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Cover art, Reptilicus #1, August 1961, cover by Rocke Mastroserio; © 1961 CineMagic, Inc. and Charlton Comics
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Well, it’s been a long haul, but here, at last, is the concluding chapter:

For monster comics fans, dino fans and Charlton Comics fans, Donald F. Glut’s summary almost three decades ago of what happened to change Reptilicus to Reptisaurus was more than sufficient:

“The film Reptilicus was adapted to the comic-strip format by the Charlton Comics group and dated August 1961. A second issue of Reptilicus (October 1961) featured a brand-new adventure of the monster, grown anew from a piece of the monster’s flesh floating in waters off the coast of north Africa. By the third issue (January 1962), the title of the periodical was changed to Reptisaurus the Terrible, and the color of the winged saurian was altered from green to red.

Charlton no longer had to pay a copyright royalty for the use of Reptilicus. They explained their own Reptisaurus as a prehistoric survivor brought out of hibernation by an atomic-bomb test, and the creature took off for new adventures. Reptisaurus looked basically like a crimson Reptilicus until the seventh issue (October 1962), wherein he suddenly and quite mysteriously appeared with a new body and a snout horn to go along with it.”

(- Donald F. Glut, The Dinosaur Scrapbook, Citadel Press, 1980, pg. 135.)

In 1980, that was more than any hardcover mainstream book other than the Overstreet Price Guide had written about any Charlton comic book. Comic book fans considered Charlton the bottom-of-the-barrel, and the Charlton’s monster movie comics beneath the scrapings of that barrel; monster comics fans and collectors essentially considered both Reptilicus and Reptisaurus the Terrible the fecal end of the Charlton monster movie comicbook stick, beneath contempt and certainly beneath any serious consideration (see my old XQB amigo Ken Feduniewicz’s comments on last weekend’s post; Ken, when you get to the end of this final chapter, you’ll know why I’m writing about this “shit”!).

Cover, Reptilicus #2, October 1961, cover art by Dick Giordano, © 1961 CineMagic, Inc. and Charlton Comics.
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Fair enough. Both Reptilicus / Reptisaurus titles were crudely scripted and drawn, based on the worst of the early ’60s giant monster movies — poor saurian brethren indeed to the superior work Steve Ditko had done adapting the other American International Picture Konga and (better yet) the “King Brothers Picture released by MGM” Gorgo, published the year before and by the summer of 1960 both spun off into popular Charlton comics series. Those lasted until 1965, spiced with occasional Ditko art.

Gorgo and Konga each lasted 23 issues and spawned two specials — Konga’s Revenge #2 and 3, and there was Gorgo’s Revenge (1962) and The Return of Gorgo (1963); with #24, Konga was retitled (for one glorious giant annual sized special issue) Fantastic Giants (1966), and it’s the most essential Charlton monster comic of them all (see cover image, below).

However slipshod either Gorgo or Konga became — and some of their non-Ditko issues were indeed shoddy, as was at least one memorable Ditko Konga in which Konga’s head was the primary character (the great ape was buried up to his neck in snow, among the deftest sleight-of-hand Charlton deadline enhancers I can recall from the ’60s) — Reptilicus/Reptisaurus was worse by far. That was true until the team of Bill Montes and Ernie Bache took over the art chores in the latter part of the series.

Still, the Don Glut explanation begs the question:

Why didn’t Charlton do the same with Gorgo and Konga? Why not extend all three monster titles with slight name and design changes — Gargon and Kongo would arguably have sold just as well with the same contents — and cease paying license and/or royalty fees to American International and King Brothers altogether?

Given the nature of the comic book and movie licensing industries of that era, it’s possible there was only a single payment made for licensing a title, or a single annual fee; we’ve no way of knowing at this late date.

In any case, Don Glut’s supposition doesn’t hold water, given the four years Charlton continued to publish new adventures of Gorgo and Konga.

