Logo for the Charlton Comics company
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company based in Derby, Connecticut that existed between 1946 and 1986, although it began under the earlier name "T.W.O Charles Company" in 1944.[1]
Unlike most comic book publishers of the time (who often just outsourced the publishing and distribution process from other companies) Charlton's most unique feature was that it controlled all aspects of comic book manufacturing , such as editorial work and printing, within house. It was also notable for its low budget practices, such as acquiring unpublished material from defunct companies for its comics and even using ,at one point, a second hand press originally intended for cereal boxes as a printing press.
However, these practices often came at the expense of their writers and artists, as many of them had the lowest pay rates within the industry.
In 1983, as the company was beginning to decline irreversibly, Charlton Comics' superhero characters were bought by DC Comics. Alan Moore intended to use the characters as his protagonists when writing Watchmen as a limited series in 1985, although DC quickly executives realized that allowing Moore to use these characters would make them unusable in the future since they would be killed off. Instead, Moore created original characters that were based (sometimes quite loosely) on the Charlton Comics superheroes, and several of them (including Captain Atom, the Peacemaker, the Question and the Blue Beetle) were introduced into the mainstream DC Universe during the company's famous Crisis on Infinite Earths cross-over event of 1985-1986, which was around the same time that issues of Moore's and artist Dave Gibbons' Watchmen were being released.
Homages in Watchmen[]
As a homage to its source material, the New Jersey-based orphanage that Rorschach was institutionalized at as a child is named "Lillian Charlton Home for Problem Children".
In the Tom King-penned DC Black Label 2020-2021 limited series Rorschach, Charlton Comics in the Watchmen universe not only survived well into the 21st century, but also became a highly successful film and television studio called Charlton Studios; essentially serving as this world's version of both Marvel Studios and DC Studios.
Charlton Comics characters and their Watchmen counterparts[]
Because Moore wasn't allowed to use any of the Charlton Comics characters for Watchmen, he decided to create original main characters that served as analogs for Charlton's silver age superheroes. Some of these characters (like Rorschach) are almost identical to their Charlton counterparts, while other (such as Silk Spectre II) are far too divergent in nature to be considered based on them.
| Charlton Comics character | Creator(s) | Watchmen counterpart |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Beetle (Dan Garrett) (WP, DCDP) |
Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski | Nite Owl (Hollis Mason) |
| Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) (WP, DCDP) |
Steve Ditko | Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg) |
| Captain Atom (WP, DCDP) |
Joe Gill Steve Ditko |
Doctor Manhattan |
| Nightshade (WP, DCDP) |
Joe Gill Steve Ditko |
Silk Spectre (Laurie Juspeczyk) |
| Peacemaker (WP, DCDP) |
Joe Gill Pat Boyette |
Comedian |
| The Question (WP, DCDP) |
Steve Ditko | Rorschach |
| Thunderbolt (Peter Cannon) (WP, DCDP) |
Pete Morisi | Ozymandias |