Editing Charlton Comics (section)

===Final years===
By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic-book industry was in a sales slump, struggling to reinvent a profitable distribution and retail system. Charlton's licensed titles lapsed, its aging presses were deteriorating towards uselessness, and the company did not have the resources to replace them. In 1981,  yet another attempt was made at new material, with a comic-book version of ''[[Charlton Bullseye (comic)|Charlton Bullseye]]'' serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic-book fans,<ref>"Charlton to Publish Aspiring Pro's Work for Free," ''The Comics Journal'' #59 (Oct. 1980), p. 14.</ref> and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles. A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under the Modern Comics imprint and sold in bagged sets in department stores (in much the same way [[Gold Key Comics]] were published under the [[Whitman Comics]] moniker around the same time). None of these measures worked, and in 1984, Charlton Comics suspended publication.<ref>"Charlton Comics Suspends Publication," ''[[The Comics Journal]]'' #94 (Oct. 1984), p. 18.</ref>

In 1985, a final attempt at a revival was spearheaded by new editor [[T. C. Ford]] with a direct-to-market ''Charlton Bullseye Special''.<ref>"From the Ashes: Charlton and Harvey to Resume Publishing This Spring," ''The Comics Journal'' #97 (Apr. 1985), pp. 15–16.</ref><ref>"Charlton Back from the Dead," ''The Comics Journal'' #101 (Sept. 1985), pp. 22–23.</ref> Later that same year, though, Charlton Comics went out of business;<ref>"Charlton Goes Down for the Count," ''The Comics Journal'' #103 (Sept. 1985), pp. 10–11.</ref> Charlton Publications followed suit in 1991, and its building and presses were demolished in 1999.

Editor [[Robin Snyder]] oversaw the sale of some properties to their creators, though most of the rights were purchased by Canadian [[entrepreneur]] [[Charlton Media Group (Canada)|Roger Broughton]].<ref>"Charlton Rights Sold," ''The Comics Journal'' #122 (June 1988), p. 26.</ref> He produced several reprint titles under the company name of [[Avalon Communications]] and its imprint [[America's Comics Group]] (ACG for short, Broughton having also purchased the rights to the defunct [[American Comics Group]] properties), and announced plans to restart Charlton Comics. This did not occur beyond its publishing a number of reprints and changing his company name to ''[[Charlton Media Group (Canada)|Charlton Media Group]]''.<ref>Irving, Christopher. "Charlton Twilight & Afterlife: the Final Days of Charlton Publications and Beyond," ''[[Comic Book Artist]]'' #12 (Mar. 2001), p104-108.</ref>

Most of Charlton's line of action heroes were acquired in 1983 for $5000 a character by [[Paul Levitz]] at [[DC Comics]], as a gift to managing editor and former Charlton editor [[Dick Giordano]].<ref>[https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/Prevue/DEC141916 COMICS' BRONZE AGE AND BEYOND! - Previews World]</ref> These "Action Hero" characters were proposed to be used in the landmark ''[[Watchmen]]'' [[Limited series (comics)|miniseries]] written by [[Alan Moore]], but DC then chose to save the characters for other uses. Moore instead developed new characters loosely based on them.<ref name="Power" /> The Charlton characters were incorporated into DC's main superhero line, starting in the epic ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'' miniseries of 1985.

Charlton's original strength, doing everything in-house, like art, lettering, editorial, printing, packaging and distribution, had helped them survive when America's largest distributor, [[American News Company]], closed its doors.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hnuQBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22charlton+comics%22+%22american+news+company%22&pg=PA67 Comics through Time : A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas]</ref> But this gradually turned into a weakness as their old equipment was stuck in the past, while other companies used more modern equipment that was faster, had higher quality and was more efficient, which contributed to their decline and fall.<ref>[https://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/09empire.html The Charlton Empire - Comic Book Artist #9]</ref>