Weekend Reading: Sherlock Holmes, Conan, and Spider-Man

For starters, let’s all wish writer Tom Spurgeon a speedy recovery. He took a blogging break earlier this year for health reasons and his essay about his health, his love of comics and his work is even more essential than his already-essential blog. If you read nothing else today, make it this.

Now let’s see what else is going on across the internets:

Sherlock: Oh, that lovable curmudgeon Sherlock Holmes is causing trouble for the uneducated, easily threatened, fragile book burners of America. Apparently, A Study In Scarlet, a classic Holmes adventure, features an insensitive remark about Mormons. Imagine, a fictional character - not Holmes or Watson - from Victorian England having an unprogressive attitude. Forgive me while I clutch my pearls and head for the fainting couch. Galleycat has more on the story, including links to downloading the public domain book for free.

Don McGregor: The writer of Killraven and Black Panther (to name but two) has some thoughts about his wife Marsha on her birthday.

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Forgotten Comics: Howard Chaykin’s The Shadow

"He's back…and God help the guilty."

My favorite thing to hit at the San Diego Comic Con is the back issue bins – the so-called quarter boxes (usually greatly reduced in price by Sunday) of oddball and overstock comics from the 1980s – now.

At this year's con, there was one dealer in particular who had over a dozen long boxes of comics in nearly alphabetical order, and I and many other well-mannered scavengers thumbed through them all. One of my treasures was the complete 4-issue run of Howard Chaykin's The Shadow from DC Comics (1986).

Coming on the heels of his award-winning run at First Comics with his own American Flagg! Chaykin went over to DC for a revamp of the old 1930s pulp character created by Walter Gibson (aka Maxwell Grant). DC's previous attempt with the character back in the 1970s stayed true to its pulp origins and was unsuccessful despite the involvement of Denny O'Neil, Mike Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson.

By bringing in Chaykin a decade later, it was clear that some things were going to be shaken up and this was not going to be a standard pulp revival. You don't turn to Howard if you want the same old, same old.

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SNEAK PREVIEW: HOWARD CHAYKIN’S AMERICAN FLAGG!

It’s back! The second volume collecting Howard Chaykin’s opus, American Flagg!, is going to be in stores this Wednesday, and you really shouldn’t miss it. For my money, Flagg! is the middle son of the three great 1980s comics; the other two being The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. American Flagg! debuted first and its satirical, sexual, sarcastic and cynical view of the future would certainly impact a decade’s worth – and more - of books that followed. (For a couple of years, 1981-1983, Miller was part of Chaykin and Walter Simonson’s Manhattan studio, Upstart Associates).

In this fascinating interview at Pink Raygun, Howard describes Flagg! as “an expression of how I felt in the 1980s. It reflected my feelings about the Reagan administration and about where the country was heading. A lot of people talk about what I got right in terms of predicting what the future would be like, but that’s irrelevant in the long run. It really was a screed about popular culture and my relationship with popular culture.”

Flagg! is the story of Reuben Flagg, a former actor who joins the Plexus Rangers when his TV career evaporates. He finds himself in a world of corruption, sex, satire, science-fiction, political intrigue, more sex, and a talking cat named Raul. The story is just as engaging and enjoyable (and dead-on timely) 25 years on.

Howard is a true multi-talent. He can write and/or draw his own projects (Flagg!, Power & Glory, Barnum), immerse himself within something as arcane and irrational as Marvel and DC continuity (like say Captain America, or Guy Gardner), or take an existing character like The Shadow and re-imagine him for a modern audience.

The official title of the Flagg! Collection debuting this week from Image Comics is HOWARD CHAYKIN’S AMERICAN FLAGG! Definitive Collection VOL. 2 Trade Paperback. This mouthful of a 256-page full color masterpiece collects issues #8-14 of the original series. Each page is beautifully designed, and incorporates the exquisite hand-lettering of Ken Bruzenak’s word balloons and sound effects.

This is comic books at its very best, and should be required reading for all. Highly recommended. (In the interests of full disclosure, I was once Howard’s editor, and I hold both him and his work in high regard.)
(Artwork: Cover to Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! Definitive Collection Vol. 2 Trade Paperback; ©Howard Chaykin)