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100-396: Charlton Comics published a wide variety of genres , including crime , science fiction , Western , horror , war , and romance comics , as well as talking animal and superhero titles. The company was known for its low-budget practices, often using unpublished material acquired from defunct companies and paying comics creators among the lowest rates in the industry. Charlton was also

200-473: A Western digest ( Gunsmoke ), the scandal-exposé title Secret Life and the men's magazine Nugget . Manhunt began January 1953 as the monthly digest, Manhunt Detective Story Monthly . The title was shortened to Manhunt early in 1956. It expanded to a larger standard-size format from March 1957 to May 1958 but then returned to digest-size and a bimonthly schedule. The popularity of Manhunt kept it running for 114 issues until April–May 1967. Verdict ran as

300-413: A comic based on teen heartthrob David Cassidy , then starring in the musical sitcom The Partridge Family . By 1976, however, most of these titles had been cancelled, and most of the company's remaining titles went on hiatus during the period January to August 1977. Much of the new talent took the opportunity to move on to Marvel and DC. By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic-book industry

400-556: A digest-size monthly from June 1953 to September 1953 and was briefly titled Verdict Crime Detection Magazine (Aug.–Nov. 1956) before a shortening back to Verdict . He acquired the 21-year-old publication Magazine Digest in 1950. The company's comics include the first 3-D comic book, Three Dimension Comics #1 (Sept. 1953 oversize format, Oct. 1953 standard-size reprint), featuring the Terrytoons movie - cartoon character Mighty Mouse . According to Joe Kubert , co-creator with

500-421: A number of reprints and changing his company name to Charlton Media Group . 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 . These "Action Hero" characters were proposed to be used in the landmark Watchmen miniseries written by Alan Moore , but DC then chose to save

600-632: A number of subgenres, for example by setting or subject, or a distinctive national style, for example in the Indian Bollywood musical. A music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style , although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. There are numerous genres in Western classical music and popular music , as well as musical theatre and

700-411: A particular culture or community. The work of Georg Lukács also touches on the nature of literary genres , appearing separately but around the same time (1920s–1930s) as Bakhtin. Norman Fairclough has a similar concept of genre that emphasizes the social context of the text: Genres are "different ways of (inter)acting discoursally" (Fairclough, 2003: 26). A text's genre may be determined by its: In

800-477: A personal dislike for superheroes and wanted to keep them in a pulplike realm of relative believability, all the characters in his Action Hero line, except for Captain Atom, were ordinary humans which used their skills and talents instead of superpowers. The company also developed a reputation as a place for new talent to break into comics; examples include Jim Aparo , Dennis O'Neil and Sam Grainger . As well, Charlton in

900-457: A remarkably faithful rendition of the then-current CBS-TV series, bowed in 1970 but ran for only seven issues. Both the Abbott and Costello and Hee Haw comics were discontinued in the summer of 1971, although Charlton's Hee Haw was revamped for general audiences as a 50-cent magazine, printed in black-and-white with cast photos and jokes supplemented by advertising. The last of the comedy vehicles

1000-633: A small number of recurring characters and features, including "The American Eagle", " Shotgun Harker and the Chicken ", " The Devil's Brigade ", " The Iron Corporal ", and " The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz ". Army War Heroes and Marine War Heroes depicted stories based on actual Medal of Honor recipients. Space War , first created in 1959 became Fightin' 5 in 1964. With the mid-1960s fad for James Bond secret agents such as Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. , Charlton turned their Vietnam veteran Mike Hammer hardboiled detective Sarge Steel into

1100-740: A special agent after the sixth issue, later renaming the comic Secret Agent . Charlton threw itself into the resurgent horror comics genre during this period with such titles as Ghostly Tales , The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves , and Ghost Manor . It also created a pair of identical horror-movie magazines: Horror Monsters (1961–1964) and Mad Monsters (1961–1965). Additionally, Charlton produced comics based on monsters featured in motion pictures such as Konga , Gorgo and Reptilicus . Charlton continued its commitment to romance comics with such new titles as Career Girl Romances , Hollywood Romances (later to change its name to For Lovers Only ), and Time for Love . In 1965, Charlton revived

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1200-586: A specific genre is important for important for a successful transfer of information ( media-adequacy ). Critical discussion of genre perhaps began with a classification system for ancient Greek literature , as set out in Aristotle's Poetics . For Aristotle, poetry ( odes , epics , etc.), prose , and performance each had specific features that supported appropriate content of each genre. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, for example, and even actors were restricted to their genre under

1300-468: A staff of artists who included its future managing editor, Dick Giordano . Others (staff or freelance) who eventually worked with Charlton included Vince Alascia , Jon D'Agostino , Sam Glanzman , Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio , Bill Molno, Charles Nicholas , and Sal Trapani . The primary writer was the remarkably prolific Joe Gill . The same year the company created an in-house comics department, where comics would make up 25% of Charlton. The company began

