This is a series that was put out by First Comics starting in 1983.
It is Written and Pencil by Howard Chaykin.
The art is fantastic for the time frame that it was drawn in. If you compared it to some of todays art then you might find it a little lacking but if you remember that this is 1983 then i think you will be blown away. the thing that i think is so innovative even by today's standards is the way sound effects are drawn into the panels and this is a Chaykin staple. He will draw the sound effect as part of the art. i really wish i had a scanner to show you all if you have never seen it. For example one scene has a motorcycle pulling away and the screech marks are the word screech in stead of having that word somewhere else in the panel. (Fuck its hard to explain this.)
The writing is amazing. Each voice is incredibly different. The plot moves perfectly. It really was a page turner for me.
The story was weird but if you like futuristic almost apocalyptic tales then i fell you will really enjoy this book. It takes place in the year 2031 and life is not as what we would expect.(maybe it is if you see how things are kind of going now a days.) Television rules the country and has become its police force. The television company is called the Plex and the police force is the Plexus Rangers. Our main character is a washed up soap star name Ruben Flagg. He has been replaced on his show "Sexus Ranger" by a CGI version of himself because computer graphics do not age. In his forced retirement from TV Ruben decides that he will become a real cop and is the new rookie on the force. Through his training and first few days on the job he notices the high amounts of corruption that is involved in this form of government and he feels it is his job to fix it. There is a large amount of sex and violence in this book and it really should not be read by the younger crowd. For example as a gift for his joining the force he goes up to his room and is approached by a whore who is there as a gift to blow him. What a great first day present.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes chaykin or futuristic sci fi.
TJ
2 comments:
Man oh man. I've read the first issue so far and I loved it. I was very suprised.
You know what's killing me abou this? I was at a comic shop today because they were having a 40% off say and I really wanted to look for more issues of American Flagg! and my mind was a blank and I couldn't remember what it was called! Now here I am reading this blog entry wishing I could rewind the clock and get back down there. Oh well. They probably didn't have it anyway.
hey man that sucks taht you missed the dsale but i have found this is so hard to get at LCS's. I won the first 26 issues on ebay for like 15 bucks. I would search on there they usually have a lot of runs. i also heard that after 26 is when chaykin started to get bored with the comic and it got rather bad.
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