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Monday, September 27, 2004
Talkin’ Chaykin pt. 2, Blackhawk
Part 1, The Shadow
Before I start my essay I would like to link to Augie DeBliek Jr.'s recent column on American Flagg! I probably won't get to AF! here beacuse I only have the "Southern Comfort" graphic novel so I suggest you read Augie's column, which is pretty darn good. And now, Blackhawk:
Howard Chaykin is an artist and a writer that knows the meaning of style. His particular style in both departments is pretty easy to recognize, although that doesn’t take away from its effectiveness. In fact, many of the touches that Chaykin can be counted on to include in his work only improve it and have certainly helped him build a fan base. Blackhawk is the book that has everything that makes Chaykin’s comic great. In this post I want to go over some, but certainly not all, of the things one might find in a Chaykin book. The typical Chaykin hero, the complex plot and that element that makes Chaykin feel like one of those “bad boy” creators that can be sure to enrage as many comic book fans as delight some of them.
Let’s start with what Blackhawk is. According to their entry in Toonopedia Blackhawk and his crew were created by Will Eisner in 1941 and published by Quality comics. The team was made up of fighter pilots, all of free European nations and all ready to shoot down those nasty Nazis. The exception of this being the Chinese Chop-Chop whose earliest portrayals made him nothing more than an Asian stereotype. In this story and some others Weng Chan (don’t call him “Chop-Chop”) gets a more dignified depiction. The Blackhawk men continued to have adventures sporadically throughout the years fighting all types of villains, changing publishers from Quality to DC and becoming superheroes for a while. They were never really that popular but there was a movie serial and Steven Spielberg did option a movie somewhere in the 80’s. In 1988 Howard Chaykin took a crack at a prestige three-issue mini-series for DC featuring these fearless fighter pilots.
As I said above, Blackhawk works wonderfully because it has pretty much everything you would ever want in a Chaykin yarn in it. First, let’s look at out hero. One constant a reader will find Chaykin’s work is that the hero always has the look of a square-jawed, raven-haired handsome fellow (his cover to Superman #400 is probably the best example of this). Chaykin drew Blackhawk, Kent Allard, Reuben Flagg, Cass Pollack of Black Kiss, Lincoln Reinhardt of Mighty Love, Cody Starbuck and now Holden Crosse in Challengers of the Unknown pretty much the same way. Hell even Harry Kraft of American Century had that look, and Chaykin only drew the covers of those. Some say that’s Chaykin self-portrait but in this video interview Chaykin maintains that it’s just easier to draw that way. I’ve seen Chaykin in person and I must say the typical “Chaykin hero” doesn’t bear much resemblance to the actual artist (although if you do want to see a hero that actually is based on Chaykin I suggest you track down the Walt Simonson story “Return” in Star-Spangled War #180 or pick up the trade The Art of Walter Simonson where the story is reprinted). Another constant seen in Chaykin’s heroes is that, when he can, Chaykin will make the heroes’ religion Judaism. This does mirror Chaykin’s own life. As found just as often then the hero’s adversary will harbor anti-Semitic feelings, as in Blackhawk where the villains are honest-to-goodness Nazis. If you think about, Chaykin’s book starring the same guy for his protagonists is really not that different than John Ford films often starring John Wayne or Werner Herzog films often starring Klaus Kinski.
Another thing Chaykin tends to do in his work, and to me this is what makes him great, is that he is unafraid to make the storyline complicated. I have yet to read a book by him where the story feels complex for the sake complexity. Instead Chaykin admits in the same video interview posted above that he feels people should have to invest more thought in his work than just your usual “good guys v. bad guys” story. In the course of the three issues of Blackhawk we get a great noir-ish mystery during World War II instead of just a typical war story (there’s really only one dogfight scene). We get two femme fatales, double- and triple-crosses and a great MacGuffin that characters go all over the world for. Blackhawk is being persecuted by a proto-McCarthy Senator, an Errol Flynn look-a-like is in league with the Nazis, a former Communist beauty queen proves that she’s tough enough to partner up with Blackhawk and everybody’s trying to get their hand on the atomic bomb. This allows Chaykin to also display his chops as a history buff, something else that’s found in his books like American Century. I really appreciate this as I enjoy it when creators pack as much story into a book that they can without causing the plot to crumble under its own weight. The international cast and settings give Chaykin’s long-time collaborator Ken Bruzenak a chance to pull off one of the greatest achievements in comic book lettering, something we haven’t seen until the late, great Bill Oakley’s turn in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Chaykin proves himself to be a master storyteller when he comes up with these great tales of deception, greed, sex, and occasionally heroism that respect the reader’s intelligence and don’t censor themselves. That brings me to the third point.
Remember the controversy I wrote about when Chaykin’s The Shadow hit? Do you think, two years later and working on another decades old character, Chaykin would perhaps ease up on the “adult situations?” You’d best think not. The big hub-bub with Blackhawk was the depiction of fellatio in the first issue. It’s nothing too graphic, but there’s no mistaking what is meant to be depicted. Blackhawk, like the The Shadow as well as Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and Mike Grell’s run on Green Arrow, take comic book characters that are known (how well known varies) and puts them in mature stories that some feel they shouldn’t be in. I would suggest that’s too dogmatic a way at looking at things. Believing that the characters are more important than the creator’s freedom is a dangerous mindset to take and unfortunately it is a mindset many fans and publishers feel no reason to disavow. Blackhawk helps uphold the noir tradition it comes from by not pulling any punches when it comes to sex, violence or just plain realistic depiction of human behavior (or if not realistic, over-the-top in a burlesque fashion). In my opinion, I never felt that anything in the book was done solely to sell books to those not old enough to see an R-rated or too afraid to go buy a porno mag. The characters in Blackhawk are multifaceted and authentic. Their actions create a story that’s a lot better than a simple morality play. And besides, by 1988 Chaykin had been in the industry long enough. He had his taste of Code-Approved storylines and wanted to do something new. Kudos goes to DC and Editor Mike Gold for not castrating his story or stamping any type of rating or “mature readers” message on it.
I would say to anyone who is unfamiliar with Chaykin and who wants to check out one of the greatest talents in the comics business that Blackhawk is a good place to start. Like most of Chaykin’s best stuff, though, it isn’t readily available. It shouldn’t be too hard to track down on eBay or back issue bins. Maybe DC will release a trade, but it doesn’t seem very likely.
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