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[The Australian Panther]

Time for a new selection.

gregjh put his name forward and suggested that we look at two Charlton Heroes,
Captain Atom and Judomaster.

Unfortunately Greg didn't specify issue numbers and I have not been able to contact him even though I have tried several times.
[Greg - if you are reading this, check your Span folder. ]

So I have gone ahead and chosen the origin stories of both characters.

Origin of Captain Atom

Space Adventures # 33

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20266

Origin of Judomaster

Special War Series # 4 

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30840

The Sky is the limit, You can talk about the issues, the characters, Charlton,  the creators, what DC has done with these characters, [Now there is a subject!] the runs of the books.

Over to you, people.

Cheers!




 

[FraBig]

Interesting! It's the first time I read Charlton Comics' origins of Captain Atom. Such an entertaining story, and he must have been a pretty original character for that time, considering early atomic heroes like Atomic Man were not as powerful as Captain Atom. I've always read about his DC adventures, but his Charlton version really interested me, I might check some of his other adventures later.

[SuperScrounge]

Space Adventures #33

The Galactic Scourge! - The writer makes some annoying terminology mistakes, and even ignoring that the story is only so-so.

Introducing Captain Atom ? Eh. Science... practically non-existent (makes ?bit by a radioactive spider? look like a doctoral thesis  ) Other than that it was an okay introduction to the character and his powers.

Venture In The Ventura ? Dated. Knowing something of the real behind the scenes astronauts makes the story even more naive. The twist ending really ran against the more human story of an astronaut surviving an explosion and crash landing. Had the ending been the center of the story it could have been an interesting SF tale, but it comes off here as just a twist ending for the sake of a twist ending.

The Captive World ? Simple.


Special War Series #4

Introducing Rip Jagger... Judomaster ? Rip Jagger... sounds like a made up name from an MST3K episode (Fist Rockbone! Smash Lampjaw! Punch Rockgroin! Big McLargehuge!) Soooooo... Judomaster became an expert in weeks? Doesn't that normally take years? Otherwise okay.

Fight For Freedom ? Eh. Didn't grab me.

Sport of Judo ? Okay, but nothing special.

[Robb_K]

Time for a new selection.
gregjh put his name forward and suggested that we look at two Charlton Heroes,
Captain Atom and Judomaster.
Unfortunately Greg didn't specify issue numbers and I have not been able to contact him even though I have tried several times.
[Greg - if you are reading this, check your Span folder. ]

So I have gone ahead and chosen the origin stories of both characters.
Origin of Captain Atom
Space Adventures # 33

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20266

Origin of Judomaster
Special War Series # 4 

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30840

The Sky is the limit, You can talk about the issues, the characters, Charlton,  the creators, what DC has done with these characters, [Now there is a subject!] the runs of the books.
Over to you, people.
Cheers! 

The Origin of Captain Atom
As a scientist, and a realist, I enjoy a more realistic style of science fiction than the typical science fantasy-tinged science fiction fan.  A Human who survived an immediate distance detonation of a nuclear device, and the resultant explosion, with no body melting or burns, and whose body becomes as radioactive as pure U-235, and gives off enough rays to kill people nearby after a few seconds, and yet, it didn't kill that Human, is difficult to accept.  Then, building a body shield, to protect others from his rays, but allowing his head and neck to remain uncovered, when rays should come out of  the body from those areas just the same as any other body part.  In addition, we are expected to accept that he can generate enough energy to take off like a rocket, and fly up to 20,000 miles per hour (albeit not quite as fast as Superman!)It takes him more than an hour to circumnavigate The Earth, whereas Superman could do that in just a few minutes.  Captain Atom claims he can be anywhere on Earth "in a matter of minutes".  But 20,000 miles per Hour would take more than an hour to get to the farthest point away from anyplace. And, I'm truly saddened and disappointed to find out that President Eisenhower (the man who engineered the military operation that eventually saved the lives of half of my family) fell for that phoney's impossible claims, and even presented him with a special costume! 

