Charlton Comics
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| Comic publisher | |
| Industry | Comics |
| Founded | 1945 |
| Founder | John Santangelo, Sr. Ed Levy |
| Defunct | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Derby, Connecticut |
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Key people
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Al Fago Pat Masulli George Wildman |
| Owner | Charlton Publications |
| Divisions | Frank Comunale Publications Children Comics Publishing Frank Publications Modern Comics |
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name (T.W.O. Charles Company) in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton Publications, which published magazines (most notably song-lyric magazines), puzzle books and, briefly, books (under the Monarch and Gold Star imprints). It had its own distribution company (Capital Distribution).
Charlton Comics published a wide variety of genres, including crime, science fiction, Western, horror, war and romance comics, as well as funny animal and superhero titles. The company was known for its low-budget practices, often using unpublished material acquired from defunct companies and paying comics creators among the lowest rates in the industry. Charlton Comics were also the last of the American comics to raise their price from ten cents to 12 cents in 1962.
It was unique among comic book companies in that it controlled all areas of publishing—from editorial to printing to distribution—rather than working with outside printers and distributors as did most other publishers. It did so under one roof at its Derby headquarters.
The company was formed by John Santangelo, Sr. and Ed Levy in 1940 as T.W.O. Charles Company, named after the co-founders' two sons, both named Charles, and became Charlton Publications in 1945.
In 1931, Italian immigrant John Santangelo, Sr., a bricklayer who had started a construction business in White Plains, New York, five years earlier, began what became a highly successfully business publishing song-lyric magazines out of nearby Yonkers, New York. Operating in violation of copyright laws, however, he was sentenced in 1934 to a year and a day at New Haven County Jail in New Haven, Connecticut, near Derby, Connecticut where he and his wife by then lived. In jail, he met Waterbury, Connecticut, attorney Ed Levy, with whom he began legitimate publishing in 1935, acquiring permissions to reproduce lyrics in such magazines as Hit Parade and Song Hits. Santangelo and Levy opened a printing plant in Waterbury the following year, and in 1940 founded the T.W.O. Charles Company, named after each of the co-founders' sons, both named Charles, eventually moving its headquarters to Derby.
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