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Well, I was bashing some stuff by Chaykin in another topic, but I do really love a lot of stuff Howard Chaykin has done.

The first story I saw by him was his Batman story in DETECTIVE 441, March 1974. Which wasn't Chaykin's first work, he'd been working as a comics pro for a year already at that point. But it was the first I saw, and I was impressed, I liked his style, which was just starting to form at that point.

I think Chaykin's first series was Ironwulf in WEIRD WORLDS 8-10. And then another of his own characters, THE SCORPION, a short-lived series for Seaboard-Atlas in 1975. Plus other stories for the Warren magazines, HEAVY METAL and National Lampoon.

As I've touched on in other topics, Chaykin did a lot of anthology work and pulp adventure type stories. It was across such a wide range of genres and styles that it almost didn't occur to me these were all by the same guy. Across SWORD OF SORCERY for DC, Cody Starbuck and other features for STAR REACH, Red Sonja and Solomon Kane stories in CONAN AND THE BARBARIANS, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL. And later Dominic Fortune in MARVEL PREVIEW, BIZARRE ADVENTURES, and later as a backup in THE HULK magazine 21-25. And other stories, Solomon Kane again in 2 issues of MARVEL PREMIERE, and another later issue of the same anthology with a one-shot of Monark Moonstalker.

Plus a number of other stories for DC's war and mystery series throughout the 70's.

I think my favorite stuff by Chaykin remains his painted art in the 1978-1981 period. I think the first of this stuff I saw was his Dominic Fortune stories in HULK magazine, and his stories and covers for EPIC ILLUSTRATED, MARVEL PREVIEW magazine, and MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL.




Not to mention THE SWORDS OF HEAVEN THE FLOWERS OF HELL graphic novel, or his adaptation of Alfred Bester's THE STARS MY DESTINATION for Byron Preiss, and EMPIRE graphic novel, also for Preiss.

Most acclaim goes to Chaykin for his later 1983-1990 work on AMERICAN FLAGG, TIME SQUARED, THE SHADOW miniseries, BLACKHAWK miniseries, and BLACK KISS. Which I like too, but I prefer the painted stuff that preceded it.

Starting with American Flagg, I felt his art locked into one particular style, and while nice, it didn't evolve and change like his work that preceded it.

I met Chaykin at a 2012 convention, and he's very likeable and approachable, very funny, a bit off-the-wall and a smartass, and fun to be around. There wasn't much competition for his company, so I hung out and talked to him for about 45 minutes, and I only left his table when others finally came along, so they could enjoy some time with him too. Otherwise I would have gladly chatted with him for another hour.

Beyond the pleasant conversation, Chaykin has also provided me with many hours of great reading. Some of these pages I can look at for hours.


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Here's the first of Chaykin's Dominic Fortune stories in the HULK magazine 21, in 1980.
http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2012/03/makin-chaykin-all-in-color-for-crime-by.html

The first of 5 stories. I partly included it for the photos shown of collaborators O'Neil and Chaykin. The second photo includes editor Lynn Graeme and Jim Shooter.

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A chronological (but slightly incomplete) list of Howard Chaykin's work:

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/creator.php?creatorid=87

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Someone was good enough to post the complete Chaykin story from EPIC ILLUSTRATED 2, Summer 1980,
"Seven Moon's Light Casts Complex Shadows", a brief 8-page story, but I was knocked out by the art. Chaykin, along with Starlin, Conrad, Suydam and later Bolton and Macklin, were some of the few mainstream comics artists whose work I felt was worthy of the EPIC ILLUSTRATED high-quality format.

There are links above the story to a lot of other Chaykin stories, linked in another blog, that unfortunately are expired links. Too bad, because they're pretty much all the ones I would have picked myself and very much worth seeing, and it would have been easier to have them all linked in one place.




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MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL 18 cover by Chaykin, for the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" movie adaptation.

I was quite surprised when I discussed it with Chaykin, he seemed to be embarassed by it and feel like it was sub-par work. I told him that I actually like it better than the movie poster.




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THE STARS MY DESTINATION adaptation by Chaykin in 1979 was to have been published in two volumes, but only one was published, presumably for financial reasons by publisher Byron Preiss.

The series was not printed in its entirety until 1992, by Epic Comics.

And recently reprinted again in 2012 in a lavish hardcover.




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Chaykin's brief "Iron Wulf" series, as it appeared in WEIRD WORLDS 8, 9 and 10 in 1973-1974.

WEIRD WORLDS issue 8, Dec 1973, complete issue

WEIRD WORLDS 9, Feb 1974 , complete story

and

WEIRD WORLDS 10, Nov 1974, complete story.

A series that filled the void, after DC abandoned the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations in the first 7 issues. "Iron Wulf" was Chaykin's first series with his own characters.

With a little help from friends like Simonson, Milgrom, Starlin, O'Neil and Alcazar.






Simultaneous with that in 1973, Chaykin was also doing SWORD OF SORCERY for 5 issues, scripted by O'Neil. A couple issues were inked by "Crusty Bunkers", which was more Neal Adams and less his assistants at that stage.

SWORD OF SORCERY 1, March 1973, complete story

SWORD OF SORCERY 2, May 1973

SWORD OF SORCERY 3, July 1973

SWORD OF SORCERY 4, Sept 1973

SWORD OF SORCERY 5, Dec 1973



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The second writer/artist creation of Chaykin, THE SCORPION for Seaboard Atlas, during its very brief 10 months of publishing.