1400-483: A standard comic book that included fictional adventure ("Buzz Benson" by Maurice Whitman and George Kapitan ; Lt. Lela Lang , art by Kapitan, about a female bomber pilot) and humor ("Grease Pan Gus") features. The company — also called Flying Cadet — additionally published American Air Forces #1 (Oct. 1944), as well as some issues of Dynamic Comics and Punch Comics . Either editing in his off hours while continuing to work at Lionel, or having left and returned to

1500-481: A story, or allegorical personifications. They usually deal with subjects drawn from "everyday life". These are distinguished from staffage : incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting. "Genre" is also be used to refer to specialized types of art such as still-life , landscapes, marine paintings and animal paintings, or groups of artworks with other particular features in terms of subject-matter, style or iconography . The concept of

1600-531: A structured classification system of genre, as opposed to a more contemporary rhetorical model of genre. The basic genres of film can be regarded as drama, in the feature film and most cartoons , and documentary . Most dramatic feature films, especially from Hollywood fall fairly comfortably into one of a long list of film genres such as the Western , war film , horror film , romantic comedy film , musical , crime film , and many others. Many of these genres have

1700-446: A table in the office and a woman editor put a stop to it. In the early 1950s St. John became friends with artist Matt Baker , who provided most of the comic book covers for the company. When asked about the nature of the relationship, Baker's brother Fred Robinson said in an interview published in 2012, "They had a very close relationship. I don't know exactly what it was." They traveled to Los Angeles together and were photographed in

1800-510: A viable mode. He then uses two additional criteria to distinguish the system. The first of the criteria is the object to be imitated, whether superior or inferior. The second criterion is the medium of presentation: words, gestures, or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode , object , and medium can be visualized along an XYZ axis. Excluding the criteria of medium, Aristotle's system distinguished four types of classical genres: tragedy , epic , comedy , and parody . Genette explained

1900-667: 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. In 2000, Charlton Spotlight , a fanzine devoted to Charlton, began publication. In 2014, comics writers Mort Todd , Paul Kupperberg , and Roger McKenzie founded a revival imprint named Charlton Neo, which relied heavily on crowdfunding , and printed stories featuring Charlton characters and titles not owned by DC. In May 2017, AC Comics announced that they had entered into an agreement to bring print versions of Charlton Neo's comics to

2000-706: A wide expansion of its comics line, which included notoriously gory horror comics (the principal title being Steve Ditko 's The Thing! ). In 1954–55, it acquired a stable of comic-book properties from the defunct Superior Comics, Mainline Publications , St. John Publications , and most significantly, Fawcett Publications , which was shutting down its Fawcett Comics division. Charlton continued publishing two of Fawcett's horror books— This Magazine Is Haunted and Strange Suspense Stories —initially using unpublished material from Fawcett's inventory. Artistic chores were then handed to Ditko, whose moody, individualistic touch came to dominate Charlton's supernatural line. Beset by

2100-479: Is a highly specialized, narrow classification of a cultural practice. The term has come into usage in the 21st century, and most commonly refers to music. It is also associated with the hyper-specific categories used in recommendations for television shows and movies on digital streaming platforms such as Netflix , and is sometimes used more broadly by scholars analyzing niche forms in other periods and other media. St. John Publications St. John Publications

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2200-446: Is further subdivided into epic , lyric , and drama . The divisions are recognized as being set by Aristotle and Plato ; however, they were not the only ones. Many genre theorists added to these accepted forms of poetry . The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle . Gérard Genette explains his interpretation of the history of genre in "The Architext". He described Plato as

2300-521: Is met or not. Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such as magazines and websites. Inversely, audiences may call out for change in an antecedent genre and create an entirely new genre. The term may be used in categorizing web pages , like "news page" and "fan page", with both very different layout, audience, and intention (Rosso, 2008). Some search engines like Vivísimo try to group found web pages into automated categories in an attempt to show various genres

2400-407: Is often applied, sometimes rather loosely, to other media with an artistic element, such as video game genres . Genre, and numerous minutely divided subgenres, affect popular culture very significantly, not least as they are used to classify it for publicity purposes. The vastly increased output of popular culture in the age of electronic media encourages dividing cultural products by genre to simplify

2500-591: The Ghostly titles, now including Ghostly Haunts . Other Bronze Age Charlton horror titles included Haunted , Midnight Tales , and Scary Tales . In 1973, Charlton debuted the gothic romance title Haunted Love , but this same period saw the mass cancellation of almost all of Charlton's vast stable of traditional romance titles, including such long-running series as; Sweethearts , Romantic Secrets , Romantic Story , I Love You , Teen-Age Love , Just Married , and Teen Confessions , all of which dated from