There’s another curious wrinkle to this. In the pre-video era, television was the only afterlife monster movies enjoyed, and both comics series ended before either the American International Pictures or MGM licensing of their backlog of feature films brought Gorgo or Konga to TV; there was no inherent interest or life in the movies themselves after they’d completed their theatrical runs between 1961 and ‘62.

Ah, the best Charlton monster movie comic series of the all! Steve Ditko cover art for The Return of Gorgo, © 1963 Charlton Comics.
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In fact, Reptilicus — delivered to American International in 1961 (debuting in Denmark February 20, 1961), but unreleased in the US until January 20, 1963 (rolling out in — get this — Bismarck, North Dakota; you can see how much faith American International had in this pic!) — would have arguably had a longer ’shelf life’ as a licensed title; unlike Gorgo (opening in US theaters on March 29, 1961, and making its way across the country over that spring and summer) and Konga (debuting in Bismarck May 3, 1961), Reptilicus would have been a more visible licensed title for the comics racks well into 1963-64, had Charlton held out.

Clearly, the sales on Reptilicus #1 and 2 were holding their own, or there never would have been a Reptisaurus #3; Charlton had no problem cutting off unsuccessful titles. The longevity of the title (8 issues and one special) indicates it held its own until the fall of 1962, with the single Reptisaurus Special Edition (cover dated June 1963) indicating either a clearing of an inventory issue or one more shot at goosing the title. In fact, Charlton also guest-starred Reptisaurus in an issue of Gorgo — #12, April 1963 — indicating a vested company interest in keeping their third monster title alive and kicking.

Alas, Reptisaurus never had the charm or charge either Gorgo or Konga brought to the four-color pages, and 1963 was indeed the tombstone year for the big red dragon — even as his ‘mother,’ Reptilicus, made its way across American nabes (neighborhood theaters) and drive-ins.

The AIP movie comic most Charlton fans ignore, though it’s oddly enough part of this story: Marco Polo was double-billed with Reptilicus by AIP in early venues! Cover (and interior) art by the great Sam Glanzman; © 1962 Charlton Comics.
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Remember, this was long before the simultaneous opening of feature films on single dates across the US, a practice codified with the 1975 release of Jaws; indie distributors like American International would circulate relatively few prints across the various markets for months, sometimes a year or more, before a title was played out, starting at the top of double-feature bills and gradually making their way down to the bottom of double, triple and dusk-to-dawn bills. In fact, Reptilicus started at the bottom of a double-bill that was headlined by Marco Polo (1962; this according to Mark Thomas McGee, Faster and Furiouser, pp. 170-171) — another American International Picture Charlton Comics adapted to four-colors. As McGee notes, “it is doubtful that anyone remembers the mightiest adventure tale ever told;” Reptilicus has outlasted Marco Polo — well, AIP’s Marco Polo, that is.

No, something else was going on here, and I’ve always believed the Sidney Pink vs. American International Pictures and Monarch Books lawsuit was the only valid explanation for the title and character change.

Let’s lay out the chronology. The truth about what happened between Reptilicus producer Sidney Pink and distributor American-International Pictures (hereafter AIP) honcho Sam Arkoff lies somewhere in the following tangle — bear with me, folks, and let’s sort through the threads.

There are numerous accounts of this conflict, primary among them Mark Thomas McGee’s Fast and Furious (McFarland, 1984), which completely garbled events; McGee corrected that account for the definitive AIP history Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures (McFarland, 1996; see pp. 162-174), but a clearer timeline emerges if one refers to three other sources and matches them against Charlton’s publishing chronology.

Here goes!

Genre film expert, scholar and historian Bill Warren described the legal battle in this manner:

“…Reptilicus has the dubious distinction of being a movie so bad that American International almost refused to distribute it; unfortunately, compromises were made, and when the film came out, audiences collapsed in laughter.

