Letter Columns: Charlton Bullseye Straight Shooting!

You just gotta love Charlton's 1970's approach to "just the facts". These guys never minced words and political correctness was not in their lexicon. Love the "Frank Roberge passed away...No replacement has been named at press time" treatment...as in "don't let the screen door hit ya where the dog should'a bit ya" axiom. No wonder they ended up failures in the end with this business approach.

Definitely a more blunt approach than Robin Snyder's Under the Gun column in Red Circle (aka Archie's Mighty Comics reinvented for the 80's).

Letter Columns: Fans of the Web & T-Bolt

There is lotsa love for Professor John Raymond, known among the PJ wearing set as "The Web". For your amusement (or to kill some time if that be the case), some clippets of 'Webbings' from the 60's on our favorite MLJer here:

The all-time best comment for yours truely is "The WEB won't make comics history? Which parallel world are you talking about". Haha classic. Maybe the parallel Earth of his doppleganger, T-Bolt

And since we're equal opportunity web masters here at CVMMLJ, here's is a letter column of Web's Charlton twin, the aforementionsThunderbolt aka Peter Cannon, for your consideration:

Last letters of dying publishers

Of interest are these notes from the last issues of Mighty Crusaders #7 and Thunderbolt #60. Both hint at future plans and greater aspirations for both Charlton and Mighty Comics, that we now know ended abruptly.

 

An actual critical letter posted in a Mighty Comics letter column? Please pinch us, collectively! Dusty's one sole appearance without explanation on his silver age solitude from superheroing was definitely mysterious, and along with Bob Phantom "and Blackjack were sadly neglected in the 60's comics run. THE UNEMPLOYED GUYS" indeed. Looks like all Hangman's "cancelite" worked best on their very own titles.

There is an excellent write up on the Prankster posted elsewhere. Both he and Thunderbolt had tremendous potential (and love their color schemes and style...long lost cousins several times removed, perhaps?),. "The Sentinels didn't click with us, either"...interesting admission. Actually the former Protesters folk singing band could've clicked with better artwork and story pacing, But alas it t'wasn't to be and the big "C" went in a different direction focusing on lisensed characters and mystery. Sigh.

A Tale of 2 Columns: the Modest & the Proud

An examination of the letter pages in Charlton and Mighty Comics displays rather remarkable displays of outrageous boastfulness and persistent self-deprication.  Consider Mighty's approach:

Now, let's investigate the opposite approach from their competitor Charlton:

Actually of the two, Charlton was more successful in the silver age with more published books, particularly in the mid-60's. The self-promotion of Mighty was indicative of their Marvelous competitor, whereas Charlton seemed to express their envy of the same publisher while denagrading hemselves. Neither approach seemed to take as by 1968 they were both already distant memories to the comic devouring youth of the day.