American Flagg!, Vol. 2

American Flagg! (Single Issues) #7-14

by Howard Chaykin, James Sherman (Artist), Pat Broderick (Artist)

AMERICAN FLAGG! -- created, written, and illustrated by Howard Chaykin and winner of numerous awards and honors, including nine Eagle Awards -- is now available as a trade paperback collecting the series' second seven issues! Collects American Flagg! issues #8-14.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Satire, Cyberpunk, Dystopia

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Probably the closest America ever came to 2000AD, right down to the daft, punning character names (and I think the influence goes both ways, given Flagg's use of 'Bojemoi!' as an oath). Chaykin's pulpy 1983 vision of a future America where corporations have taken over from the government, and downtown is left to the gangs so long as they leave the suburbs and malls alone, is mostly prescient. His main mis-step is having the 2031 Prince William retain more hair than was in fact left to the 2011 version.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I WANT MY EMPTY V!”

Sleaze, lies, sex, drugs, murder and corruption and that’s just the media. Set in 2031 amidst a world ravaged by nuclear conflict and environmental disaster, where nationalism has driven the US government and the corporations that owned it away to Mars, suddenly in 2018 it doesn’t sound quite as ridiculous as it maybe did in the 80s.

Like its impressive predecessor, there is much to enjoy in this follow up collection. Bruzenak’s sound effects are a constant treat and Chaykin’s sharply drawn figures are always impressive, but the highlight for me is the superb use of colour throughout the story, which gives the action that extra charge, making these panels burst from the pages with a powerful vitality and energy.

This is not always the easiest story to follow, but it is enjoyable and the story is eerily reflective of many events occurring in today’s political climate in much of the western world. You can see the influence of the likes of Jack Kirby, and at times it almost has a Pop Art/ Roy Lichtenstein vibe about it but transported into a futuristic dystopia awash with violent armed gangs, a talking cat with prosthetic paws, and a whole cast of other kooky and crazy characters rampaging around what’s left of the US of A.

This is an important and enjoyable piece of work that sits up there amongst the other big, ground breaking graphic novels that were coming out throughout the 80s. This played its part in helping to reshape the landscape and permanently change the direction of the genre, and it still makes for good reading more than three decades later.

[Jerstyn Morehay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume takes us through issue 14, which details a Neo-Neo-Nazi party and an underground "labor survivalist" group, the latter originally splintered off from the American Democratic party, in league through their bionic puppet John Scheiskopf, German for "shithead", I believe, who was last seen spreadeagled on the highway by Reuben Flagg with his legs ripped off by Gogang motorcycles, and who is now in charge of the Plexus Rangers while Flagg and his cohorts are declared outlaws, as the far-rightists and fringe-leftists plot together to gas the entire population of Chicago... Introducing the mechanical ranger Luther Ironheart and robo-prosthetics medical expert Titania Weis, a Nazi doctor of Jewish descent, American Flagg! once again sings both the body-electric and the wildly divided heart of the good ol' US of A.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prescient sci-fi dystopia of a hyper-violent, hyper-sexualised, media-saturated world after environmental, economic and social collapse jumps through the door of a vehicle and kicks the driver in the face in this grand finale. An artificially generated blizzard paralyses Chicago and floods it with refugees, a secretive militia group prepare for a coup, bringing back an unfamiliar and unwelcome face to run the show, Flagg and co move underground and organise the resistance. It's a world where the current US president would feel right at home, which is not a fun thought, but it is a fun book, mad pulpy satirical fun.

[Brian Mulhall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly I came into this not having read anything re: Reuben Flagg before. It was okay but some of the panel artwork was hella confusing. The cat and Luther were pretty cool in a goofy sorta way.

