| Category: | Charlton Comics news, reviews, and criticism |
| Publisher: | CPL Gang |
| Founded: | 1975 |
| Finaldate: | September 1976 |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Based: | Indianapolis, Indiana |
The Charton Bullseye is a fanzine that was published from 1975-76 by the CPL Gang highlighting Charlton Comics. It was a large format publication, with color covers on card stock and black & white interiors. Charton Bullseye published several previously unpublished Charlton superhero and adventure stories, along with articles on Charlton comics, news, reviews, pinups, and more.
The CPL Gang was a group of comics enthusiasts who published the fanzine Contemporary Pictorial Literature (CPL) in the mid-1970s. Founded by Roger Stern and Bob Layton, the CPL Gang included Roger Slifer, Duffy Vohland, and the young John Byrne, all of whom themselves became comics professionals by the tail-end of the 1970s.
CPL rapidly became a popular fan publication, and led to the CPL Gang forming an alliance with Charlton. During the mid-1970s, both Marvel Comics and DC Comics were publishing in-house "fan" publications (F.O.O.M. and The Amazing World of DC Comics respectively), and Charlton wished to make inroads into the superhero market, as well as "establish a fan presence". The CPL Gang first got permission to publish a one-shot called Charlton Portfolio (actually CPL #9/10) in 1974 which included the unpublished sixth issue of Blue Beetle vol. 5 (1967 series).
The positive response to Charlton Portfolio led to the CPL Gang getting approval to publish a Charlton-focused fanzine, Charlton Bullseye.[1] This in turn led to Charlton giving Layton and Stern "access to unpublished material from their vaults by the likes of Steve Ditko, Jeff Jones and a host of others".[1] Much of this material made it into the five issues of Charlton Bullseye.