jools&jim

These two cool Marvel pence variants (from one of my all-time favorite BA King Kirby runs!) unexpectedly turned up late last week for very light $$...

And here is some mildly inaccurate information, courtesy of the "Charlton Comics" Wikipedia entry:

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Final years

By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic book industry was in a sales slump, struggling to reinvent a profitable distribution and retail system. Charlton's licensed titles lapsed, its aging presses were deteriorating towards uselessness, and the company did not have the resources to replace them. In 1981, there was yet another attempt at new material, with a comic book version of Charlton Bullseye serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic book fans, and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles. A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under the Modern Comics imprint and sold in bagged sets in department stores (in much the same way Gold Key Comics were published under the Whitman Comics moniker around the same time). None of these measures worked, and in 1984 Charlton Comics suspended publication.

The Modern books reprinted both '60s and '70s material, and were clearly on sale several years before the 1980s began...

Per bronze_rules, here is the entry from American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2014):

On 10/5/2018 at 10:31 PM, Readcomix said:

But I know I always assumed it was Charlton reprinting their own, due to the obvious production values of the final printed product -- looks and feels straight outta Derby, Connecticut, after all. 

Very true...I never really thought about it that way.  The Modern books absolutely do look and feel like "real" Charltons.

So maybe it's just as simple as this:

• the "Modern"-branded reprints were produced by Charlton, possibly through an intermediary, solely for distribution in multi-packs to the discount chain-store market (as with the DC, Marvel, and Whitman multi-packs), and were never intended for single-issue newsstand sale.

• the multi-packs ultimately couldn't compete with the better product offered by DC & Marvel, and the program was cancelled.

• leftover "loose" inventory was then blown-out in bulk at very low wholesale prices to the same chains, which accounts for single issues (and those huge "un-circulated" stacks at my local Woolworth's) put out for sale back in the day.

14 hours ago, Readcomix said:

Bam! K-Mart sticker!

2 minutes ago, kav said:

look a phantom zone perjecter is believable and like another dimension and stuff.

Uh...yeah man.  Sure.  Whatever you say...       

Still, we're probably the only two "outed" and outspoken Curt Swan fans here on the Boards, so it's all good!

I know you're an artist, and from what I've seen a damn good one -- so can you give us, for example, a rough idea of what a cool "retro-but-also-modern" cover with a "hook" might look like?

23 minutes ago, kav said:

pretty sure the phantom zone is not some album cover thing that floats around the universe-RICHARD DONNER!

Yeah, you're probably right...I'll remember to check my imagination at the door the next time I pay it a visit...

I'm not a big fan of contemporary comics art, but there are still a few artists out there who respect the eternal verities, including "the hook".

For example, see below for a modern cover, and its "true vintage" analog...

1 minute ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Hey guys just wanted to say I've been reading the back and forth, good to see there is some excitement  

I have one Charlton maybe, and I have seen a few that are easy enough to get around town for reading. 

I think Marwood was going to get to a Charlton thread eventually.

anyway carry on

  Welcome aboard!

But...it's still not clear that these "Modern" reprints are Charltons, in the sense that Charlton had anything to do with them, other than (maybe) licensing stuff for another publisher to reprint...

8 minutes ago, Readcomix said:

Thanks! Looks like Unisystems is still around: http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Modern-Publishing-212-826-0850

   Thanks...!!!!

7 minutes ago, Readcomix said:

I have to see if I have any laying handy; worth a look at the indicia to see what it says...

Here's the indicia from the Modern reprint of Midnight Tales #12:

Anyway...the reason why I revisited all this boring arcana in the first place is that I found this book (pictured below) in a small collection I bought locally a short time ago.

The comic itself is unremarkable, but the price sticker is completely consistent with my memory that these things were being blown out (in this case, at 11¢ apiece!) at discount/variety stores back in the day.

