Blue Beetle – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Frank McLaughlin — Charlton’s Atomic Age Ends

January 16, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Captain Atom # 89 (1967), Re-creation By Frank McLaughlin, 2012

Concluding our series on the roots of the Watchmen characters.

Charlton’s haphazard and often erratic publishing strategy certainly didn’t help sustain its line of superheroes. (Or “Action Heroes,” since technically, superhero is a joint trademark of Marvel and DC. But I digress.) Captain Atom #89 is the final issue of that series, and within a year all of the (mostly short-lived) action heroes were toast.

They wouldn’t return until about seven years later, when Charlton deciphered the burgeoning fan market. The company endorsed the superhero-themed Charlton Bulletin in 1975, a fanzine that included among other things, Steve Ditko’s unpublished penciled story for the cancelled Captain Atom #90. They asked a young Charlton freelancer by the name of John Byrne to ink it.

Byrne is among many talents with early careers at Charlton. Others include Dick Giordano, Jose Garcia Lopez, Jim Aparo, Bob Layton, Denny O’Neill, and Mike Zeck, Also on that list: Inker (and Charlton Art Director) Frank McLaughlin, who inked Ditko’s original #89 cover and re-created this version above.

As for Captain Atom? DC purchased him and the rest of the Charlton superheroes from the financially struggling Charlton in 1983, and they made their first DC appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985). Since then, he (and the rest of the gang) ultimately lived on in the pages of DC, of course, which was the point of Editor Dick Giordano not letting Alan Moore use those exact characters for Watchmen.

Alan, as we have discussed, was not deterred, and created his own versions of the characters.

Ironic, since those original Charlton characters could barely raise an eyebrow, and yet we are still talking about Moore’s Watchmen today.

*The original and published art for Captain Atom #89. Frank’s red-do is faithful, but makes a few changes.*

*The first and last pages of Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle re-do, from a backup story in captain Atom Atom #83.*

*The introduction of Nightshade. 1966 or not, the handling of the character earns an “ouch.”*

Thunderbolt makes an entrance, and exits a short time later. He precedes the re-dos of Captain Atom and Blue Beetle in 1965. (And he takes over the Son of Vulcan title, who is never truly considered part of the Charlton main superhero universe.)*Meanwhile, the rights reverted back to creator Peter Morisi, and Thunderbolt now has a home at Dynamite Publishing, where he feels a lot like… Ozymandias.*

The Peacemaker steps up and Captain Atom celebrates his new uniform and power abilities. And The Question makes his final appearance in Blue Beetle #5 (1968), which inexplicably appears on the newsstand nearly a year after issue # 4.

Final tally Watchman —

Nite Owl 2 – Blue Beetle 2
Silk Spectre 2 – Phantom Lady/Black Canary/Nightshade
Comedian – Peacemaker/Shield
Dr. Manhattan – Captain Atom
Rorschach – The Question
Ozymandias – Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt

Steve Ditko — Road To Watchmen

January 4, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Captain Atom #89, December 1967

HBO’s Watchmen was an unexpected television smash of 2019, and it has landed on a number of best of lists. The next few posts explore the Watchmen characters, which have roots in the more conventional superhero universe.

Most fans of the original 1986 graphic novel know that the main group of (five of the six) Watchmen characters have direct antecedents from the “Charlton superhero universe.” Since DC had recently acquired those characters from the financially strapped competitor, creator Alan Moore’s idea was to use them for his Watchmen concept. But Dick Giordano, DC’s editor at the time, nixed the idea, knowing that Moore’s concept would mean that those characters would be rendered unusable in the greater DC Universe.

Moore, undeterred, simply turned the Charlton characters into his own.

Some more literally than others.

Steve Ditko renders a dynamic action page featuring the original Dr. Manhattan, Captain Atom.

Ditko is the unofficial godfather of the Watchman, having created or revamped Captain Atom, The Blue Beetle and The Question (plus Nightshade) all in a short period in 1966/67. With little in the way of material changes, the three appear as Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl, and Rorschach in Watchmen. (Nightshade is not so obvious — more on that in a future post.)

Ditko had left Marvel in 1966, returning to Charlton in the immediate period after his departure. His return there launched a brief, but ultimately futile attempt at a fuller Charlton superhero universe. By 1968, none of the books survived.

Ditko is co-creator (with writer Joe Gill) of the original Captain Atom character, and his origin story (March 1960) is extremely similar to Dr. Manhattan’s, minus the blue skin. In Space Adventures #33, he is seemingly atomized, but he ultimately reappears — with super powers. President Dwight Eisenhower asks him to become the military’s greatest weapon.

On this page from the final issue of the original series, Captain Atom fights “Thirteen” a (surprise!) super-villain with supernatural powers. Inks are by Frank McLaughlin, who was Charlton’s Art Director at the time. Finding a decent inker for Ditko — other than Ditko — could often pose a challenge, but McLaughlin delivers here.