The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and widespread commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those featuring the superhero archetype. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books, the Silver Age is considered to cover the period from 1956 to 1970, and was succeeded by the Bronze Age.
The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known characters were introduced, including Superman, Batman, Robin, Captain Marvel, Captain America, and Wonder Woman.
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 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton Publications, which published magazines, puzzle books, and briefly, books. It had its own distribution company.
Captain Atom is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books, initially owned by Charlton Comics before being acquired in the 1980s by DC Comics. All possess some form of energy-manipulating abilities.
Atomic Mouse is a talking animal superhero created in 1953 by Al Fago for Charlton Comics.
AC Comics is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.
Judomaster is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Stanley John Joseph Pitt was an Australian cartoonist and commercial artist. Pitt was the first Australian comic artist to have original work published by a major American comic book company. He often collaborated with his brother, Reginald Pitt.
Sarge Steel is a detective/spy character published by Charlton Comics during the 1960s. As he was published during the time of Charlton's Action Heroes line of superheroes, and had loose ties to some, he is sometimes included with that group. He was purchased by DC Comics along with the other "Action Heroes".
Joseph P. Gill was an American magazine writer and highly prolific comic book scripter. Most of his work was for Charlton Comics, where he co-created the superheroes Captain Atom, Peacemaker, and Judomaster, among others. Comics historians consider Gill a top contender as the comic-book field's most prolific writer. Per historian and columnist Mark Evanier, Gill "wrote a staggering number of comics. There are a half-dozen guys in his category. If someone came back and said he was the most prolific ever, no one would be surprised."
L. Miller & Son, Ltd. was a British publisher of magazines, comic books, pulp fiction and paperback books intended primarily to take advantage of the British ban on importing printed matter. Between 1943 and 1966, the firm published British editions of many American comic books, primarily those of Fawcett Comics and American paperback books, primarily those of Fawcett Publications' Gold Medal Books. The company is best known for the 1954 creation of Marvelman – a blatant imitation of the Golden Age Captain Marvel – after America's Fawcett Publications capitulated to National Periodicals. L. Miller & Son also published a large line of Western comics — many reprints but also some original titles - and both category fiction and non-fiction paperbacks.
Sentinels of Justice is a fictional organization of superheroes. The comic was published by Americomics in 1983 during a very brief time that AC was able to license the Charlton Comics superheroes before the rights were purchased outright by DC Comics. The team consisted of Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, the Question and Nightshade. This line-up's first appearance was in Americomics Special #1. A revised team made up of existing Americomics characters Captain Paragon, Nightveil, Stardust, Commando D, and Scarlet Scorpion would appear in Captain Paragon and the Sentinels of Justice #1–3 (1985–86), the title would change to Sentinels of Justice with #4, it would last until issue #6 (1986).
Australian comics have been published since 1908 and Australian comics creators have gone to produce influential work in the global comics industry,
Alan Class Comics was a British comics publishing company that operated between 1959 and 1989. The company produced anthology titles, reprinting comics stories from many U.S. publishers of the 1940s to 1960s in a black and white digest size format for a UK audience. During the 1960s and 1970s, these reprints were the main medium through which British children were introduced to American monster and mystery comics, as well as most non-DC or Marvel superheroes.
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Western comics of the period typically featured dramatic scripts about cowboys, gunfighters, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, and Native Americans. Accompanying artwork depicted a rural America populated with such iconic images as guns, cowboy hats, vests, horses, saloons, ranches, and deserts, contemporaneous with the setting.
Gerald Carr is an Australian comic book writer, artist and illustrator, best known for his creations, Vampire! and Vixen.
Dan Garret or Dan Garrett is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Fox Comics, Holyoke Publishing, Charlton Comics, and DC Comics. Garret was created by Charles Wojtkoski, and made his first appearance in Fox's Mystery Men Comics #1 during the Golden Age of Comic Books. Garret is the first character to become the superhero Blue Beetle, predating Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes.
Atlas Publications was an Australian publishing company which operated from 1948 until 1958 and was based in Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne. It published magazines and popular fiction, and the genre for which it was best known, adventure comics. It had no relation to the American company Atlas Comics which was active in the same period.
Jack Weldon Bellew was an Australian journalist and publisher. He was a former chief of staff of The Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Daily News and one of the three founders of Atlas Publications.
Arthur Richard Mather was an Australian cartoonist, illustrator, and novelist. He was the creating artist of one of Australia's most successful comics series, Captain Atom. From the late 1950s until 1975 he worked in advertising and in his later years became a novelist.
