Howard Chaykin: Conversations

Howard Chaykin

39 Howard Chaykin Paul Duncan anD John JacKSon / 1984 From Arken Sword #13/14, May 1985, pp. 5–11. reprinted by permission of Paul duncan. dominic Fortune, Cody starbuck, the scorpion, Monark starstalker, ironwolf, reuben Flagg. all recognizable characters that carry the hard-hitting art (and often writing) of Howard Chaykin. wit mixes with sex, violence, and soap opera to make American Flagg! one of the best comics around. Howard kindly talked to John Jackson and myself at the Brum Con last May. John: How did you get into comics? Howard: Just about everyone in my generation had a portfolio, most of which was not particularly good. On the other hand we all hung around DC Comics in the early ’70s, and slowly, but surely, they got used to your face and you ended up getting a job. My first couple of jobs were romance stories and mystery stories. One- or two-page fillers, and then you get up to five pages. And that’s basically it. Paul: Are all these different genres a good training ground? H: I still feel that that is one of the things wrong with the business as it is right now because there are no places to do things but high-power, high-energy comics. There is also no place for a guy who’s coming into the business to get some groundwork done. I believe it was very valuable doing all those love comics and mystery pieces because it gave me an interest in stuff other than simply drawing the collapse of galaxies, because there’s more to drawing than that. J: Did Gil Kane influence you? H: Oh, tremendously! I was his assistant. J: You never do the “under-the-nose” shot. 40 howard chaykin: conversations H: Oh, I do it plenty. I worked for Gil when I was eighteen. Not in any “handson ” capacity, but as his flunky. I learned a great deal from Gil. He’s one of many influences, but a major one. P: What do you think of him using marker pens? Do you think it detracts from his art? H: Obviously I don’t because I use them. The tools that I use on American Flagg! are the tools Gil recommended to me. Particularly the Berol Flash 30 and the Berol Flash 32. J: I’ve never seen Duotone in a regular book before. H: I have never been very confident about my rendering in black and white. I can paint and I’ve done plenty of color work, but I tend to freeze in black and white, I wanted to have something to give the material an organic feel: to soften the hardness and angularity of my line. Also, to give me a greater range of texture and depth, and I’m very happy with it. It costs a bundle. A sheet costs eight dollars. You get two pages of comics out of a sheet, and I have to order it from Ohio in batches of fifty. So it cuts into the bucks. P: Your art is very angular when inked by yourself. What do you think of other inkers going over your pencils? H: To this day I hate the idea of pencillers and inkers. It really doesn’t mean what it says. I’ve never developed any profound facility for putting down a single line, in any form, that someone else can come in and understand immediately , and simply outline and render. My pencils are not tight pencils in the sense of looking like inked drawings only grayer. I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve always been impressed by those who can. I do very tight pencils for myself, but no one else could ink them. My pencils are a building stage. My pages, before I ink them, are gray. There’s all the drawing there, but on the other hand there’s no single line outlining a shape. I have to find that line with a pen. I’ve always felt that if I don’t take the job from start to finish, I don’t bitch. I don’t complain. P: I think a lot of your stuff has been ruined by inkers. H: You can’t say that. J: The two film adaptations you did, Star Wars and For Your Eyes Only, look a bit rushed. H: Well I’ll tell you the truth. The fact of the matter is that the Star Wars work is one I...