the one & only Tom Sutton LEGENDARY COMICS ARTIST-WRITER TOM SUTTON world. He was a freelance commercial artist during this period died on May 1, 2002. Details are still uncertain, and was animation art director for an industrial education but Tom probably suffered a heart attack and firm. Tom married in the early 1960s and fathered two sons. In 1967 Tom rediscovered comic books and broke into the was found in his apartment, reportedly at his field with a story intended for Warren’s Famous Monsters of drawing board. Filmland (diverted to an issue of Eerie), beginning a long and fruitful association that would result in classic stories and I learned of Tom’s death as I was wrapping up the second covers for Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines. At the issue of this magazine for press. At once I started making same time Tom began working for Marvel Comics, drawing plans for a Sutton tribute, sending out the call for contribu- backup western stories for Kid Colt, Outlaw and humor strips tions from those who’d known or worked with him. Over the for Not Brand Ecch!. His accounts grew to include DC, next year the memoirs, letters, phone calls, art, and photos Skywald, Atlas/Seaboard, and Topps. came rolling in, and I began to get a better idea of the enor- The mid-1970s saw the Charlton Comics Group’s last and mous respect Tom had earned from his peers and fans during best flourishing, his long career. This issue of Charlton Spotlight, then, is the apex of its long largely a tribute to the life and work of Tom Sutton. struggle from We want to look at as much of Tom’s art as we can, because obscure, small- he was a giant of pictorial storytelling. But we also want to time beginnings in learn about the man behind the pictures. There is enough the 1940s to room only to outline his biography (for fuller details, see the industry third-tier resources on page 45). Briefly: Tom Sutton was born April 15, leader of the 1937, in North Adams, Massachusetts, and grew up there. 1960s. It was a Like many other cartoonists, Tom turned to drawing as an time of exciting escape from a world that was not as interesting as those he new creative discovered in books, movies, comic strips, and comic books. leadership of the Early influences included Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, and neglected comics Hal Foster. By Tom’s own admission, the classic E.C. horror line under and science fiction comics of the 1950s had a profound effect executive editor on the budding comics artist: Wally Wood, in particular, George Wildman remained one of and managing Tom at the board in 1989. Photo © 2004 J. Shelby Gragg. Tom’s personal editor Nicola Cuti, comics gods. spawning the After high school company’s first graduation in 1955, new superhero Tom enlisted in the characters in Air Force and saw years and its tours in Wyoming highest annual and Japan, eventu- total of published ally being assigned to issues since the Tom’s irreverant contribution to John Carbonaro’s Phase #1, the Tokyo offices of 1950s. Stagnation 1971. © 1971, 2004 Estate of Tom Sutton. the Stars and Stripes gave way to fresh newspaper. Tom growth, due in no small part to the arrival of Tom Sutton. made his first forays We don’t know how Tom first made contact with the Derby into sequential art outfit, but his earliest identifiable Charlton story is “One Man there, creating and Air Force!” in Attack #9 (Dec. 1972). Tom showed equal facility producing adventure with war and fantasy material and would eventually come to strips F.E.A.F. dominate the pages of Ghostly Tales, Fightin’ Marines, and Dragon and Johnny other genre titles. His highly individualistic style and ap- Craig. Tom was proach put him in the company of fellow innovators Steve discharged in 1959 Ditko, Pat Boyette, and Joe Staton. Tom painted some of and returned to Charlton’s most memorably horrific covers during his four- Massachusetts to win year Charlton hitch (examples of which we offer in our cover a scholarship to the gallery). He enjoyed the latitude Charlton offered to freely School at the Boston interpret scripts and to paint covers. “It was what you wanted Museum of Fine Arts, to do!” he said the first time I talked to him. “George would where he advanced call up: ‘Tom, I need a six-page weird story’—he called ’em life drawing and ‘weird stories’—‘by Friday.’ ” And Tom would do it, in the late painting skills and hours after attending to more lucrative accounts, because of gained exposure to the artistic freedom—and the regular Charlton checks. the larger fine arts The lack of editorial interference was attractive, and Tom 2 CHARLTON SPOTLIGHT began to Wildman to both write consider continuing and draw his the series with new own mate- material. He rial for commissioned Tom Charlton, to write and draw a sometimes new 15-page story painting the and cover for a cover also, brand-new issue occasionally 13. As reported in producing The Comic Reader the entire #166, Mar. 1979, book. Mem- however, by the orable exam- time later sales ples of Tom’s figures were in, book-length Charlton execu- stories are tives had changed “Mountain their minds and of Fear” canceled the series, (Haunted leaving the new #20, Feb. material in limbo. 1975) and Tom Sutton “The Devil’s moved on. Over the Lies” (The next twenty years Many Ghosts he had work in Stefan Petrucha and Tom Sutton, 1989. Photo © 2004 J. Shelby Gragg. of Doctor Marvel’s Planet of The aborted Doomsday+1 #13. © Charlton Comics Group. Graves #50, Mar. 1975). Occasional stories would be designed the Apes and Doctor for black-and-white printing. A classic case is “Through a Strange and a long run on DC’s Star Trek. He did odd series Glass Darkly” (Ghostly Tales #113, Feb. 1975), accompanied for the new publishers that cropped up in the 1980s, such as by one of Tom’s most bizarre painted covers. He even tried his his work with Stefan Petrucha on Squalor for First Comics. By hand at two intriguing series ideas, neither of which went the mid-1990s Tom had embarked on the final phase of his beyond their first appearances: The Knight (E-Man #1, Oct. career, creating erotic books for Fantagraphics’ Eros comics 1973) and The Ghost Train (Billy the Kid #111, Feb. 1975). line. Along the way, Tom drew the cover for the Comic Book In early 2000, while assembling Charlton Spotlight #1, I Guide for the Artist • Writer • Letterer, a small pamphlet called Tom to talk about Pat Boyette. That first conversation produced as a subscription premium. Nick Cuti was the lasted almost two hours. I asked Tom if he would draw a cover mastermind behind this still-useful little item, whose tongue- for the first issue, and he readily agreed. I sent off a package in-cheek cover gives us much insight into how much fun Tom of reference materials, and in short order Tom delivered a seemed to be having with his Charlton stories in those days. delightful, personalized depiction of Pat at the drawing board, But he was never under any illusion that this work would characteristically talking on the phone while wielding a make him rich. “There were so many different people, so many pencil, surrounded by some of the icons of his cartooning, film, different styles, so many different, shall we say, degrees of and historical interests. For all I know, this may have been ability demonstrated in those magazines, it was really the last time Tom drew any of the Charlton charac- fascinating in its own weird way,” Tom said. ters. “They were one of the cheapest We last talked in mid-February 2002. Tom outfits I ever worked for.” sounded a little tired; maybe he was run-down, All that came to an end with maybe he’d just gotten up from a nap and was still Charlton’s implosion in 1976, groggy. Or maybe my memory is colored by the fact when 90 percent of the comics that, barely three months later, Tom would be met the chopping block. By late gone. During those months I was busy producing 1977, the line had dwindled to a Spotlight #2. I kept meaning to call Tom and I couple of dozen reprint titles. kept putting it off. I was eager to hear his With one exception, Tom did no reaction to the new issue. Just days before I more original work for Charlton would deliver it to the printer, I got the news after 1976. His stories and covers that he had died. Bill Pearson may have been continued to be reprinted for years. the last person to talk to Tom. By mid-1979, Charlton had Tom’s Charlton work is now decades old, reprinted the entire six-issue run of but there are still a great many of us who’ve Doomsday+1, the innovative post- never forgotten it. I thank the many contribu- apocalyptic SF title written by Joe tors for their help in creating this tribute, Gill and drawn by a young John and I invite you now to turn the page and Byrne from 1975 to 1976. Apparently join our celebration of the one and only Tom the early sales results for reprint Sutton. issues 7-12 were good enough for —Michael Ambrose CHARLTON SPOTLIGHT 3.