…The acting is also dreadful, and not helped by terrible American dubbing. (Ib Melchior told Mark McGee that he himself had to dub at least six different performers.)…

…The film was completed in 1960, and seems to have been delivered to American International, which cofinanced it, late that year or early in 1961. In that form, the film was even too awful for AIP to release, and they actually sued Sid Pink.

Accordingly to an article in the 29 June 1961 Film Daily, AIP filed suit ’seeking declaratory relief and clarification by the court… Cited as basis of the suit is a contract assertedly entered into March 7, 1960, and an amendment dated Feb. 1, 1961. In an extensive presentation of the AIP claim, which also asks general and punitive damages in several amounts on a number of individual complaints, it is set forth that defendants [Sidney Pink, Bernard Greenbaum, and Cinemagic, Inc.] agreed to produce and deliver a picture of the stated title [Reptilicus], conforming to several physical requirements, at a given date, now past, and did not perform the contracted production activities agreed upon.’ Two months later, Sid Pink sued American International and Monarch Books.”

Note, again, that Monarch Books was an imprint of Charlton, the publisher of the Reptilicus comic books.

“Two months later” would placed the time of the Pink vs. AIP and Monarch Books legal proceedings around August of 1961 — right around the time Charlton was wrapping up or perhaps even sending Reptilicus #2 to the printer.

The first Reptilicus issue, which was the only one actually adapted from Pink’s film, was cover dated August 1961; #2 was cover dated October 1961, meaning it hit the stands in late August. Cover dates never indicated the month the comic was issued, but the final month of its appearance on newsstands and comic racks; hence, ‘August 1961′ denoted a comicbook on the racks in June for summer racking. The Monarch Books novelization is dated June, 1961 on its indicia page, which also jives with this guesstimate of Reptilicus #1’s actual appearance on newsstands — and the June 29th Film Daily article on AIP’s lawsuit against Pink.

The Name Game: Not One Monster, But Many! Reptilicus becomes Reptisaurus the Terrible with the third issue — Volume 2, No. 3 — with cover art by Sal Gentile and Vince Alascia, © 1962 Charlton Comics.
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OK, let’s go back to Bill Warren’s overview and follow this through:

“He [Pink] alleged ‘unauthorized use of his name in publication of the book, Reptilicus. Complaint alleged that in book written by Dean Owen, Pink was identified as author of the original story on which picture of the same title was based, and from which book was adapted, without Pink’s consent. As a result… Pink was held up to ‘public contempt and ridicule.’ Book… contained passages of ’such lewd, lascivious and wanton desire as to inflame unsavory and lascivious desires in the reader.’ ‘

Now, speaking as someone who read that novelization, I can testify it certainly did inflame lascivious desires in me… it was the closest thing to over-the-counter pornography as you could find in the early 1960s…. A friend of mine was so taken with this steamy ribaldry, especially by a scene in which the hero takes the heroine ‘with the savage lance of his manhood,’ that he had his mother embroider several hankerchiefs ‘Lance Savage.’ The friend (Dick Plov) often referred to Dean Owen as his favorite science fiction writer.”

(- Bill Warren, Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, Volume II, 1958-62, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1986, pp. 687-688)

Note that Bill cites the same passage of Owen’s novel (“…Expertly she guided him, her body accommodating itself to the savage lance of his manhood…”; Owen, Reptilicus, Monarch Books, 1961, pg. 34) AIP scholar Mark Thomas McGee misquoted in both editions of Fast and Furious, but I won’t go there. I’ve covered that material at length in prior weeks. Back to Bill Warren’s account of the legal tussle:

“However, we never thought that Sid Pink had anything to do with this smutty stuff; we knew damned well that those scenes were just to sell the books, which they did. And as far as public ridicule and contempt go, nothing could have brought more of both than the film Reptilicus itself.

