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American Flagg reprinted

FinderWolf

14:53 / 29.11.04

So who's getting the hardcover and/or paperback collections of the original AF series, reprinted by Dynamic Forces and Image? Newsarama has an article mentioning the fact that Entertainment Weekly gives big props to Chaykin's pioneering series. The hardcover is something like $50, I'll be going for the softcovers meself.

Mario

16:23 / 29.11.04

I was going to get the HC, but DCBS had a much better deal on the softcovers, and I'm not that excited about new material.

FinderWolf

16:59 / 29.11.04

When do these come out?

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

19:45 / 29.11.04

I was going to get it, even though I have all of the original issues, but the hardcover is just too expensive for a new prologue. I understand why they have to price the two trades at $20 each for production and such, but it just is a bit too expensive for comics I already have in a box somewhere in the comic room.

I also saw that there is going to be a "Grimjack" trade, Steven Grant is talking about "Whisper" returning. I miss the early days of First comics (especially when they were under the editorial hand of Mike Gold), and it'll be nice to have the creators back working on projects. In a lot of ways, that was the company that kept me reading comics when I got into college.

Mark Parsons

04:06 / 01.12.04

It's been delayed till January, accoring to a guy @ Dynamic who answered my "where the hell is it?" email query. Twenty years wait and six weeks is drving me mad. But @ least there's Grimjack.

Was AF (& Times2 (Times "Squared") Chaykin's apex? I liked Shadow OK, but can't recall anything impressive. Heard that his recent GN was atrocious (Ellis hated it) and Challengers left me cold.

Sax

05:59 / 01.12.04

Chaykin's well past his sell-by date. Men with pleated trousers and oddly-proportioned women with their tits and fannies hanging out. American Flagg was pretty average, I thought.

A fall of geckos

11:49 / 01.12.04

I haven't read much Chaykin but I've heard good things about the quality of his writing. I've been told that American Flagg is his best work & I've been considering getting a copy of the paperback collection on the basis of this. I don't know anything about it really, so I was wondering if anybody can give me a quick run down.

What's it about, what makes it a classic etc...

FinderWolf

13:24 / 01.12.04

I feel much like Geckodancing and am considering getting the first paperback and seeing how it sits with me. I do get the feeling that Flagg!, esp. the early issues, is the best work of his career, from everything I've heard. Maybe Time 2d as well... I half-read some of the original Flaggs growing up, heard friends talking about them, read some things about the plot...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:27 / 01.12.04

I remember being really into the (in think it was the 2nd) series, where it was all set in Russia. Didn't read much of the first, but would love the chance to. May have to check these reprints out.

Funnily enough, while moving house, I found my copies of T2- The Satisfaction of Black Mariah and T2- The Epiphany. Just off to re-read them now before I make any major cash-related decisions...

FinderWolf

13:29 / 01.12.04

Cut & paste this for more info on Flagg's selling points.

DaveBCooper

15:47 / 02.12.04

Still have the original Chaykin run from my youth, really enjoyed it at the time and a recent re-read doesn’t really suggest time has withered it. Pretty sex-obsessed, but so was I at the time? Decent plotting, though, and some good jokes. And the ongoing not-so-hidden references to Jim Steinman songs make me smile.
However, this new prologue-thing : Is it genuinely new, or is the 8 pages or so HC added when the first First collection was published in about 1986 ? Anyone know ?

Who's Jim Steinman?

oh wait, he co-wrote a lot of the Meatloaf songs right? ...No wait, he IS Meatloaf, right?

DaveBCooper

15:30 / 03.12.04

Yeah, pretty much wrote (indeed, over-wrote) all of Mr Loaf’s most successful songs. And is generally looked down on, musically speaking.
I don’t think they’re one and the same, as they fell out for a number of years. Though they may share the same barber.
Chaykin seems to have putting references to Steinman songs in his work quite a bit in the 80s – Flagg and The Shadow, I recall offhand, though I’m sure there were others.
Anyway, I digress; Flagg’s a good read.

FinderWolf

18:45 / 31.12.04

Just read an article on Flagg! and am looking forward to picking up the first paperback in Jan.

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