2600-511: The Renaissance period. According to Green, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511 , and the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form." Some, like Peter van der Merwe , treat the terms genre and style as

2700-565: The TCL Chinese Theatre in front of Jean Harlow 's footprints. According to the people that worked for him, including Renée, St. John was charming and pleasant to work for, but he struggled with alcoholism. Graphic designer Warren Kramer recounted that St. John would attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and was sober "most of the time". He said that St. John was "almost exactly" like the Harry Myers ' "Eccentric Millionaire" character in

2800-527: The " hierarchy of genres " was a powerful one in artistic theory, especially between the 17th and 19th centuries. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with the Académie française which held a central role in academic art . The genres, which were mainly applied to painting, in hierarchical order are: The hierarchy was based on a distinction between art that made an intellectual effort to "render visible

2900-587: The 1950s. In the mid-1970s, a brief resurgence of talent occurred, energized by Cuti, artist Joe Staton , and the " CPL Gang " – a group of writer/artist comics fans including John Byrne , Roger Stern , Bob Layton , and Roger Slifer , who had all worked on the fanzine Contemporary Pictorial Literature . Charlton began publishing such new titles as E-Man , Midnight Tales , and Doomsday + 1 . The CPL Gang also produced an in-house fanzine called Charlton Bullseye , which published, among other things, commissioned but previously unpublished material; including

3000-875: The Captain Atom character in Strange Suspense Stories numbers 75, 76, and 77, reprinting the Steve Ditko-illustrated stories that had originally appeared in Space Adventures in the early 1960s. Retitling the comic, Captain Atom Volume 2 #78 (cover dated Dec. 1965), Charlton began publishing newly created stories by Ditko of the superhero. In 1967, Ditko stopped working at Marvel and returned to Charlton full-time. After his celebrated stint at Marvel, he had grown disenchanted with that company and his Spider-Man collaborator, writer-editor Stan Lee . Having

3100-762: 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. In 1985, a final attempt at a revival was spearheaded by new editor T. C. Ford with a direct-to-market Charlton Bullseye Special . Later that same year, though, Charlton Comics went out of business; Charlton Publications followed suit in 1991, and its building and presses were demolished in 1999. Editor Robin Snyder oversaw

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3200-507: The Navy ), Ghostly Haunts (originally Ghost Manor ), Ghostly Tales (originally Blue Beetle vol. 3), I Love You (originally In Love ), and Sweethearts (originally Fawcett 's Captain Midnight ). Al Fago left in the mid-1950s, and was succeeded by his assistant, Pat Masulli , who remained in the position for 10 years. Masulli oversaw a plethora of new romance titles, including

3300-475: The Silver Age, Charlton, like Marvel and DC, published war comics . Notable titles included the "Fightin'" line of Fightin' Air Force , Fightin' Army , Fightin' Marines , and Fightin' Navy ; the "Attack" line of Army Attack and Submarine Attack ; Battlefield Action ; D-Day , U.S. Air Force Comics , and War Heroes . Though primarily anthologies of stories about 20th-century warfare, they included

3400-412: The Western title Tim McCoy , and Pictorial Love Stories . The company used a second-hand press originally used for printing cereal boxes. These large presses were very costly to both stop and start, which only happened twice a year when they had to be cleaned, and so they started publishing comics as a mean to keep the presses going. After the entry into the comic business, the company's first comic book

3500-437: The artwork the company had bought from Fawcett Comics , in addition to printing presses and typesetting machines. Several issues of comics were destroyed, and some titles abandoned completely. Due to the shutdown following the flood, the comics were outsourced to outside presses for some months. Superheroes were a minor part of the company. At the beginning, Charlton's main characters were Yellowjacket , not to be confused with

3600-456: The assumption that a type of person could tell one type of story best. Genres proliferate and develop beyond Aristotle's classifications— in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre has become a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictability through artistic expression. Given that art is often a response to a social state, in that people write, paint, sing, dance, and otherwise produce art about what they know about,

3700-412: The brothers Norman Maurer and Leonard Maurer, it sold an exceptional 1.2 million copies at 25 cents apiece at a time when comics cost a dime. St. John also published the second 3-D comic, the aptly named 3-D Comics , the single issue of which incongruously billed itself as "World's First!" Other St. John comic books included the first movie-comedian tie-in series, Abbott and Costello Comics ; one of

3800-512: The cause as an apparent overdose of sleeping pills, and gave his age as 54. He had been residing at the New York Athletic Club at the time of his death. St. John's son Michael compared his father's death with that of Dorothy Kilgallen and said that in addition to alcohol, his father was addicted to amphetamines . The group of magazines published by St. John included crime fiction ( Manhunt , Mantrap , Menace , Murder , Verdict ),

