Promotional Comics: Modern

Created by and © Ramon Schenk 2006. Additional data provided by Mike Ambrose and others.
Introduction
This page is meant to become a tribute and a guide to the history of those peculiar reprint comics published in 1977 and 1978 by what appears to have been an imprint of Charlton Comics
As yet the list is probably not complete, especially in the graphics department, but I strive to include all known Moderns in the near future.
Does anyone know if there is any connection to Charlton-Modern and the Modern Publishing who brought out Voltron in 1985?

As a start of an in-depth look at Modern Comics, I here reproduce a short piece on the Modern line by Mike Ambrose, publisher and editor of Charlton Spotlight, a magazine devoted to the history of Charlton, and therefore also the history of Modern. The piece was originally posted to the Charlton-l on the internet, and is reproduced here by permission.Modern Comics
By Mike Ambrose

These books were reprinted page-for-page from the originals, undoubtedly using the originals negs (negatives - Ramon) or silver prints. Even letters pages and text stories are reprinted, and as far as I can tell even the same color schemes were used from original to reprint. Only the advertising content is different.

Because of the way the Moderns were picked essentially at random and printed and packaged cheaply, I can't see where there would have been any incentive to start monkeying with a book's contents to put together any kind of "original" reprint content.

The copyright on the Modern reprints was by Tops Photo Engraving Corp., which was the captive engraving entitiy that Charlton used. George Wildman, in CBA (Comic Book Artist - Ramon) #12 (p.24) says "[Modern Comics] was a merchandising type thing. They would sell them to department stores -- Caldor, Wal-Mart, name any chain stores you could think of. And our people didn't have to worry about distribution on these... You buy them outright. Here's how it worked: J. C. Penney would buy 100,000 [copies] from us and they could then advertise, 'Buy a T-shirt and get three comics for free.' The comics were used for merchandising."

The only mysteries left about Modern, as far as I'm concerned, are:
1) How many of what issues were reprinted, and in what quantities;
2) Who was Ronald Gold, publisher of Modern Comics/Unisystems, Inc.;
3) If the Moderns were supposedly packaged in bagged 3-packs, how is it you never see any of them still around in the original bags? The multipack Charltons from the mid-70s are reasonably common, but all the Moderns I've ever seen have been loose;
4) Every Modern I've seen has a 35c cover price, which makes me tend to doubt that the books were exclusively used for promotion. I suspect a lot them were sold on the stands.

Army War Heroes #36 - 1978
Attack #13 - 1978
Beyond The Grave #2 - 1978
Billy The Kid #109 - 1977
Blue Beetle #1 - 1977
Blue Beetle #3- 1977
Captain Atom #83 - 1977
Captain Atom #84 - 1977
Captain Atom #85 - 1977
Cheyenne Kid #87 - 1978
Cheyenne Kid #89 - 1978
Creepy Things #2 - 1977
Creepy Things #3 - 1977
Creepy Things #4 - 1977
Creepy Things #5 - 1977
Creepy Things #6 - 1977
Doomsday +1 #5 - 1977
Drag 'n' Wheels #58 - 1978
E-Man #1 - 1977
E-Man #2 - 1977
E-Man #3 - 1977
E-Man #4 - 1977
E-Man #9 - 1977
E-Man #10 - 1977
Fightin' Army #108 - 1977
Fightin' Marines #120 - 1977
Geronimo Jones #7 - 1978
Ghostly Haunts #40 - 1977
Ghostly Haunts #41 - 1978
Ghost Manor Vol.2 #19 - 1977
Haunted Love #1 - 1978
Hercules #10 - 1977
Hercules #11 - 1978
House Of Yang #1 - 1978
House Of Yang #2 - 1978
Judo Master #93 - 1977
Judo Master #94 - 1977
Judo Master #96 - 1977
Judo Master #98 - 1977
Many Ghosts Of Doctor Graves #12 - 1978
Many Ghosts Of Doctor Graves #25 -1978
Midnight Tales #12 - 1977
Midnight Tales #17 - 1977
Monster Hunters #1 - 1977
Monster Hunters #2 - 1977
Outlaws Of The West #64 - 1977
Outlaws Of The West #79 - 1978
Peacemaker #1 - 1978
Peacemaker #2 - 1978
Scary Tales #1 - 1977
Texas Rangers In Action #76 - 1977
Thunderbolt #57 - 1977
Thunderbolt #58 - 1977
Vengeance Squad #5 - 1977
Vengeance Squad #6 - 1977
War #7 - 1977
War #9 - 1977
World Of Wheels #23 - 1978
Yang #3 - 1977
Yang #10 - 1977
Yang #11 - 1977