Charlton's Six Million Dollar Man

Like a lot of other kids of the 70's, I loved The Six Million Dollar Man TV show. I couldn't get enough of Steve Austin's exploits. One of the first comics I ever remember buying was Charlton's adapation which came out not long after the show debuted in 1976. The first issue featured a great Joe Staton cover and interior art. They followed the TV show's origin story fairly well as I recall. I never read a lot of Charlton growing up. I think it was due to the fact that they weren't as available as DC and Marvel's output. I think the only place I ever saw Charltons was at Clint's, KC's first comic specialty shop. They might have been in places like Woolworth's too but I don't remember. The subscription ad inside showed how diverse Charlton's output was then.



Most of my Charlton collection consists of the animated titles like the Flintstone books and Hong Kong Phooey. I've been trying to compile a Charlton horror collection these past ten years or so but I've been very lax about it lately. Although they didn't put out the quality of the big two, Charlton brings back some nice memories of my early comic book collecting.

The Human Target

I'm kind of curious about Fox's new version of The Human Target which debuts tonight. I remember not liking the first version too much but this one actually looks pretty decent, at least from the few ads I've seen. I first got exposed to the character when he was a backup in The Brave And The Bold in the late 70's. The great Jim Aparo even drew him on the cover of his first B&B, #143, October, 1978.



The inside story was by Len Wein and Dick Giordano, not a bad creative team I must say. I enjoyed the series while it lasted and hopefully the new TV series will preserve some of that. We'll just have to wait and see.

Green Lantern #22

I've always enjoyed the Silver Age DC science fiction oriented comics. Editor Julius Schwartz put the focus on sci-fi themes in most of the books he edited. The art on these books was usually sensational, featuring greats like Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, and Murphy Anderson. I was lucky enough to meet Murphy at a con in the mid 90's and he was one of the nicest pros I've met in my con going years. He signed this great cover to GL #22 which he inked over Gil Kane. The stories inside are typical early 60's DC, very wordy and with a lot of sci-fi themes, which is a good thing by the way. The subscription ad on the inside cover made me smile for some reason.



Once I build my time machine, I'm definitely going back to 1963 and getting one of each! In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella goodness on the inside.

All Out War #1

As a kid I loved DC's Dollar Comics linuep. I couldn't get enough of the double sized goodness. One of the more interesting but short lived Dollar Comics was the war anthology All Out War. It didn't last very long in 1979, only six issues if I recall correctly. Anyway, what was not to love? You had great Joe Kubert covers followed by interior work by greats such as Dick Ayers, Jerry Grandenetti, George Evans, and E.R. Cruz. I especially liked the new Viking Commando character that was supposed to be the star of the book. As I mentioned before, the mag petered out after six issues. As the 1980's dawned the war comics weren't selling like they used to and poor sales probably led to All Out War's demise. Not even cool Kubert drawn subscription ads could save these great books from eventual extinction.



The Dollar Comics were definitely a product of the times. I think they were probably a means of getting inventoried material out there after the infamous DC Implosion the year before left a lot of material without a place to go. I remember they heavily promoted the new books in their other mags, as this great ad shows.



They worked since I bought all of them, or shall I say my dad forked out all those dollars back then. I was only nine. I think those were the best dollars he ever spent.