Usuario:Fettuchini/Taller2

Charlton Comics fue una editorial americana de cómic que existió de 1946 a 1986, aunque ya había editado cómics bajo varios nombres distintos desde 1944. Tenía su sede en Derby, Connecticut.

Charlton Comics era una división de Charlton Publications, que publicaba revistas, libros-juego y, durante poco tiempo, libros (bajo los sellos "Monarch" y "Gold Star"), y tenía su propia distribuidora (Capital Distribution). Charlton Comics publicaba una gran variedad de generos incluyendo ciencia ficción, crimen, Westerns, horror, guerra y romance, así como de animales graciosos y series de superhéroes. La compañía era conocida por sus prácticas de bajo presupuesto, a menudo usando material no publicado adquirido de compañías desaparecidas y pagando a los autores de cómics los sueldos más bajos de la industria. Charlton Comics fue también la última de las editoriales de cómics de Estados Unidos que aumentó el precio de sus cómics de 10 centavos de dolar a 12 centavos a mediados de 1962.

Fue también la única entre las compañías de cómic book que controló todas las areas de la compañía, desde la tarea editorial a la imprenta o la distribución, en vez de asociarse con entidades externas como la mayoría de las otras editoriales hacían, haciéndolo todo desde su sede en Derby.

La compañía fue fundada por John Santangelo Sr. and Ed Levy en 1940 como T.W.O. Charles Company, nombrada así porque los hijos de los dos editores se llamaban Charles, y convertida en Charlton Publications en 1945. La primera aparición del nombre de Charlton Comics fue Marvels of Science Nº1 (marzo de 1946).

Historia

Primeros años

Los primeros cómics de Charlton Publications fueron publicados bajo otros sellos. Su primer título fue Yellowjacket, una antología de historias de superheroes y horror publicado a principios de 1944 bajo el sello Frank Comunale Publications, con Ed Levy acreditado como editor. Los siguientes fueron Zoo Funnies, bajo el sello Children Comics Publishing, Jack in the Box, bajo Frank Comunale y TNT Comics, bajo Charles Publishing Co.. Otro sello , Frank Publications, también fue usado. A continuación de adoptar el nombre de Charlton Comics en 1946, la compañía pasó los siguientes cinco años adquiriendo material del editor freelance Al Fago (hermano del antiguo editor de Timely Comics Vincent Fago). Charlton además publicó Merry Comics, Cowboy Western, Tim McCoy y Pictorial Love Stories. En 1951, Fago se convirtió en editor contratado y Charlton contrató una plantilla de artistas, incluyendo a su futuro editor, Dick Giordano. Otros, bien de plantilla o como freelance, serían Vince Alascia, Jon D'Agostino, Sam Glanzman, Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio, Bill Molno, Charles Nicholas, and Sal Trapani. El guionista principal fue el remarcablemente prolífico Joe Gill.

La compañía comenzó una gran expansión de línea de cómics, incluyendo notorios cómics de horror (cuyo principal título fue The Thing de Steve Ditko - y, desde 1954-55, adquirieron los derechos sobre los cómics de las difuntas Superior Comics, Mainline Publications, St. John Publications y, como la más significativa, Fawcett Publications, lo que significó el cierre del departamento Fawcett Comics. El personaje Capitán Marvel, estaba en ese momento sujeto a una batalla legal entre Fawcett and DC Comics y no formó parte del trato.

Charlton continuó publicando dos de los cómics de terror de Fawcett, This Magazine Is Haunted y Strange Suspense Stories, manteniendo la numeración original, iniciando su costumbre de editar material no publicado del inventario de Fawcett Comics.​ Las taréas artísticas fueron entregasas a ditko, cuyo caprichoso e individualista toque llego a dominar toda la línea sobrenatural de Charlton. Afectados por la caida de ventas que azotó a la industria a finales de la década de 1950, This Magazine Is Haunted aguantó otros dos años, publicándose bimensualmente hatta mayo de 1958. Strange Suspense Stories aguantó más, durando hasta bien entrada la década de 1960 hasta ser cancelado en 1965. Fue revivida brevemente en un segundo volumen que duró dos meses entre octubre de 1967 y septiembre de 1969.