3900-499: The characters for other uses. Moore instead developed new characters loosely based on them. 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. But this gradually turned into

4000-519: The circulation slump that swept the industry towards the end of the 1950s, Haunted struggled for another two years, published bimonthly until May 1958. Strange Suspense Stories ran longer, lasting well into the 1960s before "giving up the ghost" in 1965. Charlton published a wide line of romance titles, particularly after it acquired the Fawcett line, which included the romance comics Sweethearts , Romantic Secrets , and Romantic Story . Sweethearts

4100-484: The closely related concept of "genre ecologies". Reiff and Bawarshi define genre analysis as a critical reading of people's patterns of communication in different situations. This tradition has had implications for the teaching of writing in American colleges and universities. Combining rhetorical genre theory with activity theory , David Russell has proposed that standard English composition courses are ill-suited to teach

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4200-492: The company — a December 1944 letter that he signed places St. John in the Lionel advertising department at that time — St. John left the model-train maker in early 1945. After acquiring a reported $ 400,000 in start-up financing, he began publishing two comic books, Comics Revue and Pageant of Comics , both reprinting comic strips. They appeared under his own name as publisher in 1947. Shortly afterward, his comic book company took on

4300-602: The company's hobbyist magazine, Model Builder , debuting January 1937. It included true railroad stories in its editorial mix, eventually adding such illustrated featurettes as "Famous Railroad Sagas". By this time, he was married and living in Darien, Connecticut , with wife Gertrude (née Adams) and son Michael. By the early 1940s, St. John was editor of the 17-issue magazine Flying Cadet (Jan. 1943 – Oct. 1944). Like Model Builder , it mixed editorial prose with comics-style instructional featurettes. That changed with its final issue,

4400-458: The company's last Captain Atom story. Also during this period, most of Charlton's titles began sporting painted covers. Early in 1975, Cuti, already writing freelance for the company in addition to his staff duties, quit to write freelance exclusively for Charlton when its line expanded to include black-and-white magazines in addition to the King Features and Hanna-Barbera franchised titles. He

4500-673: The company's staples, particularly cartoon characters from Hanna-Barbera ( The Flintstones , The Jetsons , Top Cat , Korg: 70,000 B.C. , others). Charlton took over publication of a number of King Features Syndicate characters from that company's short-lived King Comics , including Beetle Bailey , Blondie Comics , Flash Gordon , Jungle Jim , The Phantom , and Popeye . Charlton also published Bullwinkle and Rocky , and Hoppity Hooper , based on Jay Ward Productions ' Hoppity Hooper , and Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show . Charlton dabbled occasionally in adaptations of live-action TV comedies. The most successful

4600-779: The company. Genres Genre ( French for 'kind, sort') is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature , music , or other forms of art or entertainment, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand-alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed-upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may have rigid, strictly adhered-to guidelines, while others may show great flexibility. The proper use of

4700-418: The creator of three imitational, mimetic genres distinguished by mode of imitation rather than content. These three imitational genres include dramatic dialogue, the drama ; pure narrative, the dithyramb ; and a mixture of the two, the epic . Plato excluded lyric poetry as a non-mimetic, imitational mode. Genette further discussed how Aristotle revised Plato's system by first eliminating the pure narrative as

4800-486: The direct-sales comic shop market, starting with Charlton Arrow #1 in September. The Charlton Arrow , an anthology series featuring many Charlton characters, was the company's main product and only title sold in stores, but the company ran a number of other titles through mail-order and digital sales. In January 2018, citing poor sales and "a variety of financial calamities," Todd launched a GoFundMe campaign to "help save"

4900-477: The era's Cold War "nuclear jitters" and popular culture fascination with the breaking of the sound barrier . In 1950—more than 20 years before Gil Kane & Archie Goodwin 's Blackmark and almost 30 before Don McGregor & Paul Gulacy 's Sabre and Will Eisner 's A Contract with God —St. John helped pioneer the medium that would become known as the graphic novel . The digest-sized, adult-oriented "Picture Novel" It Rhymes with Lust

5000-689: The era, frequently changed the titles of their comics, rather than start new ones at number 1 (a new publication required a new postal permit, while an existing publication that just changed its name could use its existing permit). Notable examples of this practice include the titles Billy the Kid (originally Masked Raider ), Blue Beetle vol. 2 (originally The Thing! ), Blue Beetle vol. 3 (originally Unusual Tales ), Fightin' Air Force (originally Never Again ), Fightin' Army (originally Soldier and Marine Comics ), Fightin' Marines (originally The Texan ), Fightin' Navy (originally Don Winslow of

