E-Man #6
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeE-Man #6 (cover-dated January 1975) is a dual-key issue: the lead story by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton continues the warmly humorous adventures of energy-being E-Man (alter ego Alec Tronn) and his partner Nova Kane, while the eight-page backup 'That Was No Lady' delivers what is, in practice, the color-comics debut of both the robot character ROG 2000 and the artist who drew him — a then-unknown John Byrne. Because Byrne went on to define the look of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Superman for a generation, this modest Charlton backup occupies a genuine place in the history of American superhero art. The issue also reprints a critical essay from The New York Review of Comics and Books praising E-Man, reflecting the title's unusual level of thoughtful outside attention for a Charlton publication.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
ROG 2000 originated as a spot-illustration doodle Byrne contributed to the fanzine CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature), run by Roger Stern and Bob Layton, who named the robot as an inside joke playing on how many contributors to CPL were named 'Roger.' A Rog story in CPL #11 — written by Stern with art by Byrne and Layton — caught the eye of Charlton writer-editor Nicola Cuti, who invited Byrne to draw the character as a recurring backup in E-Man, scripted by Cuti himself. The Grand Comics Database notes a slight publication-order quirk: the backup in E-Man #6 is ROG 2000's first published appearance in commercial comics, yet it was actually the second Rog story to be written and drawn, with the CPL piece ('The Coming of the Gang') having been completed first.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: January 1975, published by Charlton Publications Inc.; on-sale date confirmed from The Comic Reader #111.
- Lead story 'Wunder World' (16 pages): written and drawn — including lettering — entirely by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton; E-Man and Nova Kane battle The Brain in a Disney-parody theme-park setting.
- Backup story 'That Was No Lady' (8 pages): written by Nicola Cuti, with full art (pencils, inks, and letters) by John Byrne — marking Byrne's color-comics debut.
- ROG 2000 makes his first commercial comics appearance in 'That Was No Lady'; the character was created by Byrne during his fan-art period and is described by Wikipedia as his first professional creation.
- Although E-Man #6 is ROG 2000's first published comics appearance, the GCD notes it was actually the second Rog story produced; the earlier story 'The Coming of the Gang' appeared in the small-press fanzine CPL/GANG Publications #11.
- The issue also contains a one-page reprint of an essay from The New York Review of Comics and Books praising the E-Man series, authored by Steve Stern.
- ROG 2000 went on to appear in three additional E-Man issues (#7, #9, and #10); all four Charlton Rog stories were later collected in Pacific Comics' magazine-sized ROG 2000 #1 (June 1982), and reprinted again in A-Plus Comics' Hot 'N Cold Heroes #1 (1990).
- John Byrne's Charlton work, beginning with this issue, was what Chris Claremont saw and championed, directly leading to Byrne's move to Marvel and his landmark run on Uncanny X-Men.
Cast · 4 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in E-Man #2 (1977), The Complete Rog 2000 #[nn] (1982), The Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #4 (1986), Hot 'N Cold Heroes #1 (1990), E-Man: The Early Years #[nn] (2011)
Key issues in E-Man
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