RAISE THE FLAGG IN NOVEMBER - BARRUCCI ON THE AMERICAN FLAGG COLLECTION

[MattBrady]

Twenty-one years since its debut, and a few odd months since the announcement, the Dynamic Forces collection of Howard Chaykin’s seminal work from the ‘80s, American Flagg! is set for release in November through Image. Those involved are making the event out of the release as well, including the collection being featured on the cover to Previews, as well as contributions from Michael Chabon, Jim Lee, Brian Haberlin, and Chip Kidd.

(including the complete stories "Hard Times" and "Southern Comfort").
The second features issues 7 through 12 ("State of the Union" and
"Solidarity -- For Now").

On top of that, both trades (volume 1 collection issues #1-#6, "Hard Times" and "Southern Comfort;" and volume 2 collecting #7-#12, "State of the Union" and
"Solidarity -- For Now") and the hardcover (issues #1-#12, and an all-new 12-page Flagg story by Chaykin) are being released at once.

We caught up with Dynamic Forces president Nick Barrucci to talk about the impending release, and the final form the collection has taken.

“It’s one of the greatest series that has ever come out of comics,” Barrucci said when asked why he went after the series with such zeal. “It needed to be out there. And we were fortunate that Howard wanted to work with us. It’s as simple as that.”

As for having it published through Image that came earlier this year, when Dynamic Forces was looking at its various options. “We were deciding what was best for the everybody – what was best for Howard, what was best for the project, what was best for the retailers, and what was best for fans,” Barrucci said. “We had a meeting with [Managing Editor] Eric Stephenson and [Publisher] Erik Larsen, and we asked them what they would be willing to promote the American Flagg! collection – would they be willing to, if they would publish it, give it the cover to Previews?”

(Note – the four major publishers, Dark Horse, DC, Image, and Marvel normally divide the two covers for Diamond’s catalog of coming comics and product throughout the year, although other select publishers and/or proerty holders can have their projects placed there as well, at Diamond's discretion.)

“Erik Larsen jumped at the chance,” Barrucci continued. “It went through some more months of discussion and negotiation, and finally, here we are. We have the cover to Previews, and probably the highest amount of awareness you’ll ever get on a project of this nature, and all in all, it’s the platform that this project deserves. Especially considering all the pieces we pulled together.”

Larsen said: "Lord knows the guy has produced an impressive body of work post-Flagg!, but American Flagg!, for a lot of us, stands out as Howard’s signature book. It’s the book that raised the bar, set the standard, and showed the world what a talented son of a bitch he is.

"The series, the world, and its entire cast were unlike anything that had preceded it," Larsen continued. "Chaykin’s innovations sent a shockwave through the industry. Nobody, prior to Howard, had so successfully combined illustrations and sound effects. Nobody had integrated rock & roll riffs and rhythms into a comic book. Nobody approached the page with such a sense of design or wrote stories that were so sophisticated, complex, compelling, and real. His outstanding use of duo-shade not only gave American Flagg! a look all its own but made other books look flat and dull in comparison.

“And the women -- oh my."

For Barrucci, the cover to the catalog was Jack Nicholson.

Work with him here.

“With this collection of American Flagg!, I think of the movie A Few Good Men – it had Tom Cruise. It had Demi Moore. It had many other fine actors in it. It had a tremendous script. Did they need Jack Nicholson? Could they have gotten any other actor to play the role of the general? Probably, they could have, but they decided that they really wanted to go all out. They got a first rate movie, and they went all out.

“You can use that analogy toward any part of American Flagg! – we wanted to go all out. We wanted to make sure that this project was the best if could possibly be. We told Image how many pages of coverage we expected to put in the DF section for American Flagg!, and they agreed to match it, and you know what? This project deserves it. This project is one of the most important projects that ever happened in American comics. I can’t say this enough. This is one of the greatest comics ever released – it stands on even footing with just about anything you can stack it against, and the fact that DF was able to release this is incredible.”

Touching on Barrucci’s A Few Good Men analogy again, his collection of other pros stepping in to help out started with Jim Lee.

“When it came to Jim, we were doing a signing with him, and I asked if he would do the foreword,” Barrucci said. “Jim is the gentleman of comics. He is probably one of the nicest people in comics today. He agreed to do it.

Next, I was at one of Michael Chabon’s lectures, met with him, and asked if he would like to do the afterword, which he was more than up for. Again – this is A Few Good Men all over – a great script, a great cast, do you need Tom Cruise and Nicholson? You don’t necessarily need them, but if they can do it, and they’re willing to be part of it, why not?