Nonetheless, Pink’s nuisance suit seemed to have the desired effect. It stirred up AIP, who had Pink’s suit dismissed almost immediately. Their own $1,500,000 suit must eventually have been resolved satisfactorily to all parties. The movie, like Pink’s Journey to the 7th Planet, was ‘fixed up’ — presumably by dubbing and the removal of the flying scenes — and released the next year, confirming the uncaring nature of American International.”

(- Warren, Ibid., pg. 689).

At this juncture, it’s interesting to compare Sam Arkoff’s and Sidney Pink’s autobiographies (convenient, that both men scribed and published ‘em), if only to sort out who was suing whom for what.

In all accounts, the chronology is a little skewed.

Pink’s Journey to the Seventh Planet was produced, shot and edited in Denmark after the completion and initial delivery of Reptilicus; however, AIP completed the rather extensive reshooting of effects shot (by Projects Unlimited, including stop motion monster animation by James Danforth and tinted insert footage from Bert I. Gordon’s 1958 AIP pic Earth vs. The Spider to replace Bent Barford’s Danish monster effects) and re-editing of Journey in quick order.

Hence, Journey to the Seventh Planet debuted in the US in March 1962, ten months before the Reptilicus debacle culminated in that monster movie’s American debut.

Got that? Keep it in mind; it’s one of the few yardsticks in reach while sorting all this out almost half-a-century later.

In all accounts of this clusterfuck, the need to redub the dialogue for Reptilicus is a key part of the story, and no one disputes that (thankfully, Kip Doto has definitively sorted out who dubbed what: see Doto’s definitive book Reptilicus The Screenplay, 1999, pp. 10-13).

Here’s Arkoff’s version of events, leading up to the lawsuit, which offers a candid snapshot of what most likely kicked off the venom between Arkoff and Pink.

“On one of my European trips, I flew to Denmark to look at a rough cut of Reptilicus. By that point, AIP had already given Sidney $100,000 to help him make the picture. But after seeing not much more than a reel of the rough cut, I shut off the projector. I leaned back in my seat with a horrified expression on my face — and not because the prehistoric reptile was so frightening.

‘My God, Sidney, what have you done? You’re going to have to loop this entire picture!’

‘What do you mean, Sam?’ he said. ‘It’s already in English.’

‘Well, you’ve got these Danes speaking English, and they’ve all got that sing-song Scandanavian accent! That will never fly in the U.S. This is a science fiction film — but those voices have turned it into a comedy. If we show it in the States the way it is now, audiences would laugh themselves silly until they got enough energy to demand their money back!’

Sidney had been in Denmark for so long that he didn’t even hear the Scandanavian accents anymore. He was so proud of his movie — much prouder than it really warranted. ‘Sam, you’re kidding me on this one, aren’t you? These actors are speaking just fine. Just fine.’

‘Look,’ I said, ‘we have to distribute this picture in the States. Science fiction aficionados are serious people. We can’t run the movie with the existing sound track. You’ll have to get some American voices and loop it.’

Before I had left the screening room, we were both furious at each other. Sidney threatened to sue AIP if we didn’t release the picture as it was. But I refused to budge.

‘Sidney, it says right in our contract that the movie has to be shot in English!’ I said. ‘Right now, it’s in a form of English that American audiences aren’t even going to recognize!’

Three months later, Sidney filed his lawsuit against AIP for not accepting the picture. But I figured it would never stand up in court. ‘First of all, the suit will drag on for two or three years just waiting for a trial date, and that will hold up the release of the picture,’ I warned Sidney’s lawyer. ‘Then when we show it to an American jury, they won’t be able to understand half the dialogue in the movie. Sidney will be the laughingstock of Hollywood.’

Sidney arranged for his lawyer and a few industry friends to see the film. A week after that screening, the suit was dropped, apparently at the attorney’s urging. Sidney agreed to have the picture looped with American voices at Titra studios in New York. The picture was not a big hit but no one questioned the English.”

