Well, if you've come to this page seeing how anyone could misspell the name of Green Lantern's greatest foe, you are in for a bit of a surprise. T'aint misspelled, McGee. And the big head is only in this guy's mind.

Charlton Comics is probably best known for being the home to a lot of the creations of Steve Ditko in the late sixties. Captain Atom, the revamped Blue Beetle, and The Question all sprung from Steve's able pen. Pete Morisi was responsible for Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, and Charlton also had the Peacemaker, The Prankster, The Sensational Sentinels and The Fightin' Five in their stable of continuing characters, as well as a horde of mystery, western, and war comics, as well as a good number of movie and television adaptations.

Back then, all of the major companies had comics that were try-out books ... comics that gave obscure and new characters one-shot stories and a chance at the big time. DC Comics had the legendary Showcase, which was almost single-handedly responsible for starting the Silver Age of Comics with The Flash, The Atom, Green Lantern, The Metal Men, Adam Strange and many other great (and no-so-great) characters getting their start there. Marvel Comics was also one for try-out and anthology titles (at least up until the nineties). Marvel Feature and Marvel Premiere were their main four-color outlets in the early seventies, with characters usually getting a several issue run in the book to see if they were economically feasible. Doctor Strange, The original Defenders, Iron Fist, Adam Warlock, and the Thing all won their own series in this fashion (though I will never understand why Herb Trimpe's great Ant-Man serial in Marvel Feature never got the nod...oh well, no accounting for taste, I guess).

Charlton Comics was no different, bringing out Charlton Premiere in late 1967, and then Charlton Bullseye in 1975 (and again in 1980) . The first issue was very reminiscent of the early Showcase issues, as it featured the daring "Marine War Heroes". The next issue started a new volume number and ran for a grand total of four issues. The first issue featured a trio of stories: The Shape, the Tyro Team, and The Spookman. The second highlighted "Children of Doom" ("Can This Be Tomorrow?"), and the fourth issue was all about "Unlikely Tales" featuring Wilbert Bland as "The Insignificant Man" (there was also an issue #19, that apparently reprinted the Marine War Heroes issue. Go figger.). Issue three however, has something interesting in it: Sinistro, Boy Fiend, written and drawn by Henry Scarpelli.

This was the tale of Jack Biceps, an all-American boy who didn't want to be an all-American boy. His parents, teachers, and everyone had faith that Jack would play the hero's role in life. But Jack didn't want to be a hero...in fact, he hated "good guys" in any shape or form, but particularly he hated all super-heroes. He especially hated all of Gothamville's super-heroes: Super Guy, Captain USA, Aunt-Man, the Green Spider, and especially Blue Beetle, The Peacemaker, and Thunderbolt (who was mentioned but doesn't appear in the story).

To achieve his ends of becoming a "super-hero for evil," Jack attempts to become Sinistro, Boy Fiend. First he tried to make and drink a magic potion to give him super-powers. His girlfriend, Shirlee Peech, thought it would just turn him into a ghoul. Unfortunately for Jack, the potion was too hot and he thought it needed salt, and he added too much, so all it did was make him sick. Turning to high technology, he next tried to put together the "simple do-it-yourself kit" for the Highro-Gyro, which was supposed to take thirty minutes. Unfortunately, the manufacturers forgot to put in the instruction book. Days later, Sinistro finally made his first appearance on the Gothamville landscape flying high up in the sky in the smoke-spouting Highro-Gyro, seeking evil-doers to help and super-heroes to foil.

Using his infra x-ray viewer, Sinistro spotted a bunch of safe crackers opening a vault with dynamite, only to be stopped by Super Guy. As he headed in to help, Captain USA sped across the sky at the speed of light and almost ripped the Highro-Gyro apart with the turbulence. He then disabled the flying machine after Sinistro called him a "big boob" under his breath.

Later that evening, a "criminal underling" brought Jack a message and Sinistro went off to meet the head of the Mosa Dosa that night, this time using his mini-jets under his cape to propel himself through the air. Irish Hymie Schultz and the Mosa Dosa wanted Sinistro to help them pull their next job by keeping the super-heroes off their backs so they could get away with the loot. Sinistro also detected movement in a wax statue in the room, and used his super gun to reveal it to be the super-hero known as Green Spider, who was going to capture them. The gang got away, but Sinistro got belted through the roof by Green Spider.

The next day was filled with simply avoiding the super-heroes flying through the sky as Sinistro hunted for Schultz and the gang to warn them. Schultz went ahead with his plan to raid the National Treasury Building, with Sinistro attempting to keep the heroes away for just ten minutes. His micro-mesh net slowed down Super Guy, and he attacked Blue Beetle with his "pneumatic missile ejector with the non-electronic range finder" (also known as a bean shooter) and then managed to hypnotize the hero into falling asleep by using a pocket mirror. The Peacemaker was a bit more of a problem, so Jack used his magic words (?!?) "Abracadabra Shuuzzoooomm!" to change back to Jack Biceps in a fraction of a second. He lured the Peacemaker into an open manhole. As Sinistro took off again, he almost flew into the web of Green Spider (ever strand was as thin as a hair and stronger than a steel cable). Surprisingly, Sinistro defeated Green Spider handily, reducing him to a quivering mess of tears by admitting that he didn't want to fight him because some of his best friends were spiders,

At the National Treasury, Schultz and his gang were finishing cleaning out the building, taking $99,000,000,000,000,000 in pennies and nickels. Schultz offered Sinistro a half a buck for his help, which enraged the young man, who demanded $49,500,000,000 (and not all in pennies), threatening to pull a fire alarm if Schultz didn't acquiesce to his demand. Sinistro pulled the fire alarm anyway (since he loved fire trucks), and soon fire engines came from every directions, blocking all avenues of escape. Schultz and his men surrendered to the police, as did Sinistro, but the cops refused to take the kid into custody...the final ignominious defeat by the forces of law and order.

Sinistro, Boy Fiend was actually one of the best Charlton Comics that I've ever read, comparing favorably to Ditko's The Question and Blue Beetle, and Pete Morisi's Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt. It was very reminiscent of the popular DC parody series, The Inferior Five, and the book had about the same sense of humor about it and Henry Scarpelli has a artistic style that brings to mind Joe Orlando's work in that series.

Most of Charlton's super-heroes and super-villains later jumped ship to DC Comics about a decade after Charlton Comics finally closed shop (beginning with Crisis on Infinite Earths), but Sinistro, Boy Fiend has not been seen in the DC Universe ... at least not yet.

Charlton Premiere #3
January, 1968
Featuring Sinistro, Boy Fiend in "Too Many Happy Endings!"
Story, art and cover by Henry Scarpelli