5100-702: The family to suburban Oak Park in 1910. Following the father's death in 1917 and the mother's eventual remarriage, Archer attended the St. Albans Episcopal Academy boarding school in Sycamore, Illinois . Both brothers became journalists, with Archer founding the Berwyn [Illinois] Tribune in the mid-1920s. He left that newspaper by 1930. By then, he had become advertising manager of the New York City-based model-train maker Lionel Trains Corporation. Among his duties, he edited

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5200-948: The field of rhetoric , genre theorists usually understand genres as types of actions rather than types or forms of texts. On this perspective, texts are channels through which genres are enacted. Carolyn Miller's work has been especially important for this perspective. Drawing on Lloyd Bitzer 's concept of rhetorical situation, Miller reasons that recurring rhetorical problems tend to elicit recurring responses; drawing on Alfred Schütz , she reasons that these recurring responses become "typified" – that is, socially constructed as recognizable types. Miller argues that these "typified rhetorical actions" (p. 151) are properly understood as genres. Building off of Miller, Charles Bazerman and Clay Spinuzzi have argued that genres understood as actions derive their meaning from other genres – that is, other actions. Bazerman therefore proposes that we analyze genres in terms of "genre systems", while Spinuzzi prefers

5300-403: The film City Lights . That character is an alcoholic who suffers from state-dependent memory . However, Kramer added that although "Very peculiar", St. John was "...a very, very decent guy." In 1952, Archer St. John's brother Robert saw Archer in person for the last time. Archer flew from New York to Geneva , and on Robert's description "looked dreadful: he was terribly disheveled. His face

5400-492: The first issue of Fugitives from Justice (#1–5, 1953); and some issues of Authentic Police Cases (#1–38, 1948–1955). St. John's first romance comic was Teen-Age Romances #1 (Jan. 1949), followed by ten issues of romance comics over the next nine months. St. John's Hollywood Confessions #1 (Oct. 1949) metamorphosed two issues later into Hollywood Pictorial , and then shifted from comic book to movie magazine ( Hollywood Pictorial Western ) with issue #4 (March 1950). That

5500-407: The first proto- graphic novels , the 25-cent "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust (1950); and a five-issue series (Sept. 1953 – Oct. 1954), appearing under three titles, that introduced the enduring Kubert prehistoric hero Tor . In 1953, St. John took over a number of Ziff Davis comics titles, including the romance comics Cinderella Love and Romantic Love , the Western comic Kid Cowboy , and

5600-540: The following morning. The by-then divorced St. John was found at the 170 East 79th Street Manhattan penthouse apartment of Frances Stratford, with whom he had been involved since at least September 1954, when they took a vacation together to the Bahamas. The day before his death he had also called his son Michael, who was at work in the St. John Publishing office to tell him that he was being blackmailed. But he would not reveal his whereabouts. The police, pending an autopsy, listed

5700-593: The following year, and in 1940, founded the T.W.O. Charles Company, eventually moving its headquarters to Derby. Charlton purchased the company Song Lyrics, Inc., which published Song Hits magazine and was owned by Lyle Engel in 1949. Following the adoption of the Charlton Comics name in 1946, the company over the next five years acquired material from freelance editor and comics packager Al Fago (brother of former Timely Comics editor Vincent Fago ). Charlton additionally published Merry Comics , Cowboy Western ,

5800-593: The fourth and final type of Greek literature , was excluded by Plato as a non-mimetic mode. Aristotle later revised Plato's system by eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode and distinguishing by two additional criteria: the object to be imitated, as objects could be either superior or inferior, and the medium of presentation such as words, gestures or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode, object, and medium dialogue, epic (superior-mixed narrative), comedy (inferior-dramatic dialogue), and parody (inferior-mixed narrative). Genette continues by explaining

5900-653: The future co-creator of Marvel Comics ' Spider-Man , Steve Ditko . (After the mid-1980s demise of Charlton, Captain Atom went on to become a stalwart of the DC stable, as would Blue Beetle, the old Fox Comics superhero revived by Gill and artists Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico as a campy, comedic character in Blue Beetle #1 [June 1964].) Charlton also had moderate success with Son of Vulcan , its answer to Marvel's Thor , in Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46 (May 1965). During

6000-401: The genres prose or poetry , which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre such as satire might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. In popular fiction , which is especially divided by genres, genre fiction is

6100-492: The genres that students will write in other contexts across the university and beyond. Elizabeth Wardle contends that standard composition courses do teach genres, but that these are inauthentic "mutt genres" that are often of little use outside composition courses. Genre is effective as a tool in rhetoric because it allows a speaker to set the context for a rhetorical discussion. Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi suggest that rhetorical genres may be assigned based on careful analysis of

