The Coming of Charlton Comics

Mark Evanier, in his book, Kirby: King of Comics [2008], quipped about Win a Prize Comics, aptly dubbing the oddball title, “a game show disguised as a comic book,”13 though the creators, Jack Kirby and partner Joe Simon, termed it with a superlative on the cover of #1 [Feb. 1955], calling the 10¢ mag, the “World’s First Giveaway Comic.” Whatever it was, the two-issue run was one busy book… and in more ways than one! For the first issue, the colophon stated it was officially published by “Simon and Kirby Publications,” and the team also retained copyright, but #2 named the Charlton Comics Group as publisher, as well as the copyright owner. Just as the publisher similarly did on some Al Fago books, the fine print said the work was “Designed by Simon & Kirby Studios.” Their ill-timed Mainline venture was on the skids—almost dead, but not exactly—so it’s interesting that S&K approached Charlton for this project. In his Kirby Museum blog, Harry Mendryk speculates as to why: “One explanation is that part of the idea behind Win a Prize was the giving away of prizes. The cover announces ‘500 free prizes, anyone can win,’ and Joe Simon insists that they really did give away prizes. For a small company like Mainline, this could be a problem. Not only the cost of the merchandise, but the logistics of sending the prizes to the winners. But Charlton had a vertical company structure, they did everything from producing the comics, printing them and doing the distribution. They probably were the ideal outfit to handle this sort of thing. Well, except for the problem of being cheap.”14 For its short run, S&K selected themselves to be the judges of all reader submissions, doubtless no small task. And how to describe Win a Prize exactly? R. J. Vitone gave it a try: “It was an early type of interactive experience. Readers were bribed with the promise of prizes to send in plots, answers, ideas, and short stories. It lasted (?) two issues. As usual, Jack did some nice pieces for the book. And, like it or not, the host of the comic, Uncle Giveaway, has become a part of the Kirby lexicon… The stories are light, simple, and colorful.”15

Previous page: Simon and Kirby comic books published by Charlton, which had initially been prepared for Mainline Publications, Inc., before that imprint went belly-up, in 1955; and photo cover of Gabby Hayes [#55, Aug. 1955], a title initially published in association with Toby Press. This page: Win A Prize covers—prototype, #1 [Feb. 1955], and unpublished #3 cover art—all by Simon and Kirby, and Kirby-drawn “Comet Feldmeyer” splash from From Here to Insanity #11 [Aug. 1955]. crew, mostly Italian immigrants who spoke little or no English, gulped down a hasty sandwich, and then retired to an adjacent construction site where they picked up their masonry tools and continued putting up new buildings, a project that seemed endless. After the lunch hour, the men returned to the printing shop to resume their regular work.”12

No S&K title made it very long—at least as submitted— though, oddly, their numbering did endure, another example of Charlton’s confusing (and, for collectors, frustrating) numbering schemes. The Mainline inventory carried over the prior numbering, and Police Trap lasted two issues, #5–6, and was renamed Public Defender in Action for #7; Foxhole made it three issues, #5–7, then was renamed Never Again for #8, itself a title used less than a year prior on a one-shot; Bullseye had two issues, #6–7, then renamed Cody of the Pony Express for #8; and In Love went for two issues, #5–6, and then renamed I Love You (which lasted until #130 [May 1980]).

Jack Kirby did some solo work published by Charlton, in an issue of their satire comic book (and MAD knock-off) From Here to Insanity, #11 [Aug. 1955], in which he drew— and likely wrote much of—28 pages plus a cover featuring lively and sometimes quite funny humor work by the King.

Their Charlton association would be the end of the line for the Simon and Kirby team, storied creators of Captain America and innumerable other characters, as well as originators of romance comics, the most profitable genre in the history of the field. The partners separated and Kirby went to DC Comics and, in 1960, Simon created Sick magazine, which would many years later become a Charlton publication.

Chapter Seven The Rising Waters of 1955

FIRST CAME CONNIE The torrential downpour had dissipated by the time dawn broke on August 19, 1955, a few hours before the tragedy of “Connecticut’s Black Friday”1 befell denizens of the state’s western section. In fact, a whole litany of meteorological events had been in play weeks prior to that fateful morning, before a “maelstrom of malevolence”2 laid waste to the area.

