AMERICAN FLAGG COLLECTION HITS IN JULY

[MattBrady]

Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story!

Though it was originally announced in January of 2004, the collected edition Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! by Dynamic Forces and Image will finally come out in July in hardcover, and this fall and winter in two softcover volumes.

In addition to the first fourteen issues of the seminal series from the 1980’s, the hardcover collection will include an all-new 12-page story written and drawn by Chaykin. The hardcover is designed by Chip Kidd, and has a foreword by Michael Chabon and an afterword by Jim Lee.

We spoke with Chaykin about the delay and his view of the finished project.

Newsarama: Howard, not to put too blunt a point on it, but the announcement of this collection dates back to January 28th, 2004. What has taken so long?

Howard Chaykin: It was a jumping of the gun in the first place, which held the assumption that the material was more ready than it was. The situation really boiled down to the fact that the reproduction of stuff at that time is very different than it is today. The assumption was that it would be a mistake to publish, cold, that is, without doing a lot of clean-up work on it, to create a more beautiful facsimile, if you will. The assumption was that it would be easier to do that than it turned out to be.

NRAMA: Technically speaking, what is this collected volume pulling from?

HC: The original art is long gone. That should be understood explicitly – the boards, the pages, they just ain’t there no more. And we’re talking 25 years ago here. So what we’re shooting from is, in many cases, is a matter of digitizing the previously done artwork and recreating the colors using contemporary, modern techniques. That was where the technical problems came in.

The comics in those days were a pretty “seat-of-your-pants” world. If you look at reproduction today, the differences are pretty staggering. Remember - Flagg was shot from plastic plates in an offset process.

NRAMA: Not to mention, your original art, as you’ve said, would have had pieces cut and pasted all over it – it would’ve looked like a collage more than a page of art ready to be reproduced…

HC: Exactly. To a great extent, what I was doing on Flagg in terms of post-production work anticipated the advent of Photoshop, in a genuine and profound way.

So, on the one hand with the collection, there was the assumption was that you could just publish – and you couldn’t, because the audience has an entirely different set of expectations. By the same token, you don’t want to take the material and transform it into something that looks like a contemporary project, which loses its historicity. So in the end, you’re trying to find a way to do a beautiful facsimile that still maintains the integrity of the original material, but still has a polish and sheen that supports it in a contemporary way.

NRAMA: And a balance has to be struck between the two…

HC: Right – which sounds like “Aha of course!” But then you get into the subjectivity factor of so many people deciding what, exactly, that means. And that’s where problems start. It all sounds so much simpler than it is, but you have a lot of different perspectives on exactly how you want to approach it, and the definition of those very ideas I mentioned.

Everybody had a different idea of what the definition of a contemporary looking facsimile that speaks for the previous material.

NRAMA: Obviously, from what you said and the time it’s taken, there were some back and forths about this. How much were you involved in the trenches?

HC: At a certain point, and this may come as a surprise, I stepped back from the process, simply because I felt that I could do nothing but dilute the soup that was already being pissed in radically. I felt that I would be better served by standing outside of the process, because I was not going to make any friends by supporting any one point of view. My idea was to let the process evolve itself. Had I had any idea at the time that the process would take so long that I would be ready for Medicare by the time it ended, I might have stepped in sooner, but after a certain point, there seemed to be no reason for me to be involved, and it just had to run its own course.

There were so many obnoxious political factions attached to the situation. The frustration for me was that…I’ve got a certain statue in the industry, for good or for evil, and it seemed ridiculous that this material should not be in print.

So now – it looks like it may actually happen, but…I have no faith. I am me of little faith. As I told Nick Barrucci, I’ll believe that it’s coming out when I have a hardcover copy in my hand and I’m signing it for someone across the table. It’s the perfectly reasonable and sensible thing to do.

NRAMA: And this is issues #1-#14?

HC: Yes – it will be an interesting package – issues #1-#14, with new material…well, it was new. It’s new old material – previously unseen old stuff! The story is a little vignette piece that touches all the bases of the strip. I’m looking forward to seeing it in action. For what it’s worth, it’s what my career is measured against.

NRAMA: Can you even think of a second collection going up to #24 without your head exploding at this point?

HC: Oh, my head is long past exploding. I live in a state of constant acceptance. Whatever happens, happens. I don’t get crazy about it anymore. Once the situation evolved into what it became, I realized that there was nothing that I could do that would do anything other than piss in the soup. There was no reason for me to get crazy or upset. I developed a near Buddha-esque acceptance of the situation, because nothing else was appropriate.

You have to understand – even though I have a big mouth and all of that, I have a pretty good perspective on where all this stuff stands in the greater scheme of the universe, and I’m not fool enough to step outside of that little place. I’m proud of the work, but recognized that it would happen when it happened. I don’t mean to sound so Zen about it, because I’m hardly the Zennist guy you’ll meet. But life is defined by more than this.

NRAMA: So, for a second collection, there won’t be the back and forth with all the parties weighing in on the coloring?

HC: Never say never. I’m assuming not, but who knows. I’m hoping and praying not, and I’m assuming that the problems and issues were solved with this collection, and the next one will be a little easier.

[Blackbeard]

FINALLY! I've waited a long, long time for this!

[kalorama]

Yeah, right. Pull the other one.

[mohenjo]

Woo-hoo! This is good news indeed!

