Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Chaykin, before and after:


We doubled up on some Howard Chaykin books the other day: first, "the complete Howard Chaykin classic!" Ironwolf, reprinting his early work from Weird Worlds #8-10 with Denny O'Neil on script and Walt Simonson on letters! It's a sci-fi swords-against-the-evil-empire number, with Chaykin showing some of his trends early: beautiful and occasionally deceptive women, and a hero who wonders if the side of "good" is really any better than said evil empire.

Then, from 2004, Solo #4, featuring six short stories. "Horrors!" is the shortest, but also a lot of fun; as Chaykin talks about his influences, about getting into comics work, and about his shame at being unable to deliver a scary story. I don't think I read Solo when it came out, and now I'm wishing Chaykin could do one of these a year...

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