As Charlton Comics‘ managing editor in the 1960s, Dick Giordano put together the Action Heroes line with talents that included Joe Gill, Steve Ditko, Pete Morisi, Pat Boyette, Frank Mclaughlin and others. Charlton was petering out in the mid 80s, so DC bought the rights to those characters and presented them to Giordano – now DC’s executive editor – as a gift.

DC’s initial idea was, with cover art by Dave Gibbons, to put them in their own mag. Because the Charlton characters were seen as not enough of a draw to be saleable, the idea was to include the Superman Sunday newspaper comic strips as an “anchor” (just like The Bay in a mall).

Scan of the original art.

Cleaned-up art.

Trade dress re-created.

Colour.

However, after putting together a pilot book that could have also been titled Blockbuster Weekly, DC cancelled this initial book idea. Alan Moore came along and created new versions of those characters with Dave Gibbons and that was The Watchmen.

DC later relaunched some of the original Action Heroes in their own books with varying success. They’re still a part of DC’s universe.

You can find great histories of Charlton Comics in TwoMorrows’ Comic Book Artist 9 and 12, and Back Issue 79 (where this cover is featured on page 18). Available for purchase as digital downloads (or you can go searching for physical copies).

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