American Flagg! was one of the most insightful, perceptive and sophisticated comics of the modern age. And it was still fun!

I was a big fan of the series when it was first published, and now a hardback with a new 12 page story by Chaykin, along with updated artwork is a cinch for me! I hope I can get mine signed at this year's Baltimore comic con!

[SpyGuy]

Stop getting my hopes up. It's too cruel, I tell you...

[mendolar]

**tears up basement looking for his American Flagg collection**

[Samy Merchi]

Mentioning the price would have been good so I'll know whether to order this or not.

[Brandon191]

Anyone interested in buying a bridge?

[Laz Green]

OH MY GOD THE SATANIC VOODOO CEREMONY IN WHICH I SOLD MY SOUL TO GET FLAGG! IN TRADES REALLY WORKED!!!



You're all welcome.

[Roy Batty]

From Chaykin's account and the samples here, I am just VEEEERY GLAD I recently got me a full AMERICAN FLAGG original run through eBay.

The use of mechanical color was just one of the many, big successes of the book.

(and I guess that wraparound it's just some mock-up of the paperback, because that weak ass job can NOT be a Chip Kidd's design)

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by Samy Merchi

Mentioning the price would have been good so I'll know whether to order this or not.

$50 for the HC

$20 each for the softcover volumes.

LOL I need to think long and hard bout putting money up for this again like I did 4 years ago. (God I can't believe that actually gets typed.)

But I'll probably do it.

[Drcharles]

American Flagg , Was a jolly good read for Sin, Sex, and Story when I was a young lad, how this will be received in todays market shouldn't be too much of a problem; I wish it well.
Me, I have all the originals in mint Condition......

[Evil Twin]

April 1st isn't for another 11 days. Way too early with this.

I'm glad that it appears to be finally seeing print. When American Flagg! was coming out, you could legitimately speak of how groundbreaking Chaykin was being in the same breath with Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Dave Sim.

[RedRonin]

Really looking forward to finally being able to read this series.

[idkidd]

A negative could have been turned into somewhat of a positive once it was discovered how much work there was to finishing this book. Imagine a semi-updated blog candidly detailing the challenges and solutions of getting this book released. It would have been a years long commercial helping build anticipation for the completion but also really getting across to the fans how much passion was being put into the project. Certainly being up front and public would have eased the frustration of a lot of fans and also been a decent attempt at "making good" to the many many retailers and fans that ordered the book 4 YEARS ago based on something like 8 ad pages in the Image section and the cover of Previews. Instead? A horrible lack of communication and unprofessional ism that really should be an embarrassment to all involved.

[Kevin T. Brown]

FINALLY!!!!!

I've been looking forward to this since I picked up the Dreadstar HCs from them!!

[MisterE]

I'd prefer more of Chaykin's BLACK KISS. A sequel or prequel perhaps. It'd do bonkers today because it was ahead of its time when it came out. Not for the squeamish or the kiddies to say the least.

[Sam Little]

I like that cover. I'll probably pick this up.

[johnwayn10]

Great, they went on to ruined the original coloring by re-coloring it with Photoshop. Don't they know the meaning of the word "classic" ?

[Gordon Lee]

I am so looking forward to this!

[Erik Larsen]

Originally Posted by johnwayn10

Great, they went on to ruined the original coloring by re-coloring it with Photoshop. Don't they know the meaning of the word "classic" ?

The NEW pages have modern colors. The old ones from the original series do not. Those are old school flat colors just as you remember them. Did much of them myself...

[Hawkangel]

From someone that is into 'Comics Binding' (i.e. getting comics and binding them into nice hardcover books) I know that this is one of the number one collections out there.
I'll have to check this out as an Aussie I'm not familiar with the series...

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by idkidd

A negative could have been turned into somewhat of a positive once it was discovered how much work there was to finishing this book. Imagine a semi-updated blog candidly detailing the challenges and solutions of getting this book released. It would have been a years long commercial helping build anticipation for the completion but also really getting across to the fans how much passion was being put into the project. Certainly being up front and public would have eased the frustration of a lot of fans and also been a decent attempt at "making good" to the many many retailers and fans that ordered the book 4 YEARS ago based on something like 8 ad pages in the Image section and the cover of Previews. Instead? A horrible lack of communication and unprofessional ism that really should be an embarrassment to all involved.

Blame Dynamic Forces.

Larsen and Chaykin have said at various times they'd try to get updates on the book and be told nothing.

[Erik Larsen]

Originally Posted by EMeadow

Blame Dynamic Forces.

Larsen and Chaykin have said at various times they'd try to get updates on the book and be told nothing.

I think finger-pointing and airing dirty laundry would be counter productive. The book is done. It's coming out. I'd prefer to focus on the positives at this point. It's a terrific series. We all put a lot of time and effort into making it something special. As a fan of the original series, it was an honor to work on it. I wish it came together faster--but what's done is done.

We're in the process of coloring the balance of Chaykin's issues. Successive volumes will follow.

[Bullwinkle]

Originally Posted by Erik Larsen

Successive volumes will follow.

Any chance we might also get to see reprints of Time2 that (kinda) spun out of American Flagg?! I remember picking up those graphic novels when they originally came out (I still have them) and they remain my favourite work in comics ever. Maybe I'm just overly sentimental towards them these days, but I would love a beautiful hardcover collection of the two graphic novels plus the American Flagg Special that preceded them .... Any chance?!

- Chris