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6200-535: The hugely popular Ditko back helped prompt Charlton editor Giordano to introduce the company's "Action Hero" superhero line, with characters including Captain Atom, Ditko's the Question , Gill and artist Pat Boyette 's The Peacemaker , Gill and company art director Frank McLaughlin 's Judomaster , Pete Morisi 's Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt , and Ditko's new "Ted Kord" version of the Blue Beetle. Because Giordano had

6300-573: The integration of lyric poetry into the classical system by replacing the removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry , once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third "Architext", a term coined by Gennette, of a new long-enduring tripartite system: lyrical; epical, the mixed narrative; and dramatic, the dialogue. This new system that came to "dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism " (Genette 38) has seen numerous attempts at expansion and revision. Such attempts include Friedrich Schlegel 's triad of subjective form,

6400-544: The joint Paramount Pictures - Famous Studios , which included the future Harvey Comics characters Casper the Friendly Ghost , Baby Huey (who premiered in that Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 before his March 3, 1950, screen debut, "Quack A Doodle Do"), and Little Audrey . Little Eva, Audrey's lesser-known replacement, was added to the publishing schedule in 1952 after the Audrey license passed on to Harvey. Continuing in

6500-472: The jungle adventure title Wild Boy of the Congo . St. John Publications utilized the first African-American comic-book artist in mainstream media, Matt Baker , who contributed to the ostensibly true-crime series Authentic Police Cases , the light humor comic Canteen Kate , the romance books Cinderella Love and Teen-Age Romances , and many others. St. John acquired the license to publish comics based on

6600-405: The last of the American comics publishers still operating to raise its cover prices from 10 to 12 cents in 1962. It was unique among comic-book companies in that it controlled all areas of publishing – from editorial to printing to distribution – rather than working with outside printers and distributors, as did most other publishers. It did so under one roof at its Derby headquarters. The company

6700-586: The late 1960s published some of the first manga in America, in Ghost Manor and other titles (thanks to artist Sanho Kim ), and artist Wayne Howard became the industry's first known cover-credited series creator, with the horror-anthology Midnight Tales blurbing "Created by Wayne Howard" on each issue—"a declaration perhaps unique in the industry at the time". Yet by the end of 1967, Charlton's superhero titles had been cancelled, and licensed properties had become

6800-724: The later Marvel character, and Diana the Huntress. In the mid-1950s, Charlton briefly published a Blue Beetle title with new and reprinted stories, and in 1956, several short-lived titles written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel , such as Mr. Muscles , Zaza the Mystic , and Nature Boy (the latter with artist Mastroserio). The company's most noteworthy period was during the "silver age" of comic books , which had begun with DC Comics ' successful revival of superheroes in 1956. In March 1960, Charlton's science-fiction anthology title Space Adventures introduced Captain Atom , by Gill and

6900-520: The later integration of lyric poetry into the classical system during the romantic period , replacing the now removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry, once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third leg of a new tripartite system: lyrical, epical, and dramatic dialogue. This system, which came to "dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism (and therefore well beyond)…" (38), has seen numerous attempts at expansion or revision. However, more ambitious efforts to expand

7000-510: The long-running I Love You , Sweetheart Diary , Brides in Love , My Secret Life , and Just Married ; and the teen-oriented romance comics Teen-Age Love , Teen Confessions , and Teen-Age Confidential Confessions . On August 19, 1955, the company was hit hard by a flood . The water was rising so fast that vital office records was all that could be saved. $ 300,000 in paper inventory, plates, mats and original comics artwork were lost, including

7100-496: The lyric; objective form, the dramatic; and subjective-objective form, the epic. However, more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing complexity. Gennette reflected upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: "its structure is somewhat superior to most of those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings

7200-510: The more usual term. In literature , genre has been known as an intangible taxonomy . This taxonomy implies a concept of containment or that an idea will be stable forever. The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Gérard Genette , a French literary theorist and author of The Architext , describes Plato as creating three Imitational genres: dramatic dialogue, pure narrative, and epic (a mixture of dialogue and narrative). Lyric poetry ,

7300-528: The movie cartoons of producer Paul Terry . The Terrytoons properties, originally adapted to comic books by Timely Comics , the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics , included such characters as Mighty Mouse , Heckle and Jeckle , Dinky Duck , Gandy Goose , and Little Roquefort. The first such St. John comic was Mighty Mouse #5 (Aug. 1947), its numbering taken over from the Timely run. The company expanded into licensed characters from another animation company,

