E-Man: The Early Years

by Nicola Cuti

The beautifully re-colored collection of Nic Cuti and Joe Staton's entire 10-issue E-Man run at Charlton Comics. Bonus materials include pieces done for Charlton Bullseye and original First Comics' Michael Mauser/E-Man reprint covers. A gorgeous and fun c

Genres: Comics, Humor

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Nicola “Nick” Cuti worked as editor, artist and writer for such distinguished comic book companies as DC, Marvel, Charlton and Warren​ ​(publisher of Creepy​ ​and &​ ​Vampirella​ ​comics) and as a background designer​ ​for Hollywood studios such as the Walt Disney Company, Universal, Sony​ ​Pictures, Paramount, Marvel Studios and MGM. He created numerous​ ​characters, including superhero E-Man​ ​and the underground classic, Moonie;​ ​which has appeared in men​'s ​magazines in full color and in her own novels and graphic novel. She was released as a movie “Moonie and the Spider Queen,​ ​Episode One”​.

He was a two-time winner of the​ ​Ray Bradbury Award for writing excellence and a 2009 Inkpot Award winner for​​ my work in Comic Book Art. His illustrations have appeared in Analog, ​Amazing​​​
Stories and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

See also: Nick Cuti

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Joe Staton art is fantastic and the stories are a lot of fun. My main gripe with this is that it stops on page 2 of E-Man #9. There are 161 pages even though the table of contents goes up to 212. It's a square bound book so I'm thinking the whole run is like this. Considering the 27.95 cover price, that's a load of crap.

[Bob Fish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caution: Horrible re-coloring

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great classic 1970's comic hero. Recommended

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice, clean cheesy fun. OK, this is very second string publisher 1972 stuff and doesn't hold a candle to First Comics' 24 issue run in the 80's but there's no denying the goofy charm of the character. He is so straightforward in his presentation, so cleanly done and so good-hearted that he's instantly iconic. The introduction's description of him as being CC Beck's Captain Marvel mixed with Jack Cole's Plastic Man are spot on. I keep missing this sort of fun in the modern comics market, and am happy to have more of it on my own shelves.

[Chris Howarth · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, as a comic-obsessed kid content to blow my pocket money on American imports, Charlton’s E-Man stood out from the competition from bigger publishers DC and Marvel. It was funny, sexy, intelligent and imaginative. It was a sad day when the comic was prematurely cancelled after only ten issues.

The only problem with E-Man was, being from Charlton, it suffered from poor printing on cheap paper. This book rectifies that and it looks beautiful. Along with all ten issues of the original run is a smattering of bonus features, my favourite being a couple of unused 1970s covers.

[Charlie Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first comic that I ever read. I was six. Thirty six years later, does it hold up? Surprisingly, it holds up better than I thought it would.. It's still not great, but it's one of those series that never really wanted to be.