Keeping in mind that the last three posts have been about Jackson Guice one might think that I would start INDEPENDENT COMICS MONTH with his brilliant CrossGen series RUSE but that's exactly why I decided against it.
I mean, naturally I thought about it or doing another general CrossGen Comics tribute post but as longtime followers of the blog know I like to switch things up whenever I can in order to keep things interesting for my readers but more importantly myself. Because let's face it, the posts are way better when I am invested in the topic that I am writing about.
So instead of that I am doing a post which frequent blog visitors might remember that I promised to do when I was writing the in - between posts for SWAMP THING MONTH . With that said I don't know that much about Howard Chaykin's groundbreaking AMERICAN FLAGG because - like the majority of comicbook readers from my generation - it is a book that has always intrigued me but I never got around to delve into until now.
I don't know why that is, maybe because of the political topics that I was not that interested at the time it was published or maybe because of the sexual content in the book ( which should have been a reason for me to read it and which was way tamer than I thought when I finally checked it out much like in his famous - or infamous as your mileage may vary - BLACK KISS especially when compared to what you can find in european comics ) but AMERICAN FLAGG was always on the backburner. It also may have something to do with the fact that the original series was published by an independant comicbook company like First Comics and as far as I know only two albums have been published in Germany by Feest Comics.
Whatever may be the reason I am not the only one who has overlooked AMERICAN FLAGG which was so innovative that it influenced revered works of comicbook art like Frank Miller's re - imagination of the Batman mythos THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons WATCHMEN yet is always ignored when people speak about comicbook series that shaped the comicbook landscape we are living in right now.
What may be one reason why this seminal work is virtually unknown to Today's generation of consumers ( which is always a big incentive to showcase series on this blog ) is that it is very layered and the story underneath the surface takes a lot of work to decipher. As for the story when it came out it was a vision of the future but Today an America rules by a ruling class made up of egoistical despots where every town is just one big mall and the general populace is kept docile by a steady diet of porn, drugs, consumerism and reality tv is the reality of people's lives.
Speaking of porn, like I mentioned the sex contained in this series was way tamer then I expected and in most cases it is in service of the story or the characters. One thing that may also be off putting to Today's comicbook reading generation is that it is always consensual and both parts enjoy the act. I mean, in the comicbooks that come out Today the women have to be at least bi - sexual if not outright lesbians ( although the argument could be made that most women are practically lesbians because while they are labelled as bi - sexual you never see them having sex with men ) while men ( who are always at least gay or bi - sexual which also is played as gay since you almost never see them having sex with women ) are just to be used if they are used at all and are always to blame for everything that is wrong. Also Howard Chaykin's women are emancipated women in positions of power instead of just pretending to be like Today's mindless interchangeable avatars of political agendas.
Coming to Howard Chaykin's art that is hit or miss - like a lot of his series - but he is consistent. So far I have not written much about him and he mostly popped up in the birthday section - back when I had time to go over all of the celebrity birthdays - but I'm sure that I wrote about some of the more mainstream series he worked on like THE SHADOW, BLADE or WOLVERINE or his POWER & GLORY series for Malibu Comics ( yes, the guys who did the original MEN IN BLACK comicbook on which the movies and the cartoon show are based on ) Bravura imprint that also featured such creators like Kevin Maguire ( STRIKEBACK ), Dan Jurgens ( DEUCE ), Walt Simonson ( STAR SLAMMERS ), Jim Starlin ( BREED, BREED II and DREADSTAR ), Norm Breyfogle ( METAPHYSIQUE ) and Gil Kane ( EDGE ).
back then a vision of the future now everyday life