7400-841: The music of non-Western cultures. The term is now perhaps over-used to describe relatively small differences in musical style in modern rock music , that also may reflect sociological differences in their audiences. Timothy Laurie suggests that in the context of rock and pop music studies, the "appeal of genre criticism is that it makes narratives out of musical worlds that often seem to lack them". Music can be divided into different genres in several ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial, and some genres may overlap. There are several academic approaches to genres. In his book Form in Tonal Music , Douglass M. Green lists madrigal , motet , canzona , ricercar , and dance as examples of genres from

7500-514: The name St. John Publications. It had offices at 545 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, and in 1950 took on additional space at 235-243 Pulaski Street in the neighboring borough of Brooklyn . Artist Joe Kubert who worked for St. John described him as "one of the most aristocratic upper-crust types that you'd ever come across. But he was as much unlike that underneath that veneer as anybody I can think of. When you sat down to talk to him he

7600-497: The popular vein of reprinted comic strips, St. John published comic books of such gag strips as Moon Mullins and Nancy , and of the NEA syndicate's private detective adventure strip Vic Flint . This hardboiled fiction by the pseudonymous Michael O'Malley (writer Ernest Lynn and others) and artists Ralph Lane, Dean Miller, Art Sansom and John Lane, was reprinted in the comic books Vic Flint (#1–5?, Aug. 1948 – April 1949); all but

7700-459: The sale of some properties to their creators, though most of the rights were purchased by Canadian entrepreneur Roger Broughton . 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

7800-431: The same, saying that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language". Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres. A music genre or subgenre may be defined by the musical techniques , the styles, the context, and content and spirit of

7900-614: The search for products by consumers, a trend the Internet has only intensified. In philosophy of language , genre figures prominently in the works of philosopher and literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin . Bakhtin's basic observations were of "speech genres" (the idea of heteroglossia ), modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate (such as "formal letter" and "grocery list", or "university lecture" and "personal anecdote"). In this sense, genres are socially specified: recognized and defined (often informally) by

8000-429: The search hits might fit. A subgenre is a subordinate within a genre, Two stories being the same genre can still sometimes differ in subgenre. For example, if a fantasy story has darker and more frightening elements of fantasy, it would belong in the subgenre of dark fantasy ; whereas another fantasy story that features magic swords and wizards would belong to the subgenre of sword and sorcery . A microgenre

8100-534: The subject matter and consideration of the audience. Genre is related to Ludwig Wittgenstein's theory of Family resemblance in which he describes how genres act like a family tree, where members of a family are related, but not exact copies of one another. This concept of genre originated from the classification systems created by Plato . Plato divided literature into the three classic genres accepted in Ancient Greece : poetry , drama , and prose . Poetry

8200-623: The themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres. Several music scholars have criticized the priority accorded to genre-based communities and listening practices. For example, Laurie argues that "music genres do not belong to isolated, self-sufficient communities. People constantly move between environments where diverse forms of music are heard, advertised and accessorised with distinctive iconographies, narratives and celebrity identities that also touch on non-musical worlds." The concept of genre

8300-456: The tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing scope and complexity. Genette reflects upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: "its structure is somewhat superior to…those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse" (74). Taxonomy allows for

8400-947: The universal essence of things" ( imitare in Italian) and that which merely consisted of "mechanical copying of particular appearances" ( ritrarre ). Idealism was privileged over realism in line with Renaissance Neo-Platonist philosophy. A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique , tone , content , or even (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young adult , or children's . They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic novel or picture book. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups. The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic , tragedy , comedy , novel , and short story . They can all be in

8500-414: The use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings. The term genre is much used in the history and criticism of visual art, but in art history has meanings that overlap rather confusingly. Genre painting is a term for paintings where the main subject features human figures to whom no specific identity attaches – in other words, figures are not portraits, characters from

8600-399: The whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse". Although genres are not always precisely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read. The classification properties of genre can attract or repel potential users depending on the individual's understanding of a genre. Genre creates an expectation in that expectation

8700-499: Was My Little Margie , based on the 1952-55 network series starring Gale Storm ; the Charlton version ran for a full 10 years (1954-64, 54 issues) and inspired two spinoffs, My Little Margie's Boy Friends (1955–58, 11 issues) and My Little Margie's Fashions (1959, five issues). Abbott and Costello , debuting in 1968, was based on the syndicated Abbott and Costello animated cartoon series of 1967-68 and ran for 22 issues. Hee Haw ,

8800-514: Was The Partridge Family , based on the then-current ABC-TV sitcom ; launched in 1971, the comic book ran for 21 issues until it was cancelled in 1973. Nicola Cuti made creative improvements to Charlton's line in the early 1970s, which had been referred to as comics' Bronze Age , during which he worked as assistant editor under George Wildman , who was occupied primarily with administrative duties. Cuti brought Mike Zeck , among others, into Charlton's roster of artists, and his writing enlivened

