Why were Charlton covers so washed out?

[YoungOnce]

Yeah... or one of those cheese head hats.

[palitoy]

she was trying on a pirate hat?

[RonnyG]

I was reading a Charlton the other day and thought of this thread. Here's a photo I took of one of the pages. Looks like a piece of paper got caught in the printing press, and it got printed that way. I guess nobody noticed, or nobody cared. Probably both! lol IMG_20190423_065517.jpg

[EmergencyIan]

Unfortunately, Charlton seems like it was a slap-dash company all the way around. Seeing the magazines and some of the comic book content, there was a lot of potential and some of it turned out great.

- Ian

[palitoy]

I collected Charlton's run of Space:1999, the regular comics were done by Joe Staton, John Byrne and Pat Boyette and they're actually pretty darn good, a mix of original stories bookended by adaptations of each season's opener. The comic was bi-monthly so only lasted seven issues.



Just like Emergency, Charlton did a black and white magazine helmed mainly by Gray Morrow. They all feature amazing covers (by Morrow) but it's almost like they didn't give the magazine staff the same reference material. Lots of weird characters, abandoned concepts (they keep calling the computer "Com-Com" which didn't make it to the series) and other oddities. This was made entirely better by the fact that Gray Morrow slipped in half naked people whenever he could, one story takes place at the Moonbase Alpha Pool and wow, moonbase alpha was very European....

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Yeah, I believe Charlton farmed out a lot of (if not all) of the content of their magazines to Adams' Continuity Studios. So they look great.

Chris

[EmergencyIan]

Charlton produced the “Emergency!” comics and magazines. The comics aren’t great and there were only four produced. However, the four magazines are much nicer and have great cover art. Neal Adams did one of the magazine covers and interiors. I believe he also did one of the other of the four magazines. This would have been 1976.

- Ian

[cjefferys]

While I liked the art and some of the stories in those books they felt like knock off Koolaid as a kid, you could tell it wasn't name brand.

Charlton, the "Freshie" of comic books.


I remember those bags of comics too, they were my main exposure as well.

[Brazoo]

Thanks guys for the wealth of information. All of that kind of makes you wonder why Ditko wanted to work for them. I'd read that their artist rates were much lower too. The trade off was that the creators could pretty much do whatever they wanted to do, but if the trade-off is that the finished product looked inferior... I don't know.

Yeah, I'm not super knowledgable about Ditko's career, but from what I understood Ditko wanted more creative freedom but I assume it was also just needed work because I think he created work for Charlton and Marvel at the same time.

I found this which goes into more detail:

https://www.cbr.com/steve-ditko-charlton-comics-question-blue-beetle-captain-atom/

[YoungOnce]

My understanding is the lettering (credited to "A. Machine") was done by putting the actual comic art pages into a large type writer. So they rolled up original Steve Ditko art like that!
Chris

Yikes.

[palitoy]

I got some of those "Modern Comics" AFTER DC bought the Charlton characters, right as they were starting to push them. My understanding is the lettering (credited to "A. Machine") was done by putting the actual comic art pages into a large type writer. So they rolled up original Steve Ditko art like that!

I always thought it looked like that, it made you appreciate other comics.

[Earth 2 Chris]

My main exposure to Charlton as a kid were those bags of "Modern Comics" reprints that hung in every Bi-Way and Bargain Harolds for decades. The one thing that always seemed strange to me as a kid was the lettering, it was so...bland.

While I liked the art and some of the stories in those books they felt like knock off Koolaid as a kid, you could tell it wasn't name brand.

I got some of those "Modern Comics" AFTER DC bought the Charlton characters, right as they were starting to push them. My understanding is the lettering (credited to "A. Machine") was done by putting the actual comic art pages into a large type writer. So they rolled up original Steve Ditko art like that!

I did have a few other Charlton books from the 80s, and they definitely seemed...cheap. Their history is fascinating.

Chris

[YoungOnce]

Thanks guys for the wealth of information. All of that kind of makes you wonder why Ditko wanted to work for them. I'd read that their artist rates were much lower too. The trade off was that the creators could pretty much do whatever they wanted to do, but if the trade-off is that the finished product looked inferior... I don't know.

[palitoy]

My main exposure to Charlton as a kid were those bags of "Modern Comics" reprints that hung in every Bi-Way and Bargain Harolds for decades. The one thing that always seemed strange to me as a kid was the lettering, it was so...bland.

While I liked the art and some of the stories in those books they felt like knock off Koolaid as a kid, you could tell it wasn't name brand.

[hedrap]

Thanks Ronny! That's awesome!

I've always wondered what the point of this company was. The decisions were so haphazard, it didn't feel like they were in it for the character licensing.