Sunday, February 1, 2015

Charlton Comics Presents!


Above is a great look at one of the most fun collectibles from the now long defunct Charlton Comics, a promotional poster from 1973 for Nick Cuti's and Joe Staton's delightful superhero E-Man. This two-toned beauty actually graces my wall above the computer at which I now type. I got my own copy of this poster several years ago (not the one pictured above by the way) and it's a most cherished item.


In the early stages of development E-Man was visually based on Robert Redford and that can be seen readily in the poster image and the debut cover if less so as the series progressed.

The poster image became the corner icon for the series, appearing on each of the first nine issues of the original ten issue run.


The poster art was also used in this blurb in The Comics Journal which announced the new series from Charlton. It's a beauty!


But recently I discovered something I did not know (or had completely forgotten...I'm getting older all the time don't you know). There was apparently a similar poster for Yang, the comic which debuted one month after E-Man. Written by Joe Gill and drawn by Warren Sattler, the series was a western in the classic David Carradine Kung-Fu tradition.


The poster image was also the cover of the very first issue of the thirteen issue run. You will note that in the neat little scroll blurb about the concept of Yin and Yang the word "tainted" has been changed to "tinted", a somewhat less charged bit of language.

Beautiful image and I'd love to find one sometime and add it to the E-Man which adorns my wall right now.


The extremely talented Joe Staton recently worked up a new poster for the Neo-Charlton project headed by Mort Todd and others featuring not only E-Man and Yang, but also Nova Kane and Liberty Belle.

For the record Liberty Belle had a brisk but entertaining one-shot adventure written by Joe Gill and drawn by Steve Ditko as a back up in E-Man #5. Go tothis groovy link to read all of that delightful story with dames in very very short skirts indeed.

This little poster I got in the mail just yesterday by the way. Small but a beauty nonetheless.

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2 comments:

  1. interesting to see that the poster has Joe Gill's name on it, as opposed to the published cover.

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    1. Good catch Fester. His name gets lopped off to make room for copy. Like the E-Man poster, the talent was given some promotion.

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