During that time, Chaykin created 2 issues, the first all-Chaykin, the second he apparently had difficulty making deadlines, so it's a very interesting mix of art assist by Chaykin, Simonson, Kaluta, and Wrightson.
Because of payment issues and the clear instability of Seaboard-Atlas, Chaykin abandoned the series after that, and issue 3 was published with art by Jim Craig, and (like virtually all Seaboard titles in those last months) a complete shift in direction.


SCORPION 1, Feb 1975, is a story I couldn't find available online.

SCORPION 2, May 1975, complete issue.

SCORPION 3, July 1975, complete issue.


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After that, Chaykin did virtually the same character for Marvel, starting with "The Power Broker Resolution" in MARVEL PREVIEW magazine 2, in May/June of 1975.
A second Dominic Fortune story by Chaykin appeared in a one-shot black and white magazine MARVEL SUPER ACTION 1, in Jan 1976.

My impression is, those two stories would have been SCORPION 3, if Chaykin had not left Seaboard/Atlas.

They were were later reprinted in MARVEL PREVIEW 20, March 1980, in an all-reprint issue that was the first BIZARRE ADVENTURES issue.

With this beautiful Chaykin cover:




The Dominic Fortune series was then continued in a series of painted color backup stories in HULK magazine 21-25 (one of which I linked in another post above).

There was another Dominic Fortune color comic book story in MARVEL PREMIERE 56, Oct 1980. Which was oddly incongruent with either the BIZARRE ADVENTURES or HULK stories, done in a different style. And I don't recall any mention of each other in the HULK or MARVEL PREMIERE issues.

But I love those HULK backup stories, beautiful art, a lot of pulp and 1930's references in different issues to the Shadow and Golden Age comics in their earliest period, Shirley Temple, and a mixture of vampires and nazis. A mixture of 30's nostalgia, social commentary, self-parody, pulp adventure and humor. Chaykin and Dennis O'Neil were a good collaborative team that played well off each other, if only for 5 issues. I think the HULK magazine dropping color in issues 26 and 27 is what hastened the end of the Dominic Fortune backups.



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Hi Dave. I generally like Chaykin's art. Two things annoy me though:

1. Dominic Fortune, Reuben Flagg, 1950s Nick Fury... they could all seriously be the same guy. Chaykin makes no effort to delineate the appearance of the characters;

2. Chaykin is an unrepentant socialist. So even in Avengers 1959 or whatever it was called, the 50s Avengers fight Nazis, not Soviets. As far as I've ever seen, Chaykin can't bring himself to disparage the evils of State communism. (Perhaps my sample pool is too small.)

I really liked Amerikan Flagg!, and in fact still have all twelve issues in my bookshelf. (Amerikan Flagg! was the sequel to American Flagg!). I accidentally picked up an issue of Black Kiss. It was very explicit, with a nasty gang rape scene.


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Nice to have you back, Australia-Dave.

1. I kind of like that aspect of Chaykin's work, that his characters, even his futuristic and S-F characters have a retro 1930's/1940's kind of look. To me it gives them a timeless look that doesn't become dated.

2. I was unaware of Chaykin's communist/socialist ideology. I always thought Chaykin's constant use of Nazis stemmed from his 1930's-era focus, and also the fact that he is Jewish. It never occurred to me he was averse to negatively portraying communists. Chaykin's 3-issue BLACKHAWK storyline had both Soviets and Nazis.

My main complaint about Chaykin's work is that it can at times be choppy and incoherent, in much the same way as Frank Miller's work. I'm thinking in particular of AMERICAN FLAGG, his 1986 THE SHADOW four-issue series, his BLACKHAWK series, TIME SQUARED, and the 1992 IRONWOLF:THE FIRES OF REVOLUTION graphic novel, to name a few I can think of. I like a lot of these series, but these were points off for otherwise good reading. The least coherent was IRONWOLF.

My favorite from Chaykin remains his 1978-1982 painted artwork.

I think for most, Chaykin's AMERICAN FLAGG is his masterwork and best remembered series. So you're not alone there. It's a fun and intelligent series from Chaykin, there's just others I like as much or more.

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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy


TIME SQUARED



Yes, I liked this too. The cardboard box in the road was awesome, as was that sinister devil-like character. I'll have to go and find the old issue son eBay....

Apparently Chaykin is as at last year working on a third volume.


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There were two TIME SQUARED graphic novels from First Comics. For a long time, I only knew of the first one. So the 2nd is on my list to buy.

First also re-released AMERICAN FLAGG storylines in a nicer format as three graphic novels, collecting 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9.
AMERICAN FLAGG has since been released again in several different collected trades and hardcovers in recent years.

TIME SQUARED, THE EPIPHANY (1986)

TIME SQUARED, THE SATISFACTION OF BLACK MARIAH (1987)



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From 1979, I highly recommend this Michael Moorcock adaptation by Howard Chaykin, published by Heavy Metal.

THE SWORDS OF HEAVEN, THE FLOWERS OF HELL


An intelligent story, and beautifully rendered by Howard Chaykin in some of his best painted art. Easier to find these days (God bless the internet!) but even back in the pre-internet 1990's when I first discovered it with much more difficulty, well worth seeking out.

There is also a newer 2018 printing of this book by another publisher.




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