American Flagg!
American Flagg! Howard Chaykin review part 1
An appreciation of the first twelve issues of Howard Chaykin’s vol 1 classic.I think I said DC’s “nighthawk.” I meant to say “BLACKHAWK”.Wakka Ding Hoy…fair use..
American Flagg! #1 (Oct. 1983). Cover art by Howard Chaykin.
American Flagg! is an American comic book series created by writer-artist Howard Chaykin, published by First Comics from 1983 to 1989. A science fiction series and political satire, it was set in the U.S., particularly Chicago, Illinois, in the early 2030s. Writers besides Chaykin included Steven Grant, J.M. DeMatteis, and Alan Moore.
Publication history
American Flagg, which ran 50 issues (Oct. 1983 – March 1988), was one of the first titles to be published by First Comics, an early alternative press comics company founded in Evanston, Illinois in 1983. Unusually for the time, the company offered its freelance writers and artists creator rights, including ownership of their creations. Regardless, writer-artist Howard Chaykin, then living in New York City, felt trepidation when First Comics approached him to do a project. He recalled in 2010,
My concern had all and everything to do with the fact that this was a brand new company, located in [a suburb of] Chicago. I’d always worked for companies I’d visited and had day-to-day-dealings with. [But t]hey talked about a financial plan that would make it possible for me to get out from under the debt I had accrued working for [publisher] Byron Preiss [illustrating early graphic novels]. It was encouraging, so I went home and concocted a scenario, a pitch document, and that was it.
Chaykin devised a series set in 2031, a high-tech but spiritually empty, consumerist world in which the American government has relocated to Mars, leaving what remains of the U.S. to be governed by the all-encompassing corporation the Plex. The series star is Reuben Flagg, a former TV star drafted into the Plexus Rangers and posted as a deputy in Chicago, Illinois.
The first 12 issues, running through cover-date September 1984, consisted of four interlocking, three-issue story arcs. Chaykin recalled his difficulty in producing 28 pages of art and script monthly. “I was still a smoker and a drinker at the time. And [the output was such that] I’d never done anything like that before, and it was insane. It just devoured my life I had no assistants. I didn’t how to work with an assistant at that point, and it was a very difficult process. … I was trying to do a fairly high-quality product and I didn’t want to slough it off.”
Chaykin made wide use of Craftint Duoshade illustration boards for American Flagg!, which in the period before computers, enabled him to add shaded textures to the finished art. Ken Bruzenak‘s lettering and logowork also won notice, as it was integral to American Flagg’s futuristic, trademark-littered ambiance.
American Flagg’s first twelve issues form one complete story, which has become a huge influence upon current comic creators such as Brian Michael Bendis and Warren Ellis. After issue #12, Chaykin continued the story but began to lose interest in the title, concentrating instead on other projects such as his revamp of The Shadow for DC Comics and Time, which was introduced in a one-off American Flagg! special in 1986. During this timeframe, Alan Moore wrote a back-up story which ran several issues and was wrapped up in a issue length story. The storyline was not well received.
Eventually, Chaykin left, to be replaced on a regular basis by first Steven Grant then J.M. DeMatteis, during whose run the title began a sales decline. Chaykin returned to the title for a brief run to wrap up storylines before the first volume was ended in March 1988. The title was relaunched a few months later as Howard Chaykin’s Amerikan Flagg!. This run saw Chaykin return to writing the series, with Mike Vosburg and Richard Ory penciling and inking the interior art, but the franchise failed to recapture its early success and was canceled after 12 issues.
