The first comic book convention I ever attended was Chicago 1986. Howard was a guest, with The Shadow having just come out and, I think. Time2 also out. He was -- and remains -- the most entertaining guest I've ever seen at a show. Constantly engaged the crowd while sketching (I got a great Mandy Kreiger) and joking, asking questions and putting on a real performance. My roommate asked him why, in The Shadow, he screwed up the lyrics to Bunny Berrigan's "I Can't Get Started with You," and Howard explained that DC had changed them to avoid a copyright issue, then proved he knew them by singing the entire song for everyone. I'll never forget it.
I love that Howard is a straightshooting comics / art historian, name-dropper extraordinaire, but my absolute love of his work is during American Flagg! and especially Time Squared. The rich, lush, type filled pages with music, color, style, everything...
Howard Chaykin is one of my favorite people to spend time with. Literally you can hang in his circle and watch him hold court for hours. He is a singularly remarkable human along with being a genius story teller. I love him and his work. What a great interview. Thank you.
This is already amazing and I’m 6 minutes in. I shout you guys out on my podcast all the time. I listen to you while I draw. Thanks for these for real. These shoot interviews are time capsules but they also show that you don’t have to go gently into that goodnight. Chaykin sure isn’t. You guys are great!
I just listened to the Chaykin interview on the Virtual memories podcast and was in the mood for more. He's an entertaining talker on top of all the knowledge and history.
One thing I never expected: Howard Chaykin seems like a really nice guy. His work caught my eye in the 70s and I've loved nearly every phase he's gone through since, from Monarch Starstalker and Cody Starbuck to Hey Kids! Comics. I'd have loved to have heard what his process was for things like Empire, The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell and those painted Dominick Fortune stories he did in the back pages of the color Hulk magazine, which looked like nothing I'd ever seen before and nothing I've seen since.
joe bowler the illustrator was a family friend of mine. he retired to Hilton Head where i grew up. he died a couple of years ago. he spent his retirement doing fine art portraits .
WOW, nailed it again! Chaykin is a god. I had totally forgot about Star Reach, I'd love to see you guys dissecate the entire run, some cool stuff there.
This is an amazing video interview, guys. Thanks to all involved. There's also a great Howard Chaykin audio interview on the Ink Pulp podcast. In the 1980s I saw Howard sitting on the floor at SDCC giving an interview. American Flagg was the shit back in the day.
Man! That was something! Great interview. Awesome seeing legends getting the love they deserve. Couple of takeaways for me: How he referred to the CAA as infantilizing comics and the audience. You can see the effect that the Authority had on the books that came out, but I had never thought of how it made so many of the (us) comic book readers think that comics had to be a certain way. The other thing: "The fact that writers are the alpha in comics demostrates how limited in scope and expectation the reader is". OUCH. That hit me personally. Damn! So biting and so truthful. For the vast majority of my comic book reading life, the writer/story was my focus, followed by characters. I bought books because they were written by someone, I barely paid attention to the artist. I liked some artist more than others, but it was the story that I focused on. It has taken a while to recognize that the artist brings so much to a book, to the storytelling.
Great interview. At the end when he described his facebook posts as 'fun, illuminating and appalling' I just got a mental image of Howard Chaykin evil laughing as he posts yet another edgy minions meme to his facebook page.
48:58 This should be on a T-shirt or something-"Grown 50 year old men complaining about Batman's dick is just not my idea of the way to spend a day..."
After this great interview, I had to go look up some more Gil Kane! Here is a link to a great interview with Kane from 1999, if you guys haven't watched it yet, please do, it's awesome! Kane covers everything from the beginnings of comics at the turn of the 20th century, and fills in a lot of gaps in comics history... ruclips.net/video/vZrKXed_MoM/видео.html
Thoughtful questions and a lively back and forth -- all without a poison pen. The interviewers know their stuff, too. Howard Chaykin always has more stories to share, but one consistent message: art is work. A delightful fellow. One of the mightiest artists ever in comics. Thanks to all parties involved.
So much knowledge and wisdom reflected in this interview. A great author and a reference for anyone who wants to be someone in the medium or understand it. Once more, congrats!!!
Everything in this interview shows me that I have been right in my admiration of this guy! I have loved his work from the moment that I discovered his work ( oddly enough, in the first issue of the Star Wars adaption! ) and if it was possible, became even further enamored of his work with his work on Dominik Fortune ( especially the B&W work ). Such an awesome guy!