Fago dejó la compañía a mediados de la década de 1950 y fue sucedido en el cargo por su asistente, Pat Masulli, que mantuvo su puesto durante 10 años. Los superheroes eran una parte pequeña de la compañía. Al principio, los personajes principales de Charlton fueron Yellowjacket, que no debe confundirse con el posterior personaje de Marvel, y Diana la Cazadora. A mediados de la década de 1950, Charlton publicó brevemente un título de Blue Beetle con historias nuevas y reimpresas y en 1956, muchos títulos de corta vida escritos por Jerry Siegel, co-creador de superman, con títulos como Mr. Muscles y Nature Boy, así como Zaza la Mística, creada por Joe Gill.

La Edad de Plata y la década de 1970

El momento de notable de la compañía fue la Edad de Plata, que comenzó con el resurgimiento de los héroes de DC Comics' en 1956. En 1960, Charlton introduce al Capitán Átomo, en el título de ciencia ficción Space Adventures, creado por Gill y por Steve Ditko, que pronto se volvería muy conocido por ser co-creador para Marvel Comics de Spiderman . Captain Atom would eventually become a stalwart of the DC stable, as would Blue Beetle, the old Fox Comics superhero revived by Gill and artists Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico as a campy, comedic character in Blue Beetle #1 (June 1964).

Charlton also had middling success with Son of Vulcan, its answer to Marvel's Thor, in Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46 (May 1965). Much less successful was another Space Adventures superhero, Mercury Man, star of two stories in 1962.

In 1966, prodigal son Ditko returned after his celebrated stint at Marvel, having grown disenchanted with that company and his Spider-Man collaborator, writer-editor Stan Lee. Having the hugely popular Ditko back helped prompt Charlton editor Giordano to introduce the company's "Action Hero" superhero line the following year, with characters including Captain Atom; Ditko's The Question; Gill and artist Pat Boyette's The Peacemaker; Gill and company art director Frank McLaughlin's Judomaster; Pete Morisi's Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt; and Ditko's new "Ted Kord" version of the Blue Beetle. The company also developed a reputation as a place for new talent to break into comics; examples include Jim Aparo, John Byrne, Dennis O'Neil and Sam Grainger. As well, Charlton in the early 1970s reprinted some of the first manga in America, in Ghost Manor and other titles, and artist Wayne Howard became the industry's first known cover-credited series creator, with the horror-anthology Midnight Tales blurbing "Created by Wayne Howard" on each issue — "a declaration perhaps unique in the industry at the time".​

Archivo:Sixmilliondollarman mag n1.jpg

The Six Million Dollar Man magazine #1 (July 1976). Cover art by Neal Adams

Yet by the end of 1967, Charlton's superhero titles had been cancelled, and licensed properties had become the company's staples, particularly cartoon characters from Hanna-Barbera (The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, others) and King Features Syndicate (Flash Gordon), the company luring several such titles away from Gold Key Comics, Charlton also published Bullwinkle and Rocky, based on Jay Ward Productions' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. During the mid-1970s the company produced comic books based upon the television series Emergency!, The Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff The Bionic Woman, and Space: 1999, as well as a comic based on teen heartthrob David Cassidy, then starring in the musical sitcom The Partridge Family.

Charlton in the 1970s also published three black-and-white comics magazines aimed at older readers. One of these was The Six Million Dollar Man #1-7 (July 1976 - Aug. 1977). Retailing for $1, it featured art by Neal Adams' studio, Continuity Associates, as well as some stories by veteran illustrators Jack Sparling and Win Mortimer. Also published in magazine form were publications based upon Space: 1999 and Emergency!.

In the mid-'70s, there was a brief resurgence of talent, under the editorship of George Wildman, energized by writer and later editor Nicola Cuti, artist Joe Staton, and the "CPL Gang" — a group of writer/artist comics fans including Byrne, Roger Stern, Bob Layton, and Roger Slifer, who had all worked on the fanzine CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature). Charlton began publishing such new titles as E-Man, Midnight Tales, and Doomsday + 1. The CPL Gang also produced an in-house fanzine called Charlton Bullseye which published, among other things, such commissioned but previously unpublished material as the company's last Captain Atom story. Also during this period, most of Charlton's titles began sporting painted covers. By 1978, however, most of these titles had been canceled, and the new talent had moved on to Marvel and DC.