(- Sam Arkoff, Flying Through Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants: From the Man Who Brought You I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Muscle Beach Party, Birch Lane Press/Carol Publishing Group, 1992, pp. 152-153)
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Above: (1) The Danish DVD cover; (2) Cover art for Reptisaurus #4, art by Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta (?); (3) Cover art for Reptisaurus #4, art by Sinnott and Colletta (?); right: interior panel art from the original Charlton movie comic adaptation of Sid Pink’s Reptilicus, art by Sal Trapani; all Charlton Comics art © 1961, 1962 Charlton Comics
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Arkoff wasn’t only (with partner James Nicholson) the head of AIP, but an attorney as well. Sidney Pink’s version of events touches upon the dispute Arkoff details, but characterizes the core issues quite differently.

As already mentioned, Pink confuses his chronology, claiming that boxoffice earnings from Angry Red Planet and Reptilicus alerted him to siccing his attorney Bernie Greenbaum on AIP, before the events he subsequently describes transpired — a flat impossibility, since Reptilicus wasn’t released until after he and Arkoff had settled their differences.

Nevertheless, here’s his story. To Pink, as upset as he was about Reptilicus, it was also the changes AIP made to Journey to the Seventh Planet that set the legal wheels in motion, and the cost of those changes that was at issue.

This matter of AIP’s expenses being charged against Pink’s share of the profits of both Reptilicus and Journey to the Seventh Planet is important. It makes absolute sense that two penny-pinchers like Pink and Arkoff would fight tooth-and-claw over such matters — and it’s the one aspect of the Reptilicus legal battles almost none of the popular accounts mention, or make clear. 
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Here’s the stop-motion monster Projects Unlimited hustled into life for AIP’s version of Journey to the Seventh Planet; model by Wah Chang, animated by Jim Danforth, replacing a full-size monster effect constructed by Bent Barfod — and apparently that original Danish Barfod effects footage is forever lost, destroyed by AIP.
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Here’s Pink’s account:

“I was gone from Copenhagen only five weeks, but much had transpired since my departure. Letters were on my desk that alerted me to some strange actions by AIP. It appeared they were busily engaged in making a new musical score for Journey from what we called ‘canned music.’… I have always abhorred the use of this kind of music and never allowed it in any picture I produced.

When I heard what Arkoff and [James] Nicholson were up to, I immediately contacted my lawyers in the States. At my prompting, they investigated and discovered that not only had AIP changed our electronic music, but they were actually busily engaged in redoing the great special effects created for us by Bent Barford. AIP had no right to do any of this and hadn’t even notified me of this intent.

AIP was clearly in complete violation of the contract with us. [Pink's attorney] Bernie Greenbaum’s first look at the records on Angry Red Planet and Reptilicus indicated that if AIP were allowed to continue their bookkeeping creativity, there were not enough theatres in the world to play our pictures and return their expenses, let alone our costs…

We had only one course open to us: we sued AIP and Arkoff and Nicholson for fraudulently signing a contract they never intended to keep. We filed suit for accounting of all their alleged expenses and for one million dollars in punitive and actual damages. As expected, they countersued, claiming violation of contract in not delivering a first-class film as called for in the production agreement, and for anything and everything else they could find to include. The battle was on, and my attorneys advised me I could not legally do any more production until it was settled.

HEADS UP! Okay, if you seek out only one comic after all this rambling, let this be the one! It’s cover-to-cover Steve Ditko, collecting his classic Gorgo and Konga #1 issues with two then-all-new Ditko stories, and it’s as gorgeous as any of his work for Marvel in the early ’60s.

Below: two frames from effects shots added to the AIP version of Reptilicus by the Ray Mercer Company: Reptilicus swallows a cut-out still photo of screenplay writer Ib Melchiors’ son; Reptilicus spews acid-venom!
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Pink goes into considerable detail about the legal battles; suffice to say, it ultimately boiled down to his hiring “as my lawyer the most disreputable of all I have ever known.

