Introduction
This page is meant to become a tribute and a guide to the
history of those peculiar reprint comics published in 1977 and 1978 by
what appears to have been an imprint of Charlton Comics
As yet the list is probably not complete, especially in the graphics department,
but I strive to include all known Moderns in the near future.
Does anyone know if there is any connection to Charlton-Modern and the
Modern Publishing who brought out Voltron in 1985? As a start of an in-depth look at Modern Comics, I here reproduce a
short piece on the Modern line by Mike
Ambrose, publisher and editor of Charlton
Spotlight, a magazine
devoted to the history of Charlton, and therefore also the history of
Modern. The piece was originally posted to the Charlton-l on the internet,
and is reproduced here by permission.Modern
Comics
By Mike Ambrose
These books were reprinted
page-for-page from the originals, undoubtedly using the originals negs
(negatives - Ramon) or silver prints. Even letters pages and text stories
are reprinted, and as far as I can tell even the same color schemes were
used from original to reprint. Only the advertising content is
different.
Because of the way the Moderns were picked essentially
at random and printed and packaged cheaply, I can't see where there would
have been any incentive to start monkeying with a book's contents to put
together any kind of "original" reprint content.
The copyright on
the Modern reprints was by Tops Photo Engraving Corp., which was the
captive engraving entitiy that Charlton used. George Wildman, in CBA
(Comic Book Artist - Ramon) #12 (p.24) says "[Modern Comics] was a
merchandising type thing. They would sell them to department stores --
Caldor, Wal-Mart, name any chain stores you could think of. And our people
didn't have to worry about distribution on these... You buy them outright.
Here's how it worked: J. C. Penney would buy 100,000 [copies] from us and
they could then advertise, 'Buy a T-shirt and get three comics for free.'
The comics were used for merchandising."
The only mysteries left
about Modern, as far as I'm concerned, are:
1) How many of what issues
were reprinted, and in what quantities;
2) Who was Ronald Gold,
publisher of Modern Comics/Unisystems, Inc.;
3) If the Moderns were
supposedly packaged in bagged 3-packs, how is it you never see any of them
still around in the original bags? The multipack Charltons from the
mid-70s are reasonably common, but all the Moderns I've ever seen have
been loose;
4) Every Modern I've seen has a 35c cover price, which
makes me tend to doubt that the books were exclusively used for promotion.
I suspect a lot them were sold on the stands.
Army War Heroes #36 - 1978
Attack #13 - 1978
Beyond The Grave #2 - 1978
Billy The Kid #109 - 1977
Blue Beetle #1 - 1977
Blue Beetle #3- 1977
Captain Atom #83 - 1977
Captain Atom #84 - 1977
Captain Atom #85 - 1977
Cheyenne Kid #87 - 1978
Cheyenne Kid #89 - 1978
Creepy
Things #2 - 1977
Creepy
Things #3 - 1977
Creepy
Things #4 - 1977
Creepy
Things #5 - 1977
Creepy
Things #6 - 1977
Doomsday +1 #5 - 1977
Drag 'n'
Wheels #58 - 1978
E-Man #1 - 1977
E-Man #2 - 1977
E-Man #3 - 1977
E-Man #4 - 1977
E-Man #9 - 1977
E-Man #10 - 1977
Fightin' Army #108 - 1977
Fightin'
Marines #120 - 1977
Geronimo Jones #7 - 1978
Ghostly Haunts #40 - 1977
Ghostly Haunts #41 - 1978
Ghost
Manor
Vol.2 #19 - 1977
Haunted Love #1 - 1978
Hercules #10 - 1977
Hercules #11 - 1978
House Of Yang #1 - 1978
House Of Yang #2 - 1978
Judo
Master #93 - 1977
Judo
Master #94 - 1977
Judo
Master #96 - 1977
Judo
Master #98 - 1977
Many Ghosts
Of
Doctor Graves #12 - 1978
Many Ghosts
Of
Doctor Graves #25 -1978
Midnight
Tales #12 - 1977
Midnight
Tales #17 - 1977
Monster
Hunters #1 - 1977
Monster
Hunters #2 - 1977
Outlaws Of The West #64 - 1977
Outlaws Of The West #79 - 1978
Peacemaker #1 - 1978
Peacemaker #2 - 1978
Scary
Tales #1 - 1977
Texas
Rangers
In Action #76 - 1977
Thunderbolt #57 - 1977
Thunderbolt #58 - 1977
Vengeance Squad #5 - 1977
Vengeance Squad #6 - 1977
War #7 - 1977
War #9 - 1977
World
Of
Wheels #23 - 1978
Yang #3 - 1977
Yang #10 - 1977
Yang #11 - 1977