Losa últimos años y la adquisición de DC

By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic-book industry was in a sales slump, struggling to reinvent a profitable distribution and retail system. Charlton's licensed titles lapsed, its aging press was deteriorating towards uselessness, and the company did not have the resources to replace it. There was yet another attempt at new material, with a comic-book version of Charlton Bullseye serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic book fans, and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles. A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under the Modern Comics imprint and sold in bagged sets in department stores (in much the same way Gold Key Comics were published under the Whitman Comics branding around the same time). In 1985, a final attempt at a revival was spearheaded by new editor T.C. Ford with a direct-market Charlton Bullseye Special. But in 1986, Charlton Comics went out of business; Charlton Publications followed suit in 1991, and its building and press were demolished in 1999.

Editor Robin Snyder oversaw the sale of some properties to their creators, though the bulk of the rights was purchased by Canadian entrepreneur Roger Broughton. He would produce several reprint titles under the company name of Avalon Communications and its´ imprint America's Comics Group (or ACG for short) (having also purchased the rights to the old American Comics Group properties), and announced plans to restart Charlton Comics. This had yet to occur as of the mid-2000s, beyond publishing a large number of reprints.

Charlton's most enduring legacy is its superhero characters, most of which were acquired in 1983 by DC Comics, where Giordano was then managing editor. These "Action Hero" characters were originally going to be used in the landmark Watchmen limited series written by Alan Moore, but DC then chose to save the characters for other uses; Moore instead developed new characters loosely based on them. The Charlton characters were incorporated into DC's main superhero line, where some of them enjoyed renewed popularity, most notably Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and The Question, who had languished in obscurity for years before being reintroduced in DC's epic Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series; Blue Beetle subsequently joined a version of the Justice League of America and played a major role in the events leading up to Infinite Crisis in 2005-2006; The Question played a key role in the subsequent year-long series 52. The team of Charlton characters first planned for Moore's Watchmen became reality in 1999 with the DC limited series L.A.W.

Charlton's longest-running character, the funny animal superhero Atomic Mouse, was licensed by the furry comic company Shanda Fantasy Arts in 2001.

Géneros

Cómics de guerra

During the Silver Age, Charlton, like Marvel and DC, published war comics even as the Vietnam War served as the focal point for the burgeoning anti-war movement. Many titles lasted into the 1980s. Notable titles include Attack!, as well as such similarly titled comics Army Attack, Attack at Sea, and Submarine Attack; Battlefield Action; Fightin' Air Force (and otherwise identical titles for the Army, Marines, and Navy), D-Day, War Heroes (with identicals titles for each of the branches of the service) and World at War.

Though primarily anthologies of stories about 20th-century warfare, they included a small number of recurring characters and features, including "Shotgun Harker and the Chicken", "The Devil's Brigade", "The Iron Corporal" and "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz".

Ver también

• List of Charlton Comics publications

Blibliografía

• Comic Book Artist #9 (Aug. 2000): "The Charlton Comics Story: 1945-1968". Online portions:

• "The Charlton Empire: A Brief History of the Derby, Connecticut Publisher", by Jon B. Cooke & Christopher Irving
• Interviews with Jim Aparo, John Byrne, Joe Staton, and Roger Stern

• Comic Book Artist #12 (March 2001): "The Charlton Comics Story: 1972-1983"
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Charlton
• International Catalogue of Superheroes: Charlton
• The Big DataBase of Comic Books: Charlton
• The Connecticut Historical Society: "Charlton Comics: A Brief History"

Enlaces externos

• The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History: Charlton's Space: 1999 magazines and comic books
• WFMU's Beware of the Blog (April 8, 2007): "In Celebration of Crud: The Charlton Comics Story", by Kliph Nesteroff
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia on Charlton Comics
• Charlton-l yahoo group: [1]
• Charlton Spotlight, the magazine devoted to the history of Charlton

Charlton Spotlight

charlton Comics

[[Categoría:Charlton Comics| ] [[Categoría:Derby, Connecticut] [[Categoría:Comic book publishing companies of the United States]