Marshall Sevin was later disbarred due to the work he did for me. He represented me in my search for funds to keep me afloat and to pay his legal fees in the AIP battle.

He came back with a proposal for a secured loan of $50,000 form a woman to whom he said he was referred. ‘Her proposal,’ he said, ‘is to secure her loan with a first mortgage on your share of Reptilicus, the loan to bear eighteen percent interest [usurious at that time in California] plus a ten percent participation in any profits derived from the film.’…”

Some time later, Sevin began to show his true colors and apply the thumbscrews to Sidney Pink.

“The news from Los Angeles was not good. Sevin had failed to bring about his guaranteed speedy resolution of our lawsuits.

As I later discovered, he never intended to resolve the matter in our favor… an auction sale of Reptilicus was scheduled for one day after the due date of our mortgage note. All attempts to discover who brought the action ended in mystery. I had seventy-two hours in which to return to the States [from Spain] and protect my interests… I arrived in Los Angeles the morning of the auction. We were unable to locate Sevin so we were forced to use another attorney to represent us at the auction…”

It turned out that Sevin had moved the auction venue. Pink was horrified to discover that “…the foreclosure sale had already taken place. The selling price was the balance of the mortgage due. With interests and costs, the total was approximately $67,000. Sevin was very mysterious about his whereabouts at the time of the sale but offered to represent us in a repurchase for $100,000.”

Pink and his attorney immediately fired Sevin. “We were able to prove Mr. Sevin represented the lady who made the loan and that he collected a legal fee and finder’s fee from her, while at the same time collecting from us for the same service. He arranged the auction sale…

His whole plan had been designed to bring me to the brink, collect fees from all concerned, and then make a killing for himself and the lender by forcing me to buy the film back at a ballooned figure…

The whole mess ended up in litigation… We sued for damages and the return of all fees paid to him when he was purportedly representing us. The suits dragged on for years.”

(- Sidney Pink, So You Want to Make Movies: My Life as an Independent Producer, Pineapple Press, Inc., 1989, pp. 114-115, 125-127, 129-131).

Thus, Reptilicus was almost undone by a mortgage scam — much like those too many Americans are facing today!

In the end, Pink and Arkoff amicably settled. Pink recalled:

“You would think that Sam and I would have become enemies, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Basically, we liked each other, and it was always strange to me the way he kept on trying to screw me….

I think both Sam and I were tired of the battling. I wanted to go back to work, and the entire Sevin affair had disgusted me so much I wanted to get away from the whole damned scene. When Sam suggested we get together, I was glad to do so.

We settled, with AIP buying all rights to Journey. Since they destroyed our original materials, it was impossible for me to restore the picture to our version. At Bent’s request, we removed his name from the film. I received more for the sale than I could have ever received under normal conditions, and the Reptilicus figures were changed to reduce the enormous costs claimed by AIP.”

(- Pink, Ibid., pp. 126, 131)

Well and good — but how did all this lead to Reptilicus becoming Reptisaurus?

Surely, nobody at Charlton was keeping abreast of all this crap, even if there had been a way to do so. In 1962, the entertainment industry was hardly the hotbed of daily ‘infotainment’ news media it is today — and even if it had been, a minor curio like Reptilicus or Journey to the Seventh Planet would have merited much, if any, attention after the initial Film Daily news item Bill Warren cited.

The key to the chronology here is the time that elapsed between the publication and distribution of Charlton’s licensed Reptilicus products — the Dean Owen Monarch paperback novelization and the first (and only) two issues of the Charlton comicbook Reptilicus — and the eventual release of AIP’s revamped American edition of Sidney Pink’s monster movie.

Let’s briefly jump back to Bill Warren’s account for a second:

“Because of the various lawsuits, the film’s release was delayed; the novelization came out long before the movie did. So did the grotesquely bad comic book based on this grotesquely bad film. The comic book was released in the summer of 1961…”

(- Warren, Ibid., pg. 689).

