Showcase Presents The Charlton Action Heroes!

[Cei-U!]

No, it hasn't been announced but wouldn't it be cool? One volume could cover the complete runs of Captain Atom, both Blue Beetles, The Question and Nightshade. If they leave out the early non-Ditko BB, they could squeeze in Peacemaker too.

Whaddayathink?

Cei-U!
I summon the groundswell of reader demand!

[scratchie]

Whaddayathink?

I'd buy it!

[Aaron King]

Seconded. I'd pay the Showcase price for just the Question/Blue Beetle issues collected. Add in the others and it's a solid buy.

[Rob on the Job]

Oh man ...

When I was a kid in the 60s, Charlton were these creepy comics with almost a pulpish texture to their pages that gave it a yellow background ... very different from Marvel and DC.

But their characters ... they deserve a decent resurrection. They almost got it two decades ago with Alan Moore, but he decided to invent new characters for "Watchmen" instead.

[Slam_Bradley]

Of course I'd buy it.

[Perry Holley]

No, it hasn't been announced but wouldn't it be cool?

Damn you for getting my hopes up!

Damn you! ;)




Edited because I can't spell, it seems...

[Lone Ranger]

I second the Damn Yous, Kurt.

That was just cruel.

If we did it in two volumes, we could get Sarge Steel and Judomaster in there, too.

What about Wander - I don't know where it fits, but it needs to be reprinted.

Who owns Wander?

[Reptisaurus!]

One volume could cover the complete runs of Captain Atom, both Blue Beetles, The Question and Nightshade.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't Captain Action go for a LONG TIME? I thought the Ditko material started in the # 70s.


But yeah. Totally. I'd be on board. The Question would look great in B & W.

[Cei-U!]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't Captain Action go for a LONG TIME? I thought the Ditko material started in the # 70s.

Captain Atom (not Action) appeared in Space Adventures #33-40 and 42 (in 10-12 page stories, not book-length) in the very early '60s. He was later revived in his own title which ran from #78-89. Both runs were drawn by Ditko, who was doing Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, etc, over at Marvel in the years between.

Cei-U!
I summon Gunner Goslin!

[Kan-Man]

Captain Atom (not Action) appeared in Space Adventures #33-40 and 42 (in 10-12 page stories, not book-length) in the very early '60s. He was later revived in his own title which ran from #78-89. Both runs were drawn by Ditko, who was doing Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, etc, over at Marvel in the years between.

Cei-U!
I summon Gunner Goslin!

Is that what was included in the DC Archives edition? And could the sales of that (or lack thereof) have an impact on their decision to reprint the rest of the Charlton material?

[MichikoS]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't Captain Action go for a LONG TIME? I thought the Ditko material started in the # 70s.

But yeah. Totally. I'd be on board. The Question would look great in B & W.

Rep, I'm assuming you meant to type "Captain Atom" instead of "Action."

Captain Atom has a somewhat convoluted publishing history, like many Charlton characters.

The first Captain Atom story was Space Adventures #33, March 1960. Space Adventures #33-42 (but not #41) all featured CA by Ditko.

Then Strange Suspense Stories #75 from June 1965 reprinted the first CA story from Space Adventures #33. #76-77 were likewise reprints from the original run in Space Adventures.

#78 inaugurated a title change, with new material, and the comic became simply Captain Atom through #89 (December 1967). The story that was intended for publication as Captain Atom #90 was only published many years later in black and white, in 1975, in Charlton Bullseye #1 and 2 with finishes by John Byrne.

"Modern Comics" reprinted issues 83-85 in 1977.

Charlton again reprinted the original Space Adventures CA stories in #9-13 of the stories in the third and final incarnation of the Space Adventures title, May 1978 to March 1979.

So there really weren't very many original Charlton Captain Atom stories at all -- less than two dozen, in fact. They were just reprinted rather frequently.

The only good news here is that every Charlton appearance of Captain Atom featured splendid work by Steve Ditko...except for the entirely forgettable one-shot revival in Charlton Bullseye #7, May 1982, drawn by Dan Reed.

Michi

[shyguy]

I'd buy this, but I'd be really surprised to ever see it published given that DC has done Archives for a lot of this material and I doubt there's a huge market for it to begin with.

I'll pick up both Archives once the second volume is released, tho.

[scratchie]

I'm a little surprised that DC hasn't done something like this already, given how much use they've gotten out of Blue Beetle and the Question recently. They should take a leaf from Marvel's book (since Marvel seems to reprint any character that has any connection to any currently ongoing story).

[DDM]

I'd buy them for Captain Atom, Nightshade, & Blue Beetle.

[MWGallaher]

What about Wander - I don't know where it fits, but it needs to be reprinted.

Who owns Wander?

I'm not certain, but my best guess is that if anyone has ownership, it's Roger Broughton.
DC bought Captain Atom, Nightshade, Blue Beetle, Question, Judomaster & Tiger, Sarge Steel, Peacemaker, and Thunderbolt (who they relinquished to creator Pete Morisi).
Staton & Cuti re-obtained E-Man.
John Lustig bought "First Kiss" (and possibly some other romance material?). Steve Ditko either retained or regained the copyrights to a lot of his Charlton material or is reprinting it anyway; I'm pretty sure I saw Killjoy in one of his "Ditko Packages", and I recently read a collection of his stories from "The Thing!", but I recall the copyright info on that as being somewhat vague.
I have a collection of Konga stories that was collected in the 80's under the title "The Lonely One"; my impression is that these were simply orphaned, or else it was published below the radar of whoever owns Konga.
The licensed comics went back to King Features, Hanna Barbera, or whoever.
My recollection is that Broughton bought "everything else". He's reprinted a smattering, including parts of Aparo & Skeates' "Thane of Bagarth" backup series from Hercules, and some stories from Space Adventures.
It goes without saying that I wish whoever owned them would collect Wander, Thane, and Miss Bikini Luv.