Great piece, cartoonist kayfabe is laying down banger after banger shoot interview. Thoroughly enjoyed the political comments toward the end of the interview from Howard
Yet another great interview. Howard is a such a great interview. Just a great talker and very funny. I don't know which interview is your best anymore, this one or the Bissette one. Two legends that are fascinating and irreverent writer/artists. Looking forward to the Tim Truman one that you just posted!
This interview reminded me why Chaykin was the best encounter with a professional I had at the 2017 motor city comic con. now i need to start that american flagg trade of the first 6 issues.
I know it doesn't get much love, but I always really liked Howard's American Century series at Vertigo. And the latter half had beautiful Glen Orbik painted covers.
I wish. Howard Chaykin could bring back American Flagg. If he does not, I hope they will release American Flagg TPB. Howard, you are a great writer and an awesome artist! I would like to get to know American Flagg like every reader. To be honest, I missed out on American Flagg. Big time. Ah. man.
Chaykin always gives a great interview. I hope this doesn't preclude your covering the big Comics Journal interview with him (and also the convention panel Chaykin did with Gil Kane in another issue.)
I didn't know he was involved with the heroes initiative... Deep respect for that. Can someone please explain what happened with the thing in the end - were howard got upset about the comic-gate stuff - was this about black kiss? I couldn't but that together as non-native speaker...
Yeah, Pogany seems to be a big takeaway for a lot of the comments here. I discovered him in one of the great illustration tomes from the 30's called Drawing With Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill (still in print, maybe with a title change). This year I've been working (or "woodshedding" as Howard says) on my anatomy drawing, and one of the first books I've gone through is the Dover reprint of Pogany's Drawing Lessons. His pencil line is really beautiful, but also look up his illustrated books like Tale of Lohengrin ( available at the Internet Archive) and Calla Books' recent reprint of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He could do the simplest contour figure drawings and ramp up to the most detailed lavish color work, and all of it was wonderful.
Who was Howard talking about around 42:00? The guy he claimed counterintuitively went against the language of comics. I couldn’t quite make out the name.
Willy Pogany - Next time you are in NYC, see if you can get inside to see huge children's story murals by Pogany on the walls of the theatre here: www.elmuseo.org/rentals/
Didn't Gil Kane also mentor Ken Landgraff? I'd love to see a retrospective on Gil's career. To me, his dynamics were up there with John Buscema, right under Kirby
"Less is more only if you got more to support the less". Man, such a great line
The first comic book convention I ever attended was Chicago 1986. Howard was a guest, with The Shadow having just come out and, I think. Time2 also out. He was -- and remains -- the most entertaining guest I've ever seen at a show. Constantly engaged the crowd while sketching (I got a great Mandy Kreiger) and joking, asking questions and putting on a real performance. My roommate asked him why, in The Shadow, he screwed up the lyrics to Bunny Berrigan's "I Can't Get Started with You," and Howard explained that DC had changed them to avoid a copyright issue, then proved he knew them by singing the entire song for everyone. I'll never forget it.
I love that Howard is a straightshooting comics / art historian, name-dropper extraordinaire, but my absolute love of his work is during American Flagg! and especially Time Squared. The rich, lush, type filled pages with music, color, style, everything...
Time Squared is fantastic. So jazzy.
Howard Chaykin is one of my favorite people to spend time with. Literally you can hang in his circle and watch him hold court for hours. He is a singularly remarkable human along with being a genius story teller. I love him and his work.
What a great interview. Thank you.
I totally agree with you! He did the same here, in a Comicon in Brazil
Ed, you're getting sharper every interview
This is already amazing and I’m 6 minutes in. I shout you guys out on my podcast all the time. I listen to you while I draw. Thanks for these for real. These shoot interviews are time capsules but they also show that you don’t have to go gently into that goodnight. Chaykin sure isn’t. You guys are great!
I keep trying to draw while listening to this but Chaykin keeps mentioning artists that I need to look up online. Great interview!
I give up, I stopped drawing and now I'm just listening to the king.
I just listened to the Chaykin interview on the Virtual memories podcast and was in the mood for more. He's an entertaining talker on top of all the knowledge and history.
One thing I never expected: Howard Chaykin seems like a really nice guy. His work caught my eye in the 70s and I've loved nearly every phase he's gone through since, from Monarch Starstalker and Cody Starbuck to Hey Kids! Comics. I'd have loved to have heard what his process was for things like Empire, The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell and those painted Dominick Fortune stories he did in the back pages of the color Hulk magazine, which looked like nothing I'd ever seen before and nothing I've seen since.