Above, left, and below: The Montes/Bache Reptisaurus covers and interiors were a major step up; all Reptisaurus art © 1962, 1963 Charlton Comics. 
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Furthermore, it’s likely the decision to change Reptilicus to Reptisaurus was a completely internal decision at Charlton, a preemptive reaction to the lawsuits and delayed release of Reptilicus the movie. Most likely, American International was completely unaware of and oblivious to Charlton’s decision; why would Arkoff care? There couldn’t have been much licensing income at stake; the movie tie-in publications had already served their purpose.

Further evidence of AIP being unaware of the Reptilicus/Reptisaurus transformation is in the AIP pressbook, circa 1962: note that the Reptilicus comic book and Monarch Books novelization were promoted in the AIP pressbook, offering the Monarch paperback at 21 cents per copy to theater owners as a promo tie-in).

Thanks to writer and diehard Reptilicus fan, Kip Doto, we know Pink didn’t know or care about the comicbook:

“The comic book I never knew about,” says Sid, “The only thing I ever saw was the paperback and I told them it was absolutely the dumbest thing I ever saw in my life, to make a sex story out of a children’s picture!”

(- Pink interviewed by Doto, Reptilicus The Screenplay, Bayou Publishing,Inc., 1999, pg. 11)

No, it’s highly unlikely there was any genuine legal pressure on Charlton about the comic book series, the title, or the property. Both Pink and Arkoff had bigger fish to fry, and Charlton was hardly a pack of legal eagles (as their later ill-fated, illegal, and short-lived Jungle Tales of Tarzan comics series demonstrated in 1965, unlicensed by Edgar Rice Burroughs’s estate, prompting legal action and the cancellation of that four-issue series).

Pat Masulli was reportedly the editor of the Reptilicus/Reptisaurus series, under both monikers; he’d have known the what, whys and wherefores, and possibly made the fateful decision just to make his life easier — so if anyone knows of a published (or unpublished) interview with Masulli that sheds light on this admittedly obscure topic, please, let me know!

My personal assessment, which is entirely speculative, is based on my own 25+ years working in comic books (I never worked for Charlton, but knowing a bit based on things Dick Giordano said while teaching at the Kubert School 1976-77, and Dick’s few comments about what kind of an outfit Charlton was, and my many late-night telephone conversations with Tom Sutton, I’m going to go out on a limb). By and large, editors and publishers aren’t a brave lot.

I believe that however briefly the Sidney Pink vs. AIP and Monarch Books lawsuit had dangled like the Sword of Damocles over Charlton’s operations, that was enough for Charlton to quickly rethink and hastily revamp Reptilicus the comic book series into Reptisaurus without a word to AIP or anyone outside of the Charlton offices. 

Look at the evidence of the comics themselves: the third issue simply recolored Reptilicus red, precious few text and panel changes severing ties with the Reptilicus monster-grows-from-fragments origin to the tried-and-true resurrected prehistoric monster schtick.

Given the rapidity of bimonthly publication of both Konga and Gorgo, its likely a few issues of what would have been Reptilicus #3, 4 and 5 were in the works or planned, explaining why the more extensive anatomical and design changes taking Reptisaurus from being just a boiled-lobster red Reptilicus to something a bit more distinctive took a few issues to implement.

One wonders if there may have been some regrets on their hasty decision, given the eventual January 1963 release of Reptilicus the movie (right when Reptisaurus #8, cover dated December 1962, would have been off the racks and en route to distributors — whole or just the cover title torn off for credit — as a returnable), perhaps prompting the post-cancellation appearance in Gorgo #12 and the Reptisaurus Special Edition as AIP’s theatrical run of Reptilicus gained some momentum, but one can only wonder. The timing between the comics and the movie’s release, however, corresponds with that possibility.