The harbinger was named Connie, a Category 4 hurricane that careened northwest, sparing a direct hit on the New England state, which she just skirted on August 12–13, but up to eight inches of the tempest’s rainfall saturated southwestern Connecticut. And then, as if some awful cosmic joke, Cat 3 cyclone Diane smacked into the same region less than a week later, lashing it with high winds. But the greatest damage was caused by the storm’s drenching rain, which amounted to twice the amount of precipitation Connie had dumped on the state. The Waterbury Republican-American described the cumulative aftermath of the sister storms: Earlier August rains had made Western Connecticut uplands soggy. The continuous rainfall of the 18th and throughout the night into early Friday morning were too much for a sodden land and everything cascaded into the nearest valley. The Naugatuck Valley became a funnel for millions of gallons of water. And they pushed everything aside or took what stood in their way along with them.3

That “funnel” was a terrifying wall of water crashing down the Naugatuck River, inundating Winsted, then Waterbury, then Seymour, a catastrophic cascade roaring towards Derby. Skies were clearing above the riverfront Charlton plant as workers ended their mid-morning break. THE AUGUST FLOOD While its violence lessened during the surge’s 50-mile southbound journey from Winsted, a town whose Main Street had been reduced to gravel due to the torrent’s onslaught, the rising waters of the Naugatuck were no less life-threatening by the time they engulfed Derby. In an essay written almost a half-century later, then Charlton newcomer Marc Swayze, while misremembering the cause as a dam break, gave a fascinating account of Charlton’s harrowing plight: “[Fellow Charlton artist Rocke Mastroserio] was reporting the conditions as seen from his favorite window. ‘The water is rising into the drive-in movie across the railroad!’ he announced.

Photos courtesy of Robert Beerbohm.

Afternoon Aug. 19, 1955

Late Morning Aug. 19, 1955

1950s

“Then: ‘It’s a foot high on the [drive-in speaker] posts!’ He returned to his drawing momentarily, then again from the window: ‘It’s up on the [speakers]!’… It was chaotic. First the word came to our floor that cars were being moved from the parking lot to higher ground. Then, that windows were being smashed out of them when the keys were unavailable.

“When I left the building, which was mostly evacuated by that time, I had to wade through knee-deep water near the loading dock. When a large truck came by, a hand was thrust toward me from the passenger side and I grabbed it. Then I spied [Rocke], wading toward the building. ‘I’m going back to get something to work on over the weekend!’ he shouted.”4

AN EPIC DISASTER The floodwater’s rise can be described as nothing less than Biblical, having crested to a cataclysmic height, completely submerging the factory’s lower level. “In just one hour’s time,” reported Newsdealer magazine, “the flood washed away $300,000 in paper inventory, plates, mats, original comics artwork, together with all other publishing material, and left an engraving plant and several buildings filled with Linotypes [typesetting machines] and printing presses under 18 feet of water and accumulated flood debris.”5

“During” and “after” photographs published in Newsdealer attest to the mind-boggling extent of the historic flooding, as just the tops of the electric power line poles are visible above the water, with the devastation clearly visible in the “after” pic of the same area after flooding subsided. An interior shot of the printing presses look as if a massive explosion had taken place, as if the aftermath of aerial bombing.

Newsdealer continued, “Heroic efforts by many of the company’s 400 employees, to remove and save the more than 200 motors used to drive the presses, were futile. The waters rose too fast. Vital office records were all that could be taken from the buildings and those went aloft with the last handful of employees who were evacuated by Army and Navy helicopters.”6 Swayze would later learn that Mastroserio was among those airlifted. HELICOPTER RESCUE The dramatic rooftop rescue was what witnesses remember most clearly about that natural disaster. “When the flood came through,” Charlton general manager Burt Levey said, “we had to get on top of the building because the water was rising, and a helicopter landed on the roof and took us off—that’s how I got out of there! I watched my car float down the river.”7 In-house writer Joe Gill recalled, “The press was entirely underwater, the building was underwater. [Artist] Maurice ‘Reese’ Whitman had to be taken off the roof by helicopter. Cars were washed away.”8

On a bad day for all, folks trapped by rising waters were especially lucky to have Sikorsky Aircraft—top manufacturer of military rescue copters—headquartered a mere ten miles away from Derby. At its Trumbull factory, the Bridgeport Telegram reported, “Several types of helicopters were pressed into service. A majority them were the HSS or Navy S-58 type, which are equipped with motorized hoists which make them ideal for rescue operations.”9 One crew told the paper that they had rescued 41 workers off a factory roof in Derby.

Among those, Blanche Fago said, was Al, her managing editor spouse. “My husband was up on the roof, helping people out and getting them on helicopters so they’d be safe.”10

This spread: Clockwise from bottom left: note water level in relation to drive-in movie screen in “during and after” pics taken from atop Charlton; the Aug. 1955 hurricane paths; Hartford Courant headline; and helicopter rescue from factory rooftop.