I'm glad Captain Atom saved The World from its 3rd Worldwide War, just after The US President presented him with his superhero costume.  I wouldn't have wanted him to look like a hobo.

I don't mind the author of Sci-Fi making up some false science, but it should be related to what a 6-10 year old knows about the way this Earth works.  If even a 6 year old thinks what the author is trying to make the reader believe is stupid, I can't get past it, and deem it too ridiculous to read (this ....from a big fan of stories about a duckman (duck/human hybrid?) who has so much wealth that its worth is uncountable!).

The Origin of Judomaster
I'm surprised the author, clearly impressed by the rebel nature of The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, didn't use the name, "Nick" or "Brick Jagger".  It seems to me that we are expected to believe that the people of an island or island chain in the far south of the area The Japanese chose to annex (add on) to their traditional homeland area (south of Okinawa) are attempting to rebel against The Japanese army; and are willing to train an American soldier, who is already a highly-skilled combatant, to become a master of Judo, to help their cause.  This is a LOT more plausible than Captain Atom's story.  The only major problem I see is that the amount of time for this novice to become a Word-class master in that martial art was much too short.  It would have been more believable, and, perhaps, more interesting, if he trained alone, with his teacher, in an isolated cave, every day for 10 years.  And, when he is ready to join the rebel group of Judo Masters, to fight for freedom, the 2 men can't find their colleagues, because World War II has been over for 6 or 7 years, and everyone who wasn't killed during The American occupation has gone home.  They meet a farmer, and find out that the islanders have no problem with The US directed, new Japanese administration.  So, Jagger returns to USA to try to convince The US Olympics Committee to campaign for Judo to become an Olympic sport, and he, himself, tries to get financiers to establish a professional Judo League and association, to foster paid competition.

[crashryan]

I composed a comment yesterday, posted it...and it vanished into the ether. I'll try again.

These books took me on a trip down memory lane. I missed Captain Atom's origin, but I read the later issues and followed the Captain until he left Charlton. I bought all the Judomaster's off the revolving racks. Let's start with

Space Adventures #33:

With so much ground to cover in so few pages, we don't get a clear picture of what this superhero will be like. I don't expect believable science in superhero comics , which is good, because there ain't none here. Cap's origin is a typical Joe Gill story. It starts noisily, ambles along in a disjointed fashion, then sputters to an abrupt conclusion. It's noteworthy that Gill's Dell superhero, Nukla, is essentially Captain Atom recycled as a spy instead of a soldier.

It's Steve Ditko's art that makes the feature memorable. He does a nice job, inking with more care than usual and creating some unique "special effects." (One odd thing: Captain A's head is too big in several hero poses.) I notice that although Cap's suit is blue in the story, on the cover he sports the well-known yellow-and-red color scheme. I suppose it was a case of miscommunication with the interior colorist.

The remainder of the issue showcases why Charlton remained so long at the bottom of the barrel. Incoherent stories with the most rudimentary "what do you expect for twenty bucks a page" artwork. Bill Molno's art is painful to behold.

Special War Series #4:

When Judomaster came out I knew nothing about Golden Age Heroes and the idea of a superhero fighting during WWII struck me as cool. I wasn't a rabid JM fan but I enjoyed the series. Looking back, the origin story has plenty of rough edges. Frank McLaughlin has more pages than Joe Gill did, but his story is much more complex. An awful lot of time is spent on setups and explanations. And talk about abrupt conclusions! I swear that the last couple of story pages got lost in the mail. McLaughlin could have used the educational pages to flesh out his ending. That said, when JM came out the martial arts fad was still new and I learned a few things from these features.

Frank McLaughlin's art is often crude. Its quality wavers back and forth with the swiped panels looking much better than the rest. McLaughlin improved tremendously between this issue and the next, taking on a strong Dick Giordano look. I don't know if McLaughlin merely emulated Giordano or if Dick helped out with the pencils. I've read that McLaughlin maintains he wrote this story despite a Joe Gill credit. A couple of captions have Gill's characteristic rhythm but the dialogue doesn't sound like his at all. I'll take McLaughlin's word for it.