The lack of a bar code on the front cover is also telling, as all "real" newsstand Charltons on sale during 1978 (the same year listed in the indicia of this book) had them -- see here:

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?publisher=charlton&type=calendar&month=1&year=1978&sort=alpha

7 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said:

I should also mention that I was fortunate once to buy a (I believe) distributors case of these books. 

If you found it locally, that makes a lot of sense.

The (now long gone) Woolworth's where I first ran across a HUGE stash of these back in the summer of '78 (see the link in my first post) is currently the large (and I think still vacant) property between the old drug store to the south and the pizza joint to the north...

3 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said:

Shameless request-  I am looking for a Monster Hunters 2 in NM.  I am also interested In a Judo Master 93 and a Midnight Tales 17 in NM.  Might consider VF depending on why they are VF and how they present.  Can anybody help me?

Pretty sure I have both of them, but they're Fine at best.  

27 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said:

the logo on the three pack is pretty compelling that they were made by modern and sold by modern.

The price sticker on the bag definitely confirms that this is one of the ways they were intended to be distributed, and that it was priced at the point of sale.  Very, very cool!

But, the printed logo on the bag itself tells us NOTHING meaningful about Modern itself...i.e., who they were, what their relationship to Charlton was, and why they were able, or wanted, to reprint an oddball batch of '60s & early '70s comics from a 2nd/3rd tier publisher, nor why they thought it was potentially profitable to do so.

Maybe the Superman movie had something to do with it? Kind of a pre-modern "movie bump" for all things comics?

1 minute ago, ShieldAgent said:

WOW!  Awesome...! 

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16 hours ago, ShieldAgent said:

just for you, I will scan my three pack...

 

Thanks man!

4 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said:

They came in three packs.  I have one and have been following some on ebay over the years.

Are you still looking for any?  I have a whole stack of duplicates that I would give you someday after work....

Thanks Harry!

Do you have a picture or link to one of the 3-packs?  And did you ever see a 3-pack for sale back in the late '70s?  If so, where?

So here's my first question: does anyone remember seeing these for sale, as single issues and at cover price (35¢), in traditional retail outlets for comics (i.e., drugstores, convenience stores, newsstands, etc.) back in the late 1970s?

Second question: does anyone else remember seeing them for sale or buying them in bagged 3-packs (as Tom Brevoort claims he did) during the same period?

Even an expert like Doug Sulipa lumps them in with his Charlton listings with no explanation...

http://dougcomicworld.com/inventory/INVENTORY-CharltonSite.html

There is precious little information available on-line about this publisher, or their relationship with Charlton.

Here's the extent of what I found:

http://www.ramonschenk.nl/charltoncomics/moderncomics.htm

https://brevoorthistoryofcomics.tumblr.com/post/173425009044/another-of-the-modern-comics-reprints-of-classic

https://www.comics.org/publisher/1825/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Comics

I've been fascinated by these things for exactly 40 years now, and still don't have a whole lot more information about them than I did back in the day.

Before we start, here's a post of mine from a few years ago which delineates the origin of my obsession with what is, at best, a footnote in BA comics history (click the "right arrow" icon in the upper right-hand corner to read it):

An old buddy of mine took his young son and a friend to the show on Saturday.  Not surprisingly, they all had a fantastic time, and the kids are already talking about the costumes they want to wear next year.

It really is an amazing and VERY family-friendly Con, with a little something for everyone and A WHOLE LOTTA comic books.  My daughter and I went to four or five Balt shows in a row starting in '08 or '09, and always had a grand time there together. 

Kudos to Marc and Co. again for giving Baltimore something to cheer about for a change!  Bravo...

8 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

Next year you're coming If I have to go to your house and get you. Moved to late October so there's no excuse.

1 minute ago, FlyingDonut said:

He had to bail unexpectedly on Sunday...

So yeah, that's not good, is it?

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BTW Kevin, Tom, and I were sad that we didn't see you.

Thanks man!

Unfortunately, I have finally aged into the cranky, drunken old recluse I have always been...