Midnight Tales #1

History

The series grew directly from the creative partnership of artist Wayne Howard — an African-American talent who had apprenticed at Wally Wood's Long Island studio around 1969 — and writer-editor Nicola Cuti, whose friendship dated to their collaboration on a 1969 story for DC's House of Mystery. Howard brought the concept wholesale to Charlton, and Cuti, serving as the book's writer and editorial voice, described the creator credit as warranted because the book 'was his idea, his concept, his everything.' George Wildman edited the series for its entire run, which appeared bimonthly and reached eighteen issues before concluding in May 1976; the series was later briefly revived as a reprint title renamed Professor Coffin, continuing the original numbering from #19 through #21 between October 1985 and February 1986. Issue #1 itself carried contributions from three distinct artistic hands: Howard handled the cover, the origin framing sequence, and the lead story, while Jack Abel illustrated 'The Doll' and Joe Staton drew 'Last of Its Kind' — a collaboration that reflected the collegial atmosphere Cuti was building around Charlton's horror line.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance and origin of Professor Cyrus Coffin (a.k.a. the Midnight Philosopher) and his niece Arachne, the series' recurring hosts, both debuting in the issue's framing sequence 'The Boyfriend!' (script: Nicola Cuti; art: Wayne Howard).
• Cover, framing-sequence art, and the standalone story 'Weave Me a Web' are all the work of Wayne Howard, who served as penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer on his own material — an unusual degree of solo craft production for a Charlton publication.
• The issue contains four distinct stories: the framing sequence 'The Boyfriend!', 'Weave Me a Web' (in which a character named Elias is killed by a legendary spider), 'The Doll' (penciled and inked by Jack Abel, scripted by Cuti), and 'Last of Its Kind' (penciled and inked by Joe Staton, scripted by Cuti, in which Zorkas searches for the final surviving Yeti).
• Issue #1 also included a one-page illustrated biography of Wayne Howard — an editorial choice that underscored the 'created by' branding and introduced readers to the artist as a named creative personality.
• Charlton's cover credit 'Created by Wayne Howard' — applied to every issue of the run — is documented across multiple sources as one of the earliest, if not the first, explicit publisher-credited series-creator attributions in American mainstream comics.
• The series was structured so that each issue's standalone stories shared a common monster or theme (e.g., blob creatures, vampires), a format established from this debut issue onward.
• The shared setting of Xanadu University tied Midnight Tales into the continuity of Charlton's superhero series E-Man, creating a rare instance of cross-title world-building within the Charlton line.
• Material from this issue was later reprinted in Professor Coffin #19 (October 1985, Charlton) — the reprint revival that continued Midnight Tales' original numbering — as well as in an Australian edition published by K.G. Murray.

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