Having noted in my previous post the ongoing cult success Reptilicus has come to enjoy over the decades, it’s worth noting Sam Arkoff’s mention of where, perhaps, that cult began to gain some momentum, after the film’s initial theatrical release:

“A few years later, clips from Reptilicus were used as a running gag in The Monkees television show. If the Monkees’ own singing on that series wasn’t painful enough, the bizarre antics of the prehistoric monster was there to drive the TV audiences into submission.”

(- Arkoff, Ibid., pg. 153)

As Citizen Ken used to say, “Charlton Comics give you more — what???” My favorite Reptisaurus art team was undoubtably Bill Montes and Ernie Bache, who brought a consistency, weight and character to the book and its creatures that wasn’t too far from the Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Star-Spangled War Stories “The War That Time Forgot” G.I. vs. dinosaurs comic books. Though there was also an odd flavor to Montes and Bache’s work — their creatures looked pretty goofy at times, and they never broke out of the Charlton stable — I loved their work, and was really sorry at age eight when Reptisaurus was cancelled after so many prior issues of lame-o stories and art. They returned to draw the 1963 Special Edition, and also drew some issues of Gorgo and Konga. I’d welcome any further info anyone could offer on this sadly overlooked art team!
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I also recall seeing Reptilicus clips used on The Beverly Hillbillies, and I for one always loved glimpsing my fave bad monster movie in cameo appearances on these 1960s primetime TV shows.

As noted in the last post, that cult has spilled over into Sci-Fi Channel’s movies — notably Basilisk — and I daresay, if this upcoming movie doesn’t score a playdate on Sci-Fi Channel, it won’t be for lack of trying –

The cinematic CGI Reptisaurus comes to virtual life this year! © 2008 RetroMedia and the respective proprietors of Reptisaurus.
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Yes, ladies and gents, Reptisaurus has transmuted once again.

It’s worth noting this is the year that the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel Watchmen will appear on movie screens around the world, the first graphic novel adaptation based in part on Charlton Comics characters; remember that Alan and Dave originally wanted to do their radical take on the Charlton line of heroes, a proposal Dick Giordano nixed due to his sentimental attachment to the Charlton stable, suggesting Alan and Dave instead invent their own characters to fit the proposal’s narrative, and they did just that — creating Watchmen.

Since Dick Giordano was there when the Reptilicus/Reptisaurus transformation went down, I wonder if — well, if Dick’s memory of that might have sparked the suggestion to Alan and Dave to change the Charlton characters into what they became. That would be funny, wouldn’t it?

In any case, Watchmen and the worst of the Charlton monster comics are already linked in another curious turn of events. Watchmen won’t be the only 2008 movie based on Charlton Comics characters: there’s also (trumpets, please!) — Reptisaurus!Yep, none other than Fred Olen Ray’s RetroMedia has announced

their newest feature film Reptisaurus; here’s the website!

Here’s the trailer!

This new movie (it’s not even listed on imdb.com yet) stars Gil Gerard (TV’s Buck Rogers) and is directed by Christopher Douglas-Olen Ray. Bring it on!

And to think — it all started with a lawsuit.

One can only hope the 21st Century Dean Owen is raring to go, ready and willing to novelize Reptisaurus with steaming sex scenes to spice the monster action and “inflame unsavory and lascivious desires in the reader”!
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[Note: Special thanks to Steven Rowe, Will Hansen, the Grand Comic Book Database (http://www.comics.org), the online Who's Who of American Comic Books and everyone at the charlton-l@yahoogroup -- thanks for the research assist, and please, let me know if I've made any factual errors.]
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[June 2009 update: The Reptisaurus website and trailer site have disappeared since I posted this essay, so I'll include that trailer here as an embed. Enjoy!]

[And, while I'm at it, here's the only clip I could find on YouTube for the SciFi Channel movie Basilisk, a movie with a clear debt to Reptilicus:]