8900-487: Was Yellowjacket , an anthology of superhero and horror stories launched September 1944 under the imprint Frank Comunale Publications, with Ed Levy listed as publisher. Zoo Funnies was published under the imprint Children Comics Publishing; Jack in the Box , under Frank Comunale; and TNT Comics , under Charles Publishing Co. Another imprint was Frank Publications. In 1951, when Al Fago began as an in-house editor, Charlton hired

9000-407: Was a film noir -influenced slice of steeltown life starring a scheming, manipulative redhead named Rust. Touted as "an original full-length novel" on its cover, the book by pseudonymous writer "Drake Waller" ( Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller ), penciler Matt Baker and inker Ray Osrin , was sold at newsstands . It proved successful enough to lead to an unrelated second picture novel, The Case of

9100-450: Was a magazine affiliate of St. John Publications. Comic book imprints included Approved Comics , Blue Ribbon , and Jubilee Publications . The younger brother of World War II correspondent and author Robert William St. John (1902–2003), Archer St. John was born either c. 1901 or on October 15, 1904 in Chicago , Illinois . Their mother Amy, a nurse, and father John, a pharmacist, moved

9200-453: Was an American publisher of magazines and comic books. During the 1947-1958 existence of its comic-book division, St. John established several industry firsts. Founded by Archer St. John, the firm was located in Manhattan at 545 Fifth Avenue . After the St. John comic books came to an end in 1958, the company continued to publish its magazine line into the next decade. Flying Eagle Publications

9300-466: Was badly cut up; his hand was cut; there was blood all over his shirt." St. John had been drinking heavily on the plane. He bought a Swiss watch intended, he said, for a woman with whom he was living in New York City, then immediately flew back. On August 22, 1955, St. John spoke on the phone for the last time with Robert, who described him as "very despondent". St. John died either that night or early

9400-561: Was formed by John Santangelo Sr. and Ed Levy in 1940 as T. W. O. Charles Company, named after the co-founders' two sons, both named Charles, and became Charlton Publications in 1945. In 1931, Italian immigrant John Santangelo Sr., a bricklayer who had started a construction business in White Plains, New York , five years earlier, began what became a highly successful business publishing song-lyric magazines out of nearby Yonkers, New York . Operating in violation of copyright laws, however, he

9500-538: 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 serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic-book fans, and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles. A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under

9600-510: Was really a regular guy." Nadine King, office manager for the company, socialized with St. John often, described him as "exceptional bright" and said that "...he did make a lot of money and lost a lot of money." Marion McDermott was an editor for St. John Publications. Fellow editor Nadine King said in an interview published in 2012 that St. John had an affair with McDermott. They traveled together to Bermuda in 1950 and 1951. Artist Lily Renée also recounted that St. John chased her once around

9700-733: Was replaced by Bill Pearson , who became assistant editor after promoting Don Newton as the new Phantom artist and writing scripts for that title. Charlton's black-and-white comics magazines were based upon current television series and aimed at older readers. One of these was The Six Million Dollar Man #1–7 (July 1976 – August 1977). Retailing for $ 1, it featured art by Neal Adams ' studio, Continuity Associates , as well as some stories by veteran illustrators Jack Sparling and Win Mortimer . Also published in magazine form were adaptations of The Six Million Dollar Man spinoff The Bionic Woman , Space: 1999 , and Emergency! , as well as

9800-514: Was sentenced in 1934 to a year and a day at New Haven County Jail in New Haven, Connecticut , near Derby, where his wife and he by then lived. In jail, he met Waterbury, Connecticut attorney Ed Levy, with whom he began legitimate publishing in 1935, acquiring permissions to reproduce lyrics in such magazines as Hit Parade and Big Song Magazine . Santangelo and Levy opened a printing plant in Waterbury

9900-626: Was the comic world's first monthly romance title (debuting in 1948), and Charlton continued publishing it until 1973. Charlton had launched its first original romance title in 1951, True Life Secrets , but that series only lasted until 1956. Charlton also picked up a number of Western titles from the defunct Fawcett Comics line, including Gabby Hayes Western , Lash LaRue Western , Monte Hale Western , Rocky Lane Western . Six-Gun Heroes , Tex Ritter Western , Tom Mix Western , and Western Hero . Seeking to save money on second-class postage permits, Charlton, like many comic-book publishers of

10000-420: Was the first title in what eventually became the St. John magazine group. The company introduced several other, mostly short-lived original series from 1948 through 1953, including a rare, for the company, superhero series, Zip-Jet , starring a yellow-clad "supersonic enemy of evil" reprinted from Punch Comics ' "Rocketman" feature. That and the two St. John series titled Atom-Age Combat directly reflected

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