World of Wheels #17
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWorld of Wheels #17 is the debut issue of the renamed series — the title change from Dragstrip Hotrodders directly to World of Wheels starting at issue #17 marks a deliberate editorial repositioning of Charlton's hot-rod line around a new central character, Ken King, a wrongly accused motorcycle racer whose ongoing quest for redemption gave the book a serialized dramatic arc unusual for the genre. As the first chapter in that renamed run, it anchors Ken King's ongoing story of injustice and perseverance on the outlaw racing circuit — a narrative hook that kept readers returning across the book's entire sixteen-issue lifespan through 1970. Within Charlton's sprawling automotive comics universe, this issue represents the moment the publisher consolidated several threads of its hot-rod output into a single, character-driven title aimed squarely at the Silver Age youth audience captivated by motorcycle and racing culture.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
World of Wheels was born directly out of Dragstrip Hotrodders (1963), with the series renaming itself and picking up the numbering at #17 in October 1967 — the same month Charlton's editorial office, then overseen by executive editor Pat Masulli and managing editor Dick Giordano, was reshaping the company's genre output. The creative backbone of the issue was Jack Keller, a Golden Age veteran who had abandoned an exclusive Marvel contract offer around this period specifically to stay at Charlton, where he could write, pencil, and ink his own automotive stories without editorial interference — a creative freedom that gave the Ken King strip its distinctive voice. Interior art credits for the issue also include Charles Nicholas, Vince Alascia, and Edd Ashe, with letterer Bob Agnew providing typeset text consistent with Charlton's house style of the era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- World of Wheels #17 (October 1967, Charlton) is the first issue published under that title, continuing the numbering directly from Dragstrip Hotrodders #16.
- The issue introduces Ken King as the series' lead character — a motorcycle racer falsely blamed for the death of a rival, whose fight to clear his name drives the book's serialized storyline.
- The lead Ken King story is titled 'Cross-Country Revenge!' and places Ken in a grudge-match dirt-bike duel against Jim, the brother of the man Ken is alleged to have killed.
- Cover, pencils, and inks on the lead story are all by Jack Keller, who signed the work; additional interior art is by Charles Nicholas, Vince Alascia, and Edd Ashe.
- The issue was edited under Pat Masulli (Executive Editor) and Dick Giordano (Managing Editor) at Charlton Comics, during what was a productive and distinctive period for the publisher's genre lines.
- The 36-page issue also includes a non-Ken King story ('Modified Madness,' featuring a character named Whitey), plus a short non-fiction article on avoiding car theft — typical of Charlton's mixed-format approach to the hot-rod genre.
- Jack Keller, the primary creative force on this issue, was at this time turning down Marvel's offer of an exclusive contract in order to remain at Charlton and continue writing and drawing his automotive characters.
- The series ran from this debut issue (#17) through #32 (June 1970), giving Ken King a sixteen-issue run as Charlton's flagship motorcycle-racing protagonist.
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