job you can think off on the artistic creative side on such titles as Fightin' Army , Annie Oakley , Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. He was also the primary cover artist (a sample is above The Green Planet issue 1 from 1962) during his employment with the company. He was responsible for bringing Ste...

After a hectic few weeks away from the regular grind (as anyone with children can attest to), a few notes from the world of comics while I was away. The passing of Steve Ditko : Sometime on approximately 29 June 2018, Steve Ditko passed away. Co-creator with Stan Lee of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange at Marvel, creator of Captain Atom and the Question at Charlton, and the Creeper and Hawk and Dove at DC Comics, Ditko was known for the heart and soul he put into every character he worked on (usually by injecting qualities of himself into the astory.) Although he only did 38 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man , these issues defined the character. He created Doctor Octopus, the Lizard and the Green Goblin. He was also involved in the relaunch of the Hulk in Tales to Astonish after his own magazine died after 6 issues. After a fallout with Lee that no one (including Lee) understood what happened, Steve left Marvel and moved on to Charlton Comics where he revamped the Blue Beetle, a...