“So Michael had agreed to do the afterword, and when I mentioned it to Jim, he jumped at me, and told me that he wasn’t doing the foreword if Michael Chabon was doing something with the book. He said he’d do the afterword, and Michael had to do the foreword. Jim felt that having Michael write the foreword would be better for the project as a whole, so he stepped down, and took the afterword instead. What can I say to that? It shows what a great guy Jim is, and his character.

“Chip Kidd was a great addition as well. We ran into him a year ago at San Diego, and asked if he’d be interested in it. I saw him next at a signing with Alex Ross, and asked again, and he said he’d be all over it. Howard followed up with him, and he’s designing the covers and dust jackets.

“And last but not least, Brian Haberlin is coming in to color the original 12-page story that Howard is doing for the hardcover. There are so many great colorists in the comics market, and in a conversation with Brian, I asked if he’d be interested in coloring the story, and he jumped all over it. So that was a nice plus as well. End of the day, we’ve got a lineup, counting Howard, of course, of professionals that any publisher would give their eye teeth for between the covers. I like to think that it’s a testament to both Howard and the influence his work, especially American Flagg! had on an entire generation of comic readers and young professionals.”

Back to the mechanics, for Barrucci, a guy who makes his living off of collectibles, releasing everything at once was a tough decision, but fans and retailers can thank Saint Nick, comments about his heart growing three sizes, notwithstanding.

“A lot of it really came down to it being released right before the holidays, and giving the retailers and fans the most amount of choice as possible,” Barrucci said. “Will we do this again, I don’t know – we’ll see how the experiment works. This was really one of the most difficult decisions that had to be made. Some retailers wanted it all out at once, some wanted us to stagger it – and put the hardcover out first. Others wanted us to put the trades out first. It was the toughest decision we could make, but in the end, it seemed to be the simplest – give the fans and retailers a choice all at once.

“We will probably be shipping the trades a week or two before the hardcovers though, just to make it easier for the retailers. We’re going to try to do that – can’t say we’ll succeed, but we’ll try. The good thing is that retailers will be able to see how good the quality is on Dreadstar as they’re ordering American Flagg!, which is a really nice plus.

“The other thing – by working with Image on this, we have their economies of scale when it comes to printing, which has allowed us to bring this in at the best pricing possible, and that’s great for the fans.”

Note – While the hardcover will contain Chabon’s foreword and Lee’s afterword, Volume 1 of the trade edition will feature Chabon’s foreword, and volume 2 will feature Lee’s essay as an introduction. The cover to volume 1 will be a reproduction of the cover to issue #1 of the original series, while the cover to volume 2 will be a reproduction of the cover to issue #8 of the original series. The trade editions will retail for $19.95 each, while the hardcover (400 pages) will retail for $49.95

As for when DF and Image will be following up November’s release, “time will tell,” Barrucci said, adding that right now, he’s a little too preoccupied to be looking that far down the road.

“Now we have the hard job – we’ve given fans every reason to se for themselves the highest expectation on this collection. You’ve got Howard Chaykin working with Brian Haberlin. You’ve got Michael Chabon. You’ve got Jim Lee. You’ve got Chip Kidd. You’ve got Image Comics releasing it. We’d better perform to everyone’s expectations, and hopefully, we’re going to, and make a lot of people happy in the process.”

For a look back at American Flagg! with Chaykin, click here.

For Stuart Moore's fond memories of Flagg! and its legacy, click here

For an earlier story on DF's collecting Flagg!, click here

[algertman]

that's cool i always wondered about this comic

o also reccomend DreadStar which DF also puts out collected, just good old space opera

[meverat]

price?

[MattBrady]

Originally posted by meverat
price?

read the article again.

MattB

[SpyGuy]

I managed to spot these on Diamond's online ordering forms for November, and definitely plan on picking up both of these trades. AMERICAN FLAGG was a series definitely ahead of its time, so I'll be curious to see how it stacks up after twenty years.

Now that AF has been addressed, it's time to focus on collecting other First Comics titles like Mike Grell's JON SABLE, FREELANCE and possibly E-MAN...

[Aaron]

Wow, Dynamic Forces announced this collection 21 years and a few months ago? And we thought NYX was running late...

Aaron

Forget all your X-Crap and flavor-of-the month junk. This is the real deal.

[meverat]

Originally posted by MattBrady
read the article again.

