Charlton Media Group (CMG) is a

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

-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 (comics), line was a divi ...

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 cha ...

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 (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, 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 American 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 Gibs ...

, based on the popular

Street and Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc., was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among t ...

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 Alf ...

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 an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, 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, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

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

Herbie Herbie, the Love Bug is a sentient 1963 Volkswagen Beetle racing car which has been featured in several Walt Disney motion pictures starting with ''The Love Bug in'' 1968. He has a mind of his own, being capable of driving himself and often be ...

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