Editing American Flagg! (section)

==Publication history==
''American Flagg'', which ran 50 issues (October 1983 – March 1988),<ref name=gcd>[http://www.comics.org/series/2810/ ''American Flagg''] at the [[Grand Comics Database]]</ref> was one of the first titles to be published by [[First Comics]], an early [[Independent media|alternative press]] comics company founded in [[Evanston, Illinois]]<ref name=backp3>{{Cite journal|last= Schwieir|first= Philip| title= Flagg! Unfurled|journal= [[Back Issue!]]|publisher= [[TwoMorrows Publishing]]|issue= #41|date= July 2010|page= 3}}</ref> in 1983.<ref name=harris>{{Cite web|last=Harris |first=Franklin |url=http://home.hiwaay.net/~tfharris/pulpculture/columns/050217.shtml |title='80s publisher First Comics' legacy still felt |publisher=Pulp Culture Productions |date=February 17, 2005 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204131653/http://home.hiwaay.net/~tfharris/pulpculture/columns/050217.shtml |archivedate=February 4, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> Unusually for the time, the company offered its freelance writers and artists [[Creator ownership|creator rights]], including ownership of their creations.<ref name=backp3 /> Regardless, writer-artist [[Howard Chaykin]], then living in [[New York City]], felt trepidation when First Comics approached him to do a project. He recalled in 2010:

{{blockquote|My concern had all and everything to do with the fact that this was a brand new company, located in [a suburb of] Chicago. I'd always worked for companies I'd visited and had day-to-day-dealings with. [But] they talked about a financial plan that would make it possible for me to get out from under the debt I had accrued working for [publisher] [[Byron Preiss]] [illustrating early [[graphic novels]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>. It was encouraging, so I went home and concocted a scenario, a pitch document, and that was it.<ref name=backp3 />}}

Chaykin devised a series set in 2031, a high-tech but spiritually empty, consumerist world in which the American government has relocated to [[Mars]], leaving what remains of the U.S. to be governed by the all-encompassing corporation known as the Plex. The series star is Reuben Flagg, a former TV star [[Conscription|drafted]] into the Plexus Rangers and posted as a deputy in [[Chicago, Illinois]].<ref name=backp4>Schweier, p. 4.</ref>

The first 12 issues, running through cover-date September 1984, consisted of four interlocking, three-issue story arcs.<ref name=backp4 /> Chaykin recalled his difficulty in producing 28 pages of art and script monthly: "I was still a smoker and a drinker at the time. And [the output was such that] I'd never done anything like that before, and it was insane. It just devoured my life [and] I had no assistants. I didn't know how to work with an assistant at that point, and it was a very difficult process. ... I was trying to do a fairly high-quality product and I didn't want to slough it off".<ref name=backp4 />

Chaykin made wide use of Craftint Duoshade illustration boards for ''American Flagg!'', which in the period before computers, enabled him to add shaded textures to the finished art.<ref name="CBR">{{Cite web | last=De Blieck, Jr. | first=Augie | url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?id=14766&page=article | title=Pipeline: A Little Bit of Flagg!-Waving | work=[[Comic Book Resources]] | date=September 3, 2004 | accessdate=2009-03-31}}</ref> [[Ken Bruzenak]]'s lettering and logowork also won notice, as it was integral to ''American Flagg'''s futuristic, trademark-littered ambiance.

''American Flagg'''s first dozen issues form one complete story that has influenced comic creators including [[Brian Michael Bendis]] and [[Warren Ellis]].<ref name="CBR"/> The comic made a huge splash at the 1984 [[Eagle Award (comics)|Eagle Awards]], the United Kingdom's pre-eminent comics awards. Chaykin and ''American Flagg!'' were nominated for ten awards,<ref name=TCJ89>"Eagle Nominations Announced; ''American Flagg!'' Nominated for 10", ''The Comics Journal'' #89 (May 1984), p. 11.</ref> eventually winning seven.<ref>Dallas, Keith. [https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/acbc80spreview "1983: Controversy Over a Proposed New Comics Code", ''American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1980s'' (TwoMorrows, 2013).]</ref> ''American Flagg!'' also won the 1983 [[Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award]] for Favorite Comic Book and tied for the 1983 CBG Award for Favorite Character (Reuben Flagg).<ref name=HahnCBG>[http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/cbg.php Comic Buyers Guide Fan Awards], Hahn Library. Accessed Jan. 22, 2020.</ref>

After issue #12, Chaykin continued the series while also working on such other projects as his revamp of ''[[The Shadow]]'' for [[DC Comics]] and the [[graphic novel]] ''Time<sup>2</sup>'', based on characters introduced in a one-off ''American Flagg!'' special in 1986. During this time, [[Alan Moore]] wrote a back-up story that ran several issues and concluded in an issue-length story.

Eventually, Chaykin left, to be replaced on a regular basis by first [[Steven Grant]] then [[J.M. DeMatteis]]. Grant left after only seven issues due to creative friction with the series's new artist, [[Mark Badger]]. According to Grant, he had wanted to continue doing stories in the same style that Chaykin had established, while Badger wanted to take the series in new directions.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Grant|first=Steven|date=October 2010 |title=Steven Grant on American Flagg!|journal=[[Back Issue!]] |issue=#44|page=79 |publisher=[[TwoMorrows Publishing]]}}</ref> Chaykin returned for a brief run to wrap up storylines before the first volume ended in March 1988. The title was relaunched a few months later as ''Howard Chaykin's Amerikan Flagg!''. This run saw Chaykin return to write the first issue before handing over to [[John Francis Moore (writer)|John Francis Moore]], with [[Mike Vosburg]] and Richard Ory penciling and inking the interior art, but the franchise failed to recapture its early success and was canceled after 12 issues.