The Art Of Howard Chaykin
by Robert Greenberger
I can?t recall exactly when I first met Howard Chaykin but that initial impression remains with me. I was a teenager, attending the various New York City comic conventions and was becoming aware that there was this new generation of writers and artists, just a few years older than me, getting work and looking different than the talents that were producing work already. He was stylishly dressed, with thick sideburns and a fast tongue. He was opinionated, loud, and never less than fascinating to hear hold forth on any number of subjects. Clearly, Chaykin was smart because he was rattling off the names of illustrators and writers from earlier decades that I had been entirely unaware of.
He didn?t draw like Curt Swan or Jack Kirby nor did his work look like that of his peers Bernie Wrightson and Mike Kaluta. I couldn?t describe the style because it took a few years for it to grow consistent. By then, though, I was a fan. The work that convinced me once and for all was Cody Starbuck, his creation for Mike Friedrich?s Star*Reach #1. When I wasn?t looking, he went off to help explore and expand the graphic novel format with his work adapting Alfred Bester?s The Stars, My Destination and Empire, written by Samuel R. Delany. Given how long these were taking, Chaykin accepted other, faster paying work such as the adaptation of Star Wars (at the request of George Lucas no less).
As an editor, I could always count on Howard to say yes to my offers of work and he always brought me excellent covers and Who?s Who pages.
When I got a phone call about two years back to write a retrospective of Howard?s life and career, I was eager to get started. Chaykin gives great interviews, and is always forthcoming but I had never read anything about his life from beginning to today, usually just deep questioning about the project du jour. And while he is known for his groundbreaking work on American Flagg! and dared to do extended work involving sex with Black Kiss, Chaykin is far more than that.
A student of the great illustrators from the turn of the last century, Chaykin is also quite knowledgeable about jazz and science fiction and other subjects. He was trained by Gil Kane to be both a craftsman and an adult and brings his passions to the page. Always paying it forward, Chaykin has worked with countless assistants, most of whom have gone on to careers of their own.
American Flagg!
Over the last few years, Dynamic Forces has been bringing Chaykin?s best work back into print, beginning with the seminal Flagg!, Black Kiss and Power & Glory. While not a traditional superhero artist, Chaykin?s work on that latter title and DC?s Mighty Love graphic novel shows he understands the requirements of the genre.
Lately, though, Chaykin seems to have been typecast as an artist for flashbacks set in earlier eras. Largely, that is because he has keenly demonstrated he can evoke the past with his attention to fashion and detail. He has parlayed that into writing and drawing the Avengers 1959 miniseries so has managed to capitalize on the reputation.
The Art of Howard Chaykin features not only his life in his own words, but offers up numerous commentaries from those he worked with or used as apprentices ranging from Dean Haspiel to Ken Bruzenak. Brian Michael Bendis and Walter Simonson offer up their own tributes and the book contains the most comprehensive checklist of his career that you could ever want. The book was a pleasure to research and write and I only hope I did Howard proud.
Purchase
The Art of Howard Chaykin HC
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