Charlton Media Group (CMG) is a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

-based publisher owned and operated by Canadian entrepreneur Roger Broughton. CMG has published

Charlton 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 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton ...

and

American Comics Group American Comics Group (ACG) was an American comic book publisher started in 1939 and existing under the ACG name from 1943 to 1967. It published the medium's first ongoing horror-comics title, ''Adventures into the Unknown''. ACG's best-known ch ...

reprint comics, under several names, including Sword in Stone, A+, and America's Comics Group.

History

Long-time comics publisher

went out of business in 1985. Most of Charlton's superhero characters had been acquired in 1983 by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, and Broughton's company Sword in Stone Productions purchased the reprint rights to the remaining Charlton Comics properties in 1986. Broughton produced several reprint titles under the company name of

Avalon Communications Charlton Media Group (CMG) is a Montreal-based publisher owned and operated by Canadian entrepreneur Roger Broughton. CMG has published Charlton Comics and American Comics Group reprint comics, under several names, including Sword in Stone, A+, a ...

and its imprint

America's Comics Group Charlton Media Group (CMG) is a Montreal-based publisher owned and operated by Canadian entrepreneur Roger Broughton. CMG has published Charlton Comics and American Comics Group reprint comics, under several names, including Sword in Stone, A+, a ...

(ACG), Broughton having also purchased the rights to the defunct

properties. Broughton at first concentrated on syndicating material worldwide, while publishing a few comics titles in America, including the 1999 ACG Classix imprint ''Pulp Comics'', which primarily reprinted the early 1940s syndicated newspaper strip,

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

, based on the popular Street and Smith Shadow pulp novels and famous radio show character. Charlton material appeared in Europe, Asia, and South Africa. Many children's titles were reprinted by

Harvey Comics Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfr ...

Merger

In 2002, Broughton announced the merger of ACG with a film production company and a graphic design firm to form the Charlton Media Group"Charlton rises from the ashes," The 4th Rail (Aug. 14, 2002). (not related to the Charlton Media Group of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, which produces business-related publications), created in part to publish new comics and reprints featuring Charlton and ACG characters. So far only ACG and Charlton reprints have seen the light of day. In 2007 an agreement was signed with

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

to reprint American Comics Group's 1960s superheroes, Nemesis and Magicman, and original

Herbie Herbie, the Love Bug is a fictional Sentience, sentient 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, who has been featured in several Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney motion pictures starting with the 1968 feature film ''The Love Bug''. He has a mind of his own an ...

comics stories. Thus far, Dark Horse has reprinted all the Herbie stories in three volumes, and single-volume reprints of Nemesis and Magicman.

Notes

References

* * * Comic book publishing companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 1986 Publishing companies established in 1986 {{Canadian-comics-creator-stub