Chapter Eight Strange Tales of Unusual Comics

FOREVER GONE We’ll never know precisely what comic books were on the factory floor in various stages of production once the flood waters of Diane hit, but it is safe to say some titles affected were abandoned completely. For instance, Charlie Chan, the 20th Century Fox property, was star of a series for Prize and then sold to Charlton, lasting for four issues between 1955–56. The detective comic book was renamed Za Za the Mystic and, abandoning the Charlie Chan license, the remaining inventory of the Asian police detective’s stories had faces redrawn and the headliner’s name changed to “Louie Lue.” A cover proof has been found for the nonexistent third issue of the firefighter-themed series, Danny Blaze, and evidence suggests that Danger #15 is another Charlton title that went missing because of the natural disaster, as Danger switched its title to Jim Bowie, as revealed in the publisher’s statement of ownership in Jim Bowie #17 [Aug. 1956]. (No hint has been made whether any unpublished Simon and Kirby work was lost; the unused Win A Prize #3 cover remained in Simon’s files and therefore was not destroyed.)

This spread: At right is Charlton’s Rock and Roll Songs magazine and, on opposite page, covers to some of the publisher’s more enticing (and weird) offerings from the mid-1950s.

Ed Konick Means Business

An important addition to the Charlton Press management was Connecticut native Edward David Konick [b. 1931], who started off as a proofreader the year he graduated Yale, in 1952. Hired in part because his mother was Ed Levy’s first cousin, Ed Konick served as general manager and, after 39 years with the company, he ended up being the secondto-last person to leave Charlton Press when it closed for good in 1991. (The publisher’s secretary was last to turn out the light.) During his remarkable nearly fourdecade span, Konick served in multiple capacities, most prominently as a writer and editor in the music magazine division, though he did edit the Famous Monsters of Filmland knock-offs of the 1960s. But mostly he was devoted to the Ed Konick music publications as song lyrics licensing director. “I was in charge of doing all the licensing and I worked with music publishers,” he told Shaun Clancy. “But, at the same time, I was in charge of Country Song Roundup.”1 ROCK ’N’ ROLL COMES TO CHARLTON Ever in search of new music niches to exploit, Charlton jumped on the rock ’n’ roll craze sweeping the nation, debuting Rock and Roll Songs [#1, May 1956] through their Onyx Publishing imprint. Don Armstrong pointed out that Charlton continued its usual mix of song lyrics, profiles, photos, and fan features, and some items, “such as the letters-to-the-editor page, supported racial integration,” and “Photos of Black and white fans were sometimes grouped together.”2 He added: In Rock and Roll Songs, jive-laden article titles obscured the more serious content within… includ[ing] an account of how R&R was a gateway to rhythm and blues for white teens… [and] as was the case in other Charlton song-lyric magazines, many of the musician profiles provide rich biographical detail. An article might begin and end with an unashamed blurt of hype, but in between often lay a wellresearched biography including quotes.3

Portrait courtesy of Shaun Clancy.

FAGO FADES OUT No specifics were shared about the reasons behind the Fagos’ break-up with Charlton, which went down in spring 1957, but it’s commonly understood to have been an acrimonious parting of the ways. Blanche, no fan (to say the least) of Santangelo or Levy, attributed the split to husband and wife learning about the criminal origins of the Charlton partners and due to some broken promises. “Because we found out about the backgrounds of the owners,” she told Jim Amash. “And we were supposed to be building up a pension, which didn’t happen. We made some demands and they said they couldn’t meet them, so we left. But Al continued to freelance for them, because he felt he had left them in the lurch. It was like a slave market. We just couldn’t stay there.”6

And so the first noteworthy editorial regime at Charlton Comics was finished, a period marked by the eclectic—Space Western and Za Za the Mystic—and expansion of their mainstay genres—romance, Western, and war—that would prove the line’s bread-and-butter over the next 30 years. Fago’s super-hero/funny animal mash-ups, Atomic Mouse, etc., endured without his name atop their logos. (About Fago putting his name on the covers, Joe Gill said, “He thought that established his ownership. Then he and Santangelo had a grievance later, and Fago was undermined by a couple of people at Charlton, so that he became emotional, and he made it impossible for him to stay on, although they would’ve kept him, but Fago wouldn’t do it. He thought that he owned about six animated comic titles, which he intended to take with him. Levy told John Sr., ‘Go ahead and publish the titles as Charlton’s. Al will get a lawyer, but we’ll have more lawyers.’ So that’s what they did, and they just took his titles away from him.”7 Gill declined to name the scoundrels.)

