Contemporary Pictorial Literature

The CPL Gang was a group of comic book enthusiasts who published a number of fanzines in the mid-1970s, including Contemporary Pictorial Literature (CPL) and Charlton Bullseye. Founded by Roger Stern and Bob Layton, the CPL Gang eventually included Roger Slifer, Duffy Vohland, Tony Isabella, Don Maitz, Michael Uslan, Steven Grant, and John Byrne, all of whom later became comics professionals.

Layton and Stern began publishing the CPL fanzine out of Layton's Indianapolis apartment. Stern recalls that, "CPL started out as Bob's sale catalog. Bob was drawing the covers and including little reviews written by some of his customers."

By issue #5, CPL "... turned into a small 'zine with a catalog insert, and [Stern] started writing short articles for it. [He] eventually became an editor of sorts."CPL featured a mix of articles, interviews, columns, art, and comics strips. In addition to CPL Gang members, contributors included established industry professionals like Gil Kane, Alex Toth, Paul Gulacy, Mike Vosburg, Dan Adkins, P. Craig Russell, and Joe Sinnott. Rog-2000, the John Byrne-created CPL "mascot," went on to become a character in the Charlton Comics universe.

CPL rapidly became a popular fan publication, and led to Layton and Stern forming an alliance with Charlton Comics to produce and publish a one-shot called Charlton Portfolio (actually CPL #9/10) in 1974, which included the unpublished sixth issue of Blue Beetle vol. 5 (1967 series).

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