[Janet Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a little too close to home right now in America. I wish it was less uneven but it's really obvious why it's hailed as such a classic.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume confirms my recollection: only Chaykin could do American Flagg!. The volume concludes with the first two stories only written but not drawn by Chaykin. I recall at the time, when issue 13 came out, being vastly let down by the art. Issue 14 was not much better, despite the guest artists' attempts to ape Chaykin's style, because their command of layout and anatomy simply doesn't measure up to Chaykin's. At the time, there was still a lot of overlap between the notion of a comics character as a corporate product that could be handled interchangeably by multiple creators, and the notion that comics creators could/should have the same sort of artistic autonomy as novelists, with a single creative vision controlling a given work. The idea that a comic book could be anything but an ongoing serial, rather than a finite narrative, was only gestational at the time, as well. Consequently, what was in itself a compelling, solid, and highly successful 12-issue story continued on, losing much of its original punch. Only the beginnings of that continuation are evident here (and Chaykin was still writing, at least, which also changed later on), but nevertheless, the last quarter of this book consists of a flabby, stylistically jarring coda to the original tightly-woven (if nevertheless not quite coherent) story arc. The first three-quarters of the book do indeed maintain the standards of the first six issues, retaining both their strengths and weaknesses. The strengths include Chaykin's powerful sense of page design, his densely-packed pages, and his effective, if unsubtle (when you have a character named Scheisskopf, subtlety is long gone) humour. The weaknesses include the tiresomely similar design of all the female characters as fetishists' wet-dreams (absurdly high heels, scanty garb, corsets, etc.) regardless of their social roles, and the occasional sense that Chaykin might be enjoying just a tad too much the fascistic undertones that he seems to be satirizing and critiquing. Nevertheless, one can fly easily enough through the first six of the eight issues collected here, despite their verbal and visual density, because Chaykin's narrative is cunningly designed to keep readers moving forward through fragmented but visually stunning action sequences of various kinds. American Flagg! is sort of a proto-version of cyberpunk, which made it ahead of its time when it came out, and it remains startlingly relevant today (despite its period elements) given its perceptive recognition of how important media saturation was becoming, even in 1983 (it is clearly more than just a joke that one character is names Medea Blitz). Well worth reading, in tandem with volume one, but you will miss little of value if you just stop reading at the sketchbook section and ignore the final two chapters.

[Anatole · Rating 4 out of 5]

It still holds up. The was my first thought on reading these issues again. After a couple decades and some change, the stories still feel relevant and not quaint: quaint meaning like some proto-steam punk Tom Swift idealistic modernism of what the future should be.

The second thought I had after reading them again was apart from the density of plot, there are a lot of characters doing a lot of things all over the place, was the deftness of tone. It veers between satire, farce, suspense, and action. The art helps it move quickly, Chaykin is almost too efficient with his zip tone two colored backgrounds, sometimes mono colored with the bare minimum of detail. He wants you focused on the characters, except when he is breaking up the panels with his huge onomatopoetic sounds that crowd for attention, or his tiny panels for the TV talking heads that occasionally interrupt the action.

The plots combine cyber punk mediazation, cold war paranoia, international intrigue, globalization, poronocopia violence et al.

Although the series takes a noticeable drop in the last two issues when Chaykin relinquishes the art duties, the writing still holds up... as it perhaps will even up to 2031, the time period of the stories.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

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[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 4 out of 5]

La tanda que cierra la saga original confirma los bonos cosechados en el tiempo. Ácida, directa y políticamente incorrecta, la crónica de un futuro distópico se revela muy actual en su cinismo y bien orientada a los próximos (y erráticos) caminos que se avistan para nuestra sociedad.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must re-read b4 reviewing. Got a little lost in the narrative. Like the story line and want to get everything out of it that I can.

[Taylor Cayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe this series just grew on me, but a few issues in I was really invested in the storyline. Chaykin is a definitely a talented storyteller. Still includes a lot of exploitation, though.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting futuristic SiFi/adventure story. This is Chaykin unleashed and at his best. One of the comics that in the 1980s redefined what a comic could be. Recommended

[Michael Kitchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best comic books ever.