This page: Top right is married couple Blanche and Al Fago. Below are covers to the short-lived Fago Publications line, launched after Al left Charlton. Note Casper knock-offs Charlton’s Timmy the Timid Ghost and Fago’s Li’l Ghost similarities. CONTINUED ON PG. 88

The Al & Vince Fago Comics Group

If there was any doubt that his splitting with Charlton hadn’t been hostile, Al Fago’s followup comic book endeavor dispelled all notions, as he and brother Vince teamed with minor comics publisher St. John to create their own imprint. In addition to launching Fago Publications, Al helped out St. John on their then-floundering comics line, including knocking off some Charlton books he had helmed. Li’l Rascal Twins (a teaming of Dennis the Menace-type characters Li’l Genius and Li’l Tomboy) was swiped for Double Trouble [two issues, Nov. ’57–Jan. ’58], starring Tuffy and Snuffy, a mischievous boy and girl, drawn by Frank Johnson, the Li’l Rascal Twins cover artist. Fago also copied his own Casper counterfeit, Charlton’s Timmy, the Timid Ghost, with Li’l Ghost (featuring Fago’s script and art). Li’l Ghost migrated over to Fago Publications for #2–3, and Fago produced two Dennis the Menace swipes, Li’l Menace and Beanie the Meanie. The Fagos also leased, borrowed, or purchased St. John’s Atom-Age Combat for a three-issue revival of the 1952–53 title. Ken Quattro’s history of St. John touches upon the Fagos’ stint at the then-struggling outfit, which was about to give up the ghost. “Well into its death throes,” Quattro shared, “the struggling comic book line apparently purchased the majority of its new comics material from Al Fago. Fago had broken his ties to Charlton, where he had been managing editor, and was now a comics packager. The most notable Fago connection to St. John is Do You Believe in Nightmares, a short-lived title from late 1957. The first issue is basically a one-man show for Steve Ditko, who drew the cover and all but one of the interior stories. The second issue, as well as the last story in #1, featured Dick Ayers artwork. These comics were originally produced for Charlton, but ended up at St. John when Fago left abruptly.”8 By the time he noticed one of the Fago Publications on the magazine rack, Ayers had been struggling. He recalled to Alter Ego, “I saw one of those comics and called [Al] up. He offered me work, so I quit the greeting card company, where I had worked for about eight or nine months. Between working for Al on Atom-Age Combat and doing Wyatt Earp for [Marvel], I had enough work to make it through.”9 Fago paid Ayers $15 a page.

Do You Believe in Nightmares #2 and Atom-Age Combat #1 were published under the St. John brand, though Ayers said, “I never worked for St. John. What happened there was that Al Fago had some leftover inventory after he left Charlton and sold it to St. John. I was at the newsstand one day and saw my story in the book, which didn’t please me. I was upset that Al did that without telling me.”10 By 1959, Fago Publications was no more as St. John closed its comics line and Al Fago exited the comics industry for good.

Eight: Strange Tales of Unusual Comics Kurtzman & Company’s

To be sure, it was never an official Charlton publication.* It was, as the creator and editor put it, “[A]n artist’s magazine: a union of artists to turn out their own magazine. We formed a corporation. All of us chipped in money, and we went into the publishing business, which artists should never, never do, for the simple reason that they lose sight of the practical considerations of business survival. Art becomes everything and the marketplace becomes secondary. Or the problems of the marketplace become secondary. Yeah, that was Humbug.”11

In his comment, Harvey Kurtzman neglected to mention Humbug was also a followup to his greatest achievement, MAD—the satirical comic book then magazine—and to his short-lived Trump, the lavish, slick humor mag published by Playboy’s Hugh Hefner. The Humbug confederation included Kurtzman and frequent collaborators Will Elder, Jack Davis, Arnold Roth, production whiz Harry Chester, and Al Jaffee, whose friendship with Kurtzman stretched back to high school.

Jaffee discussed Humbug’s deal with Charlton with Christopher Irving. “Harvey Kurtman was our fearless leader and essentially Harvey operated on his own. Even though we were all investors in our magazine, Harvey operated pretty much independently. He… found Charlton and got them to print and distribute and finance our operation because, even with our own investment, it was not enough to cover all the expenses involved in producing a magazine. So, Charlton took a chance on us and they did that. Harvey is the one who dealt with them and my knowledge of what was going on, and the details of what kind of business deal he was making with them—I have no knowledge of that part.”12 Kurtzman biographer Bill Schelly explained, “When it became clear Kurtzman was looking for a printer and distributor for a creator-owned magazine, and that he was asking Charlton to perform these functions on a credit basis, Santangelo wasn’t happy, but he agreed to give Kurtzman what he wanted. If the new magazine could match the sales of MAD, Charlton stood to make a lot of money. Santangelo asked Levy to send Kurtzman an assignment agreement. The costs would be secured by the assets of Humbug Publishing Co., Inc., a not unusual arrangement. In the better days of the industry, any number of new, under-capitalized comic book publishers started that way.”13

Instead of going the same route as the dozen-plus MAD imitators by formatting Humbug as magazine-size, Kurtzman determined that the new mag would be slightly smaller than the comic book format (though retain full-color cover and newsprint guts), measuring 6½" x 9½", with a black-&-white interior complemented with a single, lightly tinted color, either yellow or blue. The format decision proved unwise.