Great frickin interview. I love Chaykins work so much and it's great to hear his story. Thank you for making life under quarantine interesting
That was bloody brilliant. A raconteur. A witness. A maker. An ongoing vital force. Thank you!
Found the Hungarian illustrator he was taking about at 7min mark en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Pogany
there's a preview of his how-to book at issuu
Great great interview! How can we get Howard to do his own weekly podcast?! Such a sharp, articulate, foul-mouthed, real-as-fuck dude.
joe bowler the illustrator was a family friend of mine. he retired to Hilton Head where i grew up. he died a couple of years ago. he spent his retirement doing fine art portraits .
So much gold in these shoot interviews. Thank you again.
I love how open and honest he is- great interview!
Howard is one of the great. American Flagg changed comics forever. Always an amazing interview. Hope to have him on our show one. day. Great job guys!
What an incredible talker, dudes, just keeps getting better and better!
Great job, guys. I saw Howard Chaykin at SanDiego Comic Con in 2000. He did a Gil Kane commemoration of his work, since he died that year.
WOW, nailed it again! Chaykin is a god. I had totally forgot about Star Reach, I'd love to see you guys dissecate the entire run, some cool stuff there.
This is an amazing video interview, guys. Thanks to all involved. There's also a great Howard Chaykin audio interview on the Ink Pulp podcast. In the 1980s I saw Howard sitting on the floor at SDCC giving an interview. American Flagg was the shit back in the day.
Man! That was something! Great interview. Awesome seeing legends getting the love they deserve.
Couple of takeaways for me: How he referred to the CAA as infantilizing comics and the audience. You can see the effect that the Authority had on the books that came out, but I had never thought of how it made so many of the (us) comic book readers think that comics had to be a certain way.
The other thing: "The fact that writers are the alpha in comics demostrates how limited in scope and expectation the reader is". OUCH. That hit me personally. Damn! So biting and so truthful. For the vast majority of my comic book reading life, the writer/story was my focus, followed by characters. I bought books because they were written by someone, I barely paid attention to the artist. I liked some artist more than others, but it was the story that I focused on. It has taken a while to recognize that the artist brings so much to a book, to the storytelling.
Great interview. At the end when he described his facebook posts as 'fun, illuminating and appalling' I just got a mental image of Howard Chaykin evil laughing as he posts yet another edgy minions meme to his facebook page.
Is this the best interview yet? Yes.
48:58 This should be on a T-shirt or something-"Grown 50 year old men complaining about Batman's dick is just not my idea of the way to spend a day..."
Blown away...the best interview so far. Howard was truly on form. Recommend his FB page for its humor and erudition.
Thank you Cartoon Kaybabe
After this great interview, I had to go look up some more Gil Kane! Here is a link to a great interview with Kane from 1999, if you guys haven't watched it yet, please do, it's awesome! Kane covers everything from the beginnings of comics at the turn of the 20th century, and fills in a lot of gaps in comics history... ruclips.net/video/vZrKXed_MoM/видео.html
Thoughtful questions and a lively back and forth -- all without a poison pen. The interviewers know their stuff, too. Howard Chaykin always has more stories to share, but one consistent message: art is work. A delightful fellow. One of the mightiest artists ever in comics. Thanks to all parties involved.
Well shit, this may is one of the best interviews I've ever seen.
So much knowledge and wisdom reflected in this interview. A great author and a reference for anyone who wants to be someone in the medium or understand it. Once more, congrats!!!
Everything in this interview shows me that I have been right in my admiration of this guy! I have loved his work from the moment that I discovered his work ( oddly enough, in the first issue of the Star Wars adaption! ) and if it was possible, became even further enamored of his work with his work on Dominik Fortune ( especially the B&W work ). Such an awesome guy!
Great piece, cartoonist kayfabe is laying down banger after banger shoot interview. Thoroughly enjoyed the political comments toward the end of the interview from Howard
That interview...
Take that shit to the bank, thank you very much.
I remember Rudy Nebres recommending Willy Pogany's book to me at a Big Apple ComicCon many years ago. Hadn't thought about his work in forever.
Great interview. He placed higher on my fave list because of this. Hope to see more like this...
How about an episode on Gil Kane?
Since you brought on one of the 1st guys on I've wondered for years who owns E-Man now
Howard is a delight, a national treasure.