About Judomaster's costume. It's a great design, bold and dynamic. But as nice as the rising-sun emblem is design-wise, it's a crazy choice for a superhero who's fighting for the Allies. The script suggests the design was chosen to taunt the Japanese. Still, I wouldn't blame a GI for shooting JM on sight. If a guy bursts out of the jungle with a huge rising sun on his chest, you're not going to stop to wonder why the color scheme is wrong. This goes double for JM's future sidekick, Tiger, who sported the "meatball flag" emblem. On the other hand, JM might be able to infiltrate Japanese installations. Japanese soldiers who haven't heard of Judomaster might assume he's on their side.

I didn't read any of DC's versions of the Charlton heroes. I did read several issues of Justice League with the smartass Blue Beetle. The character was popular for a time, but I found him overdone. I lost interest. Did DC ever do Judomaster? I know they did a Captain Atom but I never saw it. Despite their faults I preferred the Charlton heroes at Charlton. It was nice to have entertaining comics coming from somewhere besides the Big Two.

[narfstar]

I must have forgotten to click post a day or two ago.
I am missing this issue and a few other early Captain Atom Space Adv. They ain't cheap. I really liked the character in his yellow costume. Color does make a difference. Ditko was good as usual. Story was good for the time but nothing to get exited about. Well except the introduction of a new Ditko character. The first Judomaster was a little disappointing. Frank improved considerably on the art and became a favorite of mine. So much so that I have a Judomaster commission by him.

[gregjh]

Great, I'm not sure what happened with the messages but the effort is appreciated! Let me get down to reading and then share my thoughts...

[gregjh]

OK, so Captain Atom first. After a few panels, I recalled that I've already read this story. Not much to say about the story itself (abandon science all ye who enter here), I find the more interesting question to be: why has the Marvel equivalent of this character (Ant Man) become so popular while DC only publish, the future version of this hero, Captain Atom, enough to keep the copyright effective? A shrinking character will always have an element of silliness, but also plenty of potential for story lines. In any case, I like Atom and will read more.

Judomaster was a pleasant surprise I felt the origins story was a little deeper than I expected. I like the explanation of his choice of bright colours for his costume. The drawings were of good quality. This comic was made at a time long before MMA and UFC, when martial arts still had some exotic, mystical type appeal and the origins story builds on that along with some national stereotypes, though I didn?t find them overdone or offensive. Also, I?m glad the dialogue wasn?t verbose as it has been in some comics I?ve read of late. Judomaster is a likable, fun character. I could imagine him being rebooted in the modern age as more of an all-round martial artist, somewhat similar to Ironfist.

[gregjh]

Introducing Rip Jagger... Judomaster ? Rip Jagger... sounds like a made up name from an MST3K episode (Fist Rockbone! Smash Lampjaw! Punch Rockgroin! Big McLargehuge!) Soooooo... Judomaster became an expert in weeks? Doesn't that normally take years? Otherwise okay.

Fight For Freedom ? Eh. Didn't grab me.

Sport of Judo ? Okay, but nothing special.

He was already trained, the Chinese improved him and taught him Jujitsu (the original form of Judo, which includes striking) whereas he was previously only trained in Judo (the grappling and throwing aspects of Jujitsu). That was my understanding, anyway.

[Robb_K]

Introducing Rip Jagger... Judomaster ? Rip Jagger... sounds like a made up name from an MST3K episode (Fist Rockbone! Smash Lampjaw! Punch Rockgroin! Big McLargehuge!) Soooooo... Judomaster became an expert in weeks? Doesn't that normally take years? Otherwise okay.

Fight For Freedom ? Eh. Didn't grab me.

Sport of Judo ? Okay, but nothing special.

