Vintage Geek Culture

In 1983, AC Comics leased from the Charlton Comics rightsholders the right to do their own Blue Beetle and superhero comics. This Blue Beetle revival only really lasted an issue in Americomics, penned by Ric Levins. 

AC Comics only made a single special, the first time the Charlton Heroes ever met up all together. After this, however, DC bought the rights to the non-creator owned Charlton heroes, and they’ve been a part of DC Comics ever since, just like previous acquisitions like the Fawcett and Quality Publishing heroes. The fact AC Comics briefly revived them in the early 80s is seldom mentioned.

Rowena Morrill.

Help Desk at Trans World Airlines in Idlewild Airport, 1958. 

Denise Coward.

Who was the first female superhero in comics? I suppose it depends on your definition of what qualifies as a superhero, but historian Trina Robbins considers the Woman in Red, a gun-toting mystery woman, to be the first, predating other candidates like Invisible Scarlett O’Neil, Lady Luck, and Wonder Woman by several months. Peggy Allen was a former policewoman (rare, for 1940) who became a masked crimefighter due to her frustration with her job. 

Hoots the Jazz-Playing Owl. 

Andrew Farley.

Frank Kelly Freas’s illustrations for Phillip K. Dick’s “The Golden Man.”