News - 8/14/2002 Charlton rises from the ashes Three entertainment companies have merged into a new entity, boasting a name familiar to longtime comics readers and professionals. ACG Comics, Avignon Films, SIS Graphics have merged to form the Charlton Media Group, according to Diamond Comic Distributors. The aim of the merger is to all the new company to used its pooled resources to expand into film, multimedia, books and other commercial digital efforts. ACG Comics has been offering reprints of archived comics material, including war titles originally published by Charlton Comics. Charlton Comics began publishing comics in the mid 1940s, but it's best remembered as home to some noted comic-book talent in the 1960s, such as Dick Giordano and Steve Ditko. Other creators -- like John Byrne, Joe Staton and Denny O'Neil -- got their start at Charlton. Charlton Media will be publishing comics, continuing with ACG's reprints of black-and-white and color material, as well as new projects fetauring "licensed and revised characters, as well as creator-owned material." The original Charlton Comics closed its doors in 1986, only three years after selling off its superhero properties to DC Comics. DC integrated them into its line with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and continue to use a number of the characters -- including the Blue Beetle and the Question -- today. Other characters included in the deal were Captain Atom, Nightshade, Judomaster, Peter Cannon Thunderbolt, Sarge Steel and the Peacemaker, most of which have had their own titles under the DC banner. It's a new age, and we are open for business," said Charlton Media Group vice-president and controller John Lipsz in a released statement. The Fourth Rail could not track down a website for the newly merged company, nor any web presence of its three predecessors. Charlton Media's brief, vague statement made no reference to what old Charlton Comics material it planned to reprint or which "revised characters" were slated to see publication. It was not clear if this new media company's plans might clash with those of DC Comics, which has an ownership stake in a number of Charlton characters. Patty Jeres, DC's director of sales and marketing communications, said the company had no comment "yet." Check back for more on this story as information becomes available.