He was already trained, the Chinese improved him and taught him Jujitsu (the original form of Judo, which includes striking) whereas he was previously only trained in Judo (the grappling and throwing aspects of Jujitsu). That was my understanding, anyway.

That's the way I took it, too.

[The Australian Panther]

Unusual times. I'm a little late on the wrap-up for this, and Andrew is a little early for his choice.
This was not my choice, but I do have a bit of a personal collector history with Charlton.

Most of the Charlton Superheroes of the mid60's were released in Australia, but were not easy to find.
I found a shop many klicks away from home,  (Used to bicycle there on Saturday afternoon) that had all of them but dumped in a mess at the back of the shop where I used to pore thorough the pile to find them.   

First:- Space Adventures # 33. Two out of 3 stories are filler  I was introduced to Captain Atom via the later issues of the character. From 78 on. Oddly, this origin features the Yellow and orange costume on the cover, but it is coloured blue in the interior art.

Yes, the origin is silly. First - the idea that a space launch would be so unprofessional that a rocket could take off with an officer trapped inside it is far-fetched. Radiation? This was written at a time when very little about radiation except that it was dangerous. It was a handy catch-all for Superhero Origins.
Look at Marvel. Radiation accounts for the origins of The Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spiderman and Daredevil. And originally for the X-men. ( The children of the Atom)
I always liked this character. When DC took over the Charlton characters, they never seemed to make their minds up about what they wanted to do with them, particularly Captain Atom. They were consistently inconsistent
At one early point, in a mini-series, they shipped him entirely out of the DC universe and into the (then separate)  Wildstorm universe. For a cosmic superhero, he kept getting captured or taken out of action. Indicating that DC was uncomfortable with this character who was as powerful as  Superman.
In Kingdom Come he is killed and the released Radiation destroys Kansas.
Only in the Mini-series L.A.W. did he get a break and reunite with all the major Charlton Heroes. He ended up with another Red Orange Costume in that one, but it led to nothing.
The standard DC costume,  blue with a red blob on his chest, is one of the worst costumes ever.
Memorably, he was the inspiration for Alan Moores' character, Dr Manhattan. But in the recent series in which Manhattan arrives in and interferes with the DC Earth 1 Universe, he doesn't meet - as far as I know - Captain Atom.
I liked the Charleton stories, just straight-forward superhero stories with Ditko art to enjoy.
I Just thought - If Captain Atom had stayed with Charlton, he could have had a team-up with E-man!   

Next: - Origin of Judomaster.
The Art is OK but nothing special. The origin is confusing as is the costume. I think the location is meant to be Okinawa. Why a group of people on an Island south of Japan - who are being oppressed by the Japanese - would have a Sensei 'Teacher' of Judo, standing in front of a Japanese flag I don't know. Or am I mixed up?  What made the series stand apart for me, was that it seemed that at least one of the creators had a knowledge and understanding of Judo.
I think that JudoMaster was the first actual martial arts master in comics. Happy to be proved wrong, tho! The later Kung-fu craze was kicked off by Bruce Lee's movies and was a characteristic of the 70's, Whereas Judomaster was published in 1965.
If Memory serves, Judo was quite popular at that time and Judo and Karate were the first two schools adopted by the west.

DC also didn't know what to do with this character. He was killed off in Final Crisis, replaced by another man in one story in Justice League Quarterly and later by a female Judomaster. Among other things.

Both characters deserved better, as did all the other Charlton characters recreated by DC. And the ones that weren't recreated.

Cheers! and Happy reading           
             

[paw broon]

Great choice.  Thank you.  I love the Charlton Captain Atom. Who needs real science in a superhero comic book?  Not me.  Doctor Solar also was forged from a nuclear accident and that was another great series.  Captain atom really benefits fro the Ditko art.  I was blown away the first time I saw this story. Interstingly, the reprint in an Alan Class book in b&w, wouldn't have had the same problem with the colour of the uniform.  You'd see the colour on the cover and assume that inside, the colour was the same. 
There seems to me be to be light behind Ditko's art.  The panels seem to shine.  I don't see colours that well so I could be havering.
Crash mentioned Nukla, so there were a few nuclear heroes knocking about. And it's atomic power which changes Micky Moran into Marvelman.
As for Judomaster, I've never been a big fan.  This origin seemed unlikely to me but I did enjoy the garish costumes.

