The Art of Howard Chaykin Coming November 29

The Art of Howard Chaykin, a book I spent much of 2010 working on, is finally scheduled for release on November 29.I’ve been anxiously awaiting this to hit the solicitations and lo and behold, here it is on Amazon. It will be listed in the September Diamond Previews, out later this month. Coming from Dynamic Forces, it’s a pretty package hopefully worthy of your $30.Amazon’s description says, “Legendary for what he has done on the page and infamous for what he has said off it, Howard Chaykin ranks among the superstars of modern comics. In The Art of Howard Chaykin, go behind the scenes with the creator whose pioneering works include American Flagg! and Black Kiss, and experience the stories of his life as only he can tell them. Filled with no-holds-barred perspective from his longtime friends and colleagues, and featuring an extensive selection of artwork from throughout his career, including many never-before-published pieces from Chaykin’s own archives, The Art of Howard Chaykin takes readers on an in-depth journey from the 1970s to today with one of the medium’s great storytellers.”The 12’ x 9” book is listed at 200 pages but one of the reasons it was delayed involved adding a signature of artwork, bumping the book to a hefty 240 pages.While Chaykin is one of the best subjects to interview, his entire life and career have never been this fully explored. His thoughts make for fascinating reading as noted in the recently released Howard Chaykin Conversations, assembled by Louisiana State University’s Brannon Costello. My book is a warts and all look at the man and his work with Howard’s approval and involvement, so we’ve made certain the facts are accurate and the comments reflect his thinking.The visuals came from a number of sources notably Tim Barnes, a Chaykin aficionado over in Europe. He also put me in touch with Joe Giella’s son Frank who possessed some early original artwork he lent us to scan for inclusion. Chaykin provided many images from his own files.KC Carlson was my beta reader on this before Howard went over the manuscript and Howard in turn had it read by others, so we made every effort to get the facts right. Additionally, we’ll have the most authoritative index to his commercial artwork from the late 1960s through July 2011 so you can see the amazing range of subjects and publications.Can you tell I’m excited to have this finally being released?