The Howard Chaykin Shoot Interview

Howard Chaykin's Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.o...
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[@aquarius555]

"Less is more only if you got more to support the less". Man, such a great line

[@willpfeifer3312]

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.

[@L1573N3R]

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.

[@pedrodeabreuribeiro6963]

I totally agree with you! He did the same here, in a Comicon in Brazil

[@actiongeek1]

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...

[@alexlu9418]

Time Squared is fantastic. So jazzy.

[@EdGreer]

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!

[@chadefita]

Ed, you're getting sharper every interview

[@Gootie29]

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

[@ja_no]

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.

[@kirtburdick]

I keep trying to draw while listening to this but Chaykin keeps mentioning artists that I need to look up online. Great interview!

[@kirtburdick]

I give up, I stopped drawing and now I'm just listening to the king.

[@jonathanallen3684]

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.

[@MrSamfonseca]

So much gold in these shoot interviews. Thank you again.

[@scottcorkern777]

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 .

[@craigdodge229]

That was bloody brilliant. A raconteur. A witness. A maker. An ongoing vital force. Thank you!

[@SketchbookTimeMachine]

I love how open and honest he is- great interview!

[@gabrieljimenez9762]

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.

[@RyanMcCarthy826]

Thank you Cartoon Kaybabe

[@AroundComics]

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!

[@fansform]

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.

[@subsandro]

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.

[@NateBear]

Found the Hungarian illustrator he was taking about at 7min mark en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Pogany

[@chadefita]

there's a preview of his how-to book at issuu

[@johnrapone6498]

Great great interview! How can we get Howard to do his own weekly podcast?! Such a sharp, articulate, foul-mouthed, real-as-fuck dude.

[@thomasleon9550]

What an incredible talker, dudes, just keeps getting better and better!

[@rhiltonfineart]

Blown away...the best interview so far. Howard was truly on form. Recommend his FB page for its humor and erudition.

[@andrewbonvicini5461]

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.

[@apexcomix3200]

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.

[@johnbutler5650]

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!

[@DrDoomPool]

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

[@josenieves7514]

Great interview. He placed higher on my fave list because of this. Hope to see more like this...

[@eduardocarvalho861]

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!!!

[@ShaneMatlock]

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!

[@dannycruz5446]

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.

[@chrispearce6653]

Is this the best interview yet? Yes.

[@zackkirk5320]

Thank you for this! And thank you Mr.Chaykin. Had to take notes and now I'm off to do research.

[@BobbbyJoeKlop]

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..."

[@johnreskusich2324]

Great interview. Keep doing what you do. Learned a lot and have a lot of books to check out as a result.

[@rascalboyd2469]

Well shit, this may is one of the best interviews I've ever seen.

[@luccaesp]

1:30:20 Hits hard now

[@bolunixan]

Awesome dude

[@BigBandelero]

That interview... Take that shit to the bank, thank you very much.

[@TransformARTive]

Awesome, coincidentally I am doing an interview with Howard later this month so good to see how he is in action first.

[@TheMagnificentWorldofToys]

Totally loved this video. Its amazing hearing these guys stories. Now it's time to dig out my American Flagg books!

[@greendragontavernpatrion4631]

Since you brought on one of the 1st guys on I've wondered for years who owns E-Man now

[@LukeKorolowiczArt]

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.

[@TheTonyFigueroa]

How about an episode on Gil Kane?

[@lilexistentialcrisis5863]

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.

[@stevewright6341]

I really enjoyed this interview!

[@andybrining]

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.

[@Kingcomics2021]

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... kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIvVfIubmcSApa8

[@braylonrandle1731]

This was great can you guys get Steve Rude on?

[@stevelafler]

Howard is a delight, a national treasure.

[@CartoonistKayfabe]

Agree! - Jim

[@MrShaterson]

This is absolute information gold!

[@stevebeach1218]

This is the real motherfuckin shit

[@matthewkeating-od6rl]

Great vid

[@scottcrosby-art5490]

It’s the Chaykin!

[@LairOfWonders]

FANTASTIC INTERVIEW!!!

[@ericreynolds6632]

Howard and Groth need to start a Cranky Old-Timers kayfabe, and I mean that sincerely...

[@darrenwashington9842]

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.

[@davidmoses6434]

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

[@powerofpop8747]

AWESOME!

[@neglectingtodrown]

Brilliant. Great stuff here.

[@numberrunner3133]

Wow the triple OGs are just a different breed. Everything he said about mainstream comics from the 90s until now was accurate.

[@russworks2882]

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.

[@shariqc8123]

Amazing. We need Stan Sakai!

[@paulbenincasa5724]

Great Interview. He has got to have so many stories he's not telling. Get him back for another round!

[@matthewkeating-od6rl]

Empire was a crazy comic thing.

[@russworks2882]

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.)

[@djdoctorwhomm.c.p.8620]

Big props to Lou Stathis. This was fantastic

[@Antdevamp]

Ah, Black Kiss.

[@florianneumann9441]

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...

[@jabbajuju]

@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!

[@matthewkeating-od6rl]

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.

[@johnny2tons]

What a masterclass!

[@joselnicolas5808]

holy shit that was FAST.

[@ericnoble5194]

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.

[@bzier138]

What a fucking treat

[@jayshull]

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/

[@donaldsimpson2237]

One thing Howie inherited from Gil sure is the ability to talk...! :)

[@adolfoenriquez3631]

straight FACTS from Chaykin

[@benellison5668]

Not possible to name drop more

[@dandykaufman2]

Anyone got a link to that piece by Chaykin about how the writer is the alpha?

[@benellison5668]

Samizdat is Russian for "self published books"

[@donaldsimpson2237]

The first church of cultural WHAT? (29:10)

[@maelstromnes]

Very interesting and many funny moments: 20:46

[@Yellowblam]

My parent’s generation are weirdly embittered.

[@vilmos1584]

7:20 Who is this hungarian "Pogány" guy, they talk about?

[@NateBear]

Found him! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Pogany

[@jennysoapdish4502]

Does KZbin prohibit the word "smoker"?! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnKxqHxrgNiAisU

[@nghia59]

He got the poster for The Sting wrong. It wasn't painted by Richard Amsel, it was actually Drew Struzan.

[@JC19676]

Which is ironic because he is a big Struzan fan. Mistakes happen though.