Showing posts with label nicola cuti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nicola cuti. Show all posts

Monday, 13 June 2016

The Most Beautiful Girl In The World



No, that's not the most beautiful girl in the world. That's the star of a Nic Cuti / Joe Staton tale called Last Of It's Kind, reprinted here from an earlier issue of Midnight Tales.
No, it's this girl, who I'm saying is drawn by no less than Supercats' Jorge Galvez. The story's average, but Jorge's art is, well, beautiful as always and he even shoehorns in a blatant Vampirella swipe. Plus the uncredited writer seems to have stolen Roy Thomas' patented third-person Iron Fist narration, which is unusual for Charlton. Maybe it's Roy or Marv moonlighting?









Oh, go on then. Here's Nic & Joe's story as well.







Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Monster Hunters: The Hour Of The Werewolf



Let's play a quick game of Who's The Werewolf, shall we? Here's Colonel Whiteshroud, one of Charlton's many horror hosts, for once not just introducing his spooky tales, but taking over the whole issue for an adventure similiar to that old Amicus flick The Beast Must Die.
It's early Mike Zeck, who was always great at werewolves ( remember that Solomon Kane story he did? ) plus there's a cameo from Baron Weirwulf, yet another Charlton creepy tale-spinner. Top stuff all round.






Tuesday, 5 May 2015

E-Man



E-Man, if you've somehow yet to meet him, was Charlton's brief early '70's foray into superherodom, following the demise of the Action Heroes line in 1968 or thereabouts.
Writer Nic Cuti's original inspiration was Plastic Man, but I always looked at E-Man more as a groovier Captain Marvel ( the Shazam one ), being a light, bright, whimsical strip full of something sadly lacking in, well, just about every comic these days. Charm.
E-Man is a literally cosmic energy being with unlimited powers, who comes to Earth, likes it, and decides to stay, and the strip is just a hugely fun romp, ever so slightly satirical and completely irresistible.
E-Man is the ultimate nice guy, an innocent abroad who delights in every aspect of his new home. While as a counterpoint you, and E-Man, also get to meet his girlfriend Nova Kane, a sassy, intelligent female lead right up there with Beverly Switzler.
Again, your favourite stuff is all about when you first encounter it, and E-Man always feels like long, warm summer holidays to me, when comics were delightful.
Like the comic book version of a souffle, it takes a deft hand to make this work, and E-Man always teetered on the precipice of satire without quite falling over, until later writers missed the point entirely and went completely down that route ( Ford Fairmont's The F-Men anybody? ), so best to start with the original series. Cuti and artist Joe Staton are an absolutely perfect match here, as always, with the first issue.