In conversation with Chester about Humbug’s end days, Kurtzman asked, “Remember those trips up to Connecticut? We used to print Humbug at Charlton. And I’ll never forget, we went up, me, Al Jaffee, Harry, Will Elder, to have a business conference with [Santangelo]. And we’re sitting there, and he says, ‘You gotta have $6,000. You can’t do this thing unless you get $6,000.’ And I said, ‘Can’t your company advance $6,000?’ He says, ‘Where am I going to get it?’ And he meant it. Because all of his money was spoken for.”14

Jaffee recalled that meeting. “The only time I had any direct connection with Charlton was when we were going up there before Christmas to try to get them to continue the arrangement we had with them, where they printed the magazine and distributed it and took a percentage out of it to cover their investment. Ostensibly, the trip to Derby,

Connecticut, was to get them to continue doing what we had been doing for the first 11 issues or so.” Jaffee continued, “We were all at this little Christmas party in the company, which, at this time, was a huge publishing business. [The city of] Derby was almost entirely Santangelo’s. They wined us and dined us at lunch.”15 Harvey Kurtzman The writer/artist then shared an aside: “The trip up there, by the way, was a nightmare because it was [during] one of the worst snowstorms in the Northeast. Jack Davis had offered his station wagon, which, fortunately, was a very heavy car. With all of us, the entire staff, piled into it, we added additional weight. I believe from New York City to Derby, we were the only moving car. Everything else was either stalled or up on the side of the road; we kept moving past one car or another that wasn’t moving, and another car here or there was

Al Jaffee

*Though, for better or worse, Charlton did print (and distribute) the furshlugginer mag! This page: Clockwise from top left is Harvey Kurtzman in the early 1950s; the paperback book collection, The Humbug Digest [1957], published by Ballantine Books (which was negotiating its own deal with Charlton at the time); and Al Jaffee in 1958, just after the Humbug affair, when he was promoting his Tall Tales daily strip.

Eight: Strange Tales of Unusual Comics Charlton’s Giant, Big Book Comics and Other Double-Value Gimmicks

Page four of the Nov. 1957 issue of Newsdealer magazine contained a breathless account of Charlton’s bold power play to upend a more than 20year tradition. Since around 1933, when Max Gaines first slapped a price sticker on a copy of Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics and watched it fly off the newsstand like a house on fire, American comic books had always had the same price: one thin dime. But suddenly the Derby publisher made its move, as reported by the trade mag under the headline, “Magazine, Books and Comics Prices and Profits Going Up!”: For some time now, comics publishers have been in a squeeze with increasing costs pushing hard and that magic 10¢ price holding fast. Early this year, Dell Comics began to test a 15¢ price in a few states. The mid-year end of the American News Company completely confused this experiment, but it is continuing now with no conclusive results revealed as yet.

The big question, of course, is… “Will the 15¢ price deter sales and, if so, how much?” If sales hold, or losses are slight, the chances are that most comics will move to 15¢!

This month, Charlton Comics made the decisive move. About thirty titles now sell for 15¢! Cheyenne Kid, Texas Rangers, Timmy the Timid Ghost, and other 15¢ Charlton Comics now offer 64 pages instead of 32. They’re thick side-wired and look like twice the value. More important to the retailer, they’re almost twice as profitable as the 10¢ comics. Dealer profit is 4¢ instead of 2½¢. The great significance of this penny and a half difference is this… If the sale of Charlton Comics at 15¢ holds, and if other publishers follow suit, then the roughly 600,000,000 comics sold annually will earn an extra $9,000,000 for retailers! 52

Timmy the Timid Ghost cover courtesy of F.Motler.

This page: At left is a promotional flyer (printed on an unbound cover for Timmy the Timid Ghost #10 [Jan. ’58]) that was sent to retailers touting that Charlton had “taken the bull by the horns” by introducing their line of (albeit short-lived) “Double Value” 15¢ comics. Top row above are three of the “Double Value” editions cover-dated 1958—note the blurbs promising all-new material within!— and the above row are the three Giant Comics editions that appeared on stands in 1957, issues which did contain some reprints.