Don't know if any of you remember Bobby Bell's Judo page from The Fly.  Bobby in his Shield uniform demonstrating jiu jitsu moves?  Didn't Black Hood have a page about karate?  And Black Cat had karate demo pages.

The DC versions of the Charlton heroes were, imo terrible.  I think the Charlton heroes were easily as entertaining as  a lot of the stuff put out by the big 2.  Ditko on Cap and Blue Beetle; PAM on Thunderbolt.  OOPS, forgot The Question, also done by Toth in Bullseye.  Wonderful.

[gregjh]

DC also didn't know what to do with this character. He was killed off in Final Crisis, replaced by another man in one story in Justice League Quarterly and later by a female Judomaster. Among other things.

Both characters deserved better, as did all the other Charlton characters recreated by DC. And the ones that weren't recreated.

Cheers! and Happy reading           
             

If they had let the copyright slip, I could have suggested a reboot to the indie comic authors, but it seems DC and Marvel both prefer to publish a character once every other year to keep the copyright alive.

[narfstar]

DC does not actually have the copyright rights just the trademark. Anyone can do the Charlton version
just not put the name on the cover

[profh0011]

I have one issue of JUDOMASTER.  The main draw to me is ther art by Frank McLaughlin, who apparently was very much into martial arts in real life.

It seems to me that he may be one of many artists who worked in comics who were trapped into inking other people's work, instead of doing his own (think Tony DeZuniga).

Many of the artists he worked with, his inks tended to so completely overpower them, he almost buried their work (mostly Dick Dillin, but also, even George Perez nearly vanished when he first took over JLA from Dillin when Dillin  suddenly passed away after one episode of a 3-part JLA-JSA-New Gods crossover).  I thought he worked much better later on with Carmine Infantino, whose work had been reduced to the loosest of diagrams (it's hard to even call them layouts).  I particularly liked the Infantino-McLaughlin team on the 4-issue mini DANGER TRAIL.

However, he very nearly became the regular artist on IRON FIST early-on.  McLaughlin did full art on the Iron Fist episode of "The Master Plan Of Fu Manchu" in the DEADLY HANDS SPECIAL.  And while IF was still in MARVEL PREMIERE, there were plans to move him into his own B&W magazine.  Apparently, this idea was rejected at a late moment, and the intended 1st issue was instead published as DEADLY HANDS #10... with Rudy Nebres, on inks.  That was my 1st exposure to Nebres' overly-flowery line style.  (Talk about "over-powering"!)

So, instead of McLaughlin taking over from Larry Hama, the new guy (for 3 episodes, anyway) was Arvell Jones, years before he worked for DC and years before his art looked professional.  He was then replaced for 3 episodes by Pat Broderick (under 3 different inkers), and then John Byrne took over, before HIS art actually looked professional.  He stuck around, and eventually was inked by Dan Adkins, who managed to make him look like he knew what he was doing (heh).

Given a choice, I'd have preferred if that entire era of IF had been done by Doug Moench, Larry Hama & Dick Giordano.  Or, Frank McLaughlin & Dick Giordano.  Which is funny, as I understand McLaughlin started out as one of Giordano's assistants.  Giordano's SARGE STEELE was the back-up feature in the JUDOMASTER book.




Personally, I don't give a S*** what DC did to any of the Charlton characters.  Except, MAYBE, Blue Beetle.  And I can't forgive them for BRUTALLY MURDERING Ted Kord on-camera as part of a story gimmick.  F*** you, DC.  (And I have more respect for DC than I do Marvel these days.)