MattB

thanks, i have a head cold

[kalorama]

Originally posted by Aaron
Wow, Dynamic Forces announced this collection 21 years and a few months ago? And we thought NYX was running late...

Aaron

Not quite...

Twenty-one years since its debut, and a few odd months since the announcement, the Dynamic Forces collection of Howard Chaykin’s seminal work from the ‘80s, American Flagg! is set for release in November through Image.

Anyhow, this is good news. I'm not real big on pricey hardcover collections , esp. when I know the same stuff will be available in more reasonably priced softcover editions, but I'll definitely be getting the hardcover for this one.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by kalorama
Not quite...

Matt edited it. :-)

[Fazhoul]

I am REALLY looking forward to this book. AF was always one of my favorite books from the 80's. I might even see if I can find the hardcover discounted somewhere.

[meverat]

Originally posted by Aaron
Matt edited it. :-)

haha yeah i noticed that too. we all have off days.

[Michael C Lorah]

I'll be picking up the hardcover. Flagg! is worth every word of praise that I've read.

[idkidd]

When is someone going to give Nick Barrucci his own regular column? Whenever he's interviewed I find him very interesting and not afraid to share his opinion; plus, his really long 3 part rant on shaking up the industry a couple years back was recklessly thought provoking.

[Robot H Brian]

This book was considerably over my head as a 12-13 year old, but I loved it just the same (and at the time even thought they should've stopped after 12). I haven't owned or read those issues in well over a decade - I'll be saving my money up for the hardcover. This is the good stuff.

(I'm just glad my Mom never found a copy - she'd have snatched it away from me like my Camelot 3000 #6 that I foolishly left on the kitchen counter).

[Johnny Bacardi]

As someone who owns a set of the originals, my only regret is that once again I'm forced to cough up $50 if I want to own that new Chaykin AF! story. Not very cost effective, as far as I'm concerned...better paper stock notwithstanding.

I know, I know, cry me a river.

[ealham]

Originally posted by Fazhoul
I am REALLY looking forward to this book. AF was always one of my favorite books from the 80's. I might even see if I can find the hardcover discounted somewhere.

talesofwonder.com has the DF DreadStar hardcover (which is also $50), for around $35. so I'am sure the American Flag Hardcover will be discounted the same.

[heeBGB]

As I've mentioned in earlier posts about this edition coming out, I'm all on board for getting these new editions. I will repeat my plea to Dynamic Forces that they really need to keep this widely-acknowledged "classic" series evergreen and in print.

[tralfaz]

I have always thought of American Flagg as Chaykin's best work

[Johnny Bacardi]

Originally posted by tralfaz
I have always thought of American Flagg as Chaykin's best work

I'm kinda partial to Time Squared (now THERE'S a long-overdue-for-a-return series) myself, but you're not wrong...

[Duke Jupiter]

Comics lettering as we know it today owes a great deal to what letterer Ken Bruzenak pioneered on AMERICAN FLAGG in '83.

Considering what technology was like at that point compared to now, people new to this work should be amazed by what they see. We're talking paste-up sound effects for the bulk of this stuff...amazing, and a LOT of work!

Where IS Ken Bruzenak these days?

[Benjamin Ong]

I've been looking forward to this. Has it come out yet???

[idkidd]

I've been looking forward to this. Has it come out yet???

Wow, if this hasn't come out yet and I was a retailer, I'd be REALLY pissed. I thought the whole idea was to get it solicited for the Christmas rush. Not to mention if I had ordered the $50 book to give to someone for Christmas.

[bcondray]

Originally posted by idkidd
Wow, if this hasn't come out yet and I was a retailer, I'd be REALLY pissed. I thought the whole idea was to get it solicited for the Christmas rush. Not to mention if I had ordered the $50 book to give to someone for Christmas.

It hasn't... and I ordered #'s 1 and 2...

[idkidd]

It hasn't... and I ordered #'s 1 and 2...

Wow, that's stinks. How is there any excuse for this with a book at that price point, that kind of publicity (the cover of Previews and 4+ pages in the Image section), and aimed at Christmas sell through? This makes everyone involved from Image, Dynamic Forces and Howard Chaykin look really bad. The really sad part is that I haven't heard a peep about what exactly is going on -- really, they should be falling all over themselves communicating what is going on to the retailers and fans anxiously awaiting this release. I can't think of any other medium where a big "premiere" (book, tv show, movie or whatever) would be treated this way when delayed.