Agree! - Jim
Yet another great interview. Howard is a such a great interview. Just a great talker and very funny. I don't know which interview is your best anymore, this one or the Bissette one. Two legends that are fascinating and irreverent writer/artists. Looking forward to the Tim Truman one that you just posted!
This interview reminded me why Chaykin was the best encounter with a professional I had at the 2017 motor city comic con. now i need to start that american flagg trade of the first 6 issues.
Awesome, coincidentally I am doing an interview with Howard later this month so good to see how he is in action first.
Totally loved this video. Its amazing hearing these guys stories. Now it's time to dig out my American Flagg books!
This is the real motherfuckin shit
Thank you for this! And thank you Mr.Chaykin. Had to take notes and now I'm off to do research.
I know it doesn't get much love, but I always really liked Howard's American Century series at Vertigo. And the latter half had beautiful Glen Orbik painted covers.
This was great can you guys get Steve Rude on?
Great interview. Keep doing what you do. Learned a lot and have a lot of books to check out as a result.
I wish. Howard Chaykin could bring back American Flagg. If he does not, I hope they will release American Flagg TPB. Howard, you are a great writer and an awesome artist! I would like to get to know American Flagg like every reader. To be honest, I missed out on American Flagg. Big time. Ah. man.
Howard and Groth need to start a Cranky Old-Timers kayfabe, and I mean that sincerely...
This is absolute information gold!
Awesome dude
Amazing. We need Stan Sakai!
It’s the Chaykin!
I really enjoyed this interview!
Chaykin always gives a great interview. I hope this doesn't preclude your covering the big Comics Journal interview with him (and also the convention panel Chaykin did with Gil Kane in another issue.)
Empire was a crazy comic thing.
I didn't know he was involved with the heroes initiative... Deep respect for that. Can someone please explain what happened with the thing in the end - were howard got upset about the comic-gate stuff - was this about black kiss? I couldn't but that together as non-native speaker...
Yeah, Pogany seems to be a big takeaway for a lot of the comments here. I discovered him in one of the great illustration tomes from the 30's called Drawing With Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill (still in print, maybe with a title change). This year I've been working (or "woodshedding" as Howard says) on my anatomy drawing, and one of the first books I've gone through is the Dover reprint of Pogany's Drawing Lessons. His pencil line is really beautiful, but also look up his illustrated books like Tale of Lohengrin ( available at the Internet Archive) and Calla Books' recent reprint of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He could do the simplest contour figure drawings and ramp up to the most detailed lavish color work, and all of it was wonderful.
@1:16:57 I love the way he says "reckids" and now I want to know what records he was listening too during the blizzard!
Big props to Lou Stathis. This was fantastic
Wow the triple OGs are just a different breed. Everything he said about mainstream comics from the 90s until now was accurate.
Great Interview. He has got to have so many stories he's not telling. Get him back for another round!
Who was Howard talking about around 42:00? The guy he claimed counterintuitively went against the language of comics. I couldn’t quite make out the name.
FANTASTIC INTERVIEW!!!
Willy Pogany - Next time you are in NYC, see if you can get inside to see huge children's story murals by Pogany on the walls of the theatre here: www.elmuseo.org/rentals/
AWESOME!
Brilliant. Great stuff here.
holy shit that was FAST.
Ah, Black Kiss.
What a fucking treat
One thing Howie inherited from Gil sure is the ability to talk...! :)
Great vid
Didn't Gil Kane also mentor Ken Landgraff? I'd love to see a retrospective on Gil's career. To me, his dynamics were up there with John Buscema, right under Kirby
What a masterclass!
straight FACTS from Chaykin
Look at a print in a museum of Japanese art poster size and you will see frank Miller art influences to the point of almost copy and paste.
This dude talks cool af
1:30:20 Hits hard now
Not possible to name drop more
The first church of cultural WHAT? (29:10)
Anyone got a link to that piece by Chaykin about how the writer is the alpha?
Very interesting and many funny moments: 20:46
Samizdat is Russian for "self published books"
My parent’s generation are weirdly embittered.
7:20 Who is this hungarian "Pogány" guy, they talk about?
Found him! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Pogany
Does RUclips prohibit the word "smoker"?! ruclips.net/video/8ANwI5KsMTc/видео.html
He got the poster for The Sting wrong. It wasn't painted by Richard Amsel, it was actually Drew Struzan.
Which is ironic because he is a big Struzan fan. Mistakes happen though.