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E-Man
200px
E-Man #1 (First Comics)
Publication information
PublisherCharlton Comics, First Comics, Comico, Alpha
First appearanceE-Man #1 (1973)
Created byNicola Cuti, Joe Staton
In-story information
Alter egoAlec Tronn
Abilitiesenergy-based

E-Man is a fictional comic book superhero created by writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton for Charlton Comics in 1973. Though the character's original series was short-lived, the lightly humorous hero has become a cult-classic[citation needed] sporadically revived by various independent comics publishers.

Charlton Comics

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The character premiered in E-Man #1, the first of ten issues (Oct. 1973 - Sept. 1975) published by the Derby, Connecticut-based Charlton Comics. For the last four, artist Staton created painted covers, a comics rarity at time[citation needed].

E-Man is a sentient packet of energy thrown off by a nova. Traveling the galaxy he learned about life, how to duplicate the appearance of life, and good and evil. Reaching Earth, he met exotic dancer/grad student Katrinka Colchnzski, also known as Nova Kane, and formed himself into a superhero he called E-Man, with a civilian identity he dubbed "Alec Tronn" (electron). Nova would later be caught in a nuclear explosion and gain the same powers as E-Man and become his partner. The stories were humorous and lighthearted, in the style of Plastic Man, especially as E-Man could form himself into anything he wanted.

Backup features were Cuti and Tom Sutton's "The Knight", starring a superspy agent of C.H.E.S.S.; Joe Gill and Steve Ditko's "Liberty Belle"; two stories of writer-artist Ditko's fascinatingly bizarre, superhero Objectivism tract [citation needed], "Killjoy"; the time-traveling "Travis", by Cuti and Wayne Howard; and, in the color-comics debut of John Byrne, four stories of "Rog-2000", written by Cuti and starring a wiseacre, cigar-smoking robot Byrne had created in his fan-artist days.

A supporting character, the grubby but right-hearted detective Mike Mauser, got his own backup series in Charlton's Vengeance Squad. An additional E-Man story, which introduced his energy-being "sister", Vamfire, appeared in the company's in-house fan magazine, Charlton Bullseye #4.

In 1977, the original 10-issue run was reprinted by a company called Modern Comics for sale as bagged sets in discount department stores across North America.

First Comics

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In 1983, during a period of financial uncertainty for Charlton, the company sold independent publisher First Comics the rights to E-Man. First's E-Man ran 25 issues (April 1983 - Aug. 1985), with the company also publishing a seven-issue miniseries, The Original E-Man and Michael Mauser, that reprinted those characters' Charlton stories.

Staton did the artwork, with stories written by Martin Pasko, Paul Kupperberg, Cuti, and Staton himself. [[:Image:killjoy.gif|thumb|Steve Ditko's "Killjoy", a two-issue backup feature]]

Later publications

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After First Comics went out of business, Comico published an E-Man one-shot (Sept. 1989) by Cuti & Staton, followed by a three-issue miniseries (Jan.-March 1990). After Comico's demise, Alpha Productions did a one-shot in (Sept. 1993), as well as three ashcan previews of that issue.

E-Man appeared in the two-page story "Come and Grow Old With Me", by Cuti and Staton, published in the magazine Comic Book Artist #12 (March 2001).

On Oct. 18, 2006, Digital Webbing Press published the one-shot E-Man: Recharged, with Cuti and Staton as the creative team. The company had previously announced, in March 2006, this would be followed by another one-shot, E-Man: Dolly, published September 2007.[1]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Digital Webbing press release (March 13, 2006): "E-Man Returns to Comics" (via Newsarama.com)

References

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