Today I have a rarely seen Howard Chaykin series that ran from 1976 until 1982. That may seem like a long run but it only consists of three stories, all of which are written by the co-creator Len Wein.
Gideon Faust began in Star Reach issue 5 in 1976. Like most of Chaykin's work during this period where he had complete control of his art, he displayed a growing maturity and his work was becoming increasingly more assured and graphically oriented. He had already contributed to Star Reach with his other creator-owned character Cody Starbuck in issues 1 and 4 (who would also go on to appear in Heavy Metal magazine) as well as a solo color comic in 1978 also published by Star Reach.
I'm not a huge fan of the actual writing by Wein, but the art is Chaykin firing on all cylinders during these two phases of his career. During the late 70s, when Chaykin was allowed to ink himself and he seemed to actually care about the project, his work was phenomenal. His comic book work for Marvel on Monark Starstalker, Dominic Fortune, Nick Fury, and the Atlas Seaboard character Scorpion is gorgeous. Unfortunately, he also worked as a layout artist on many books as well where his style suffered greatly under the inker. I'm looking at you Star Wars and Micronauts. I have no doubt that those jobs helped to pay the bills, but they are not an indication of his talent. Such is the life of a working artist.
In the late 1970s, he also began a prolific career working as an artist for companies trying to expand the comic book medium into bookstores. He began producing stunning painted comic book work such as Empire, The Swords of Heaven, The Stars my Destination, and of course the continuation of Gideon Faust and Cody Starbuck in the pages of Heavy Metal. While these pages are beautifully painted and designed, they didn't use the medium very well in my opinion. Lovely to look at, but they don't utilize the medium of comics very well. That would all change with his creator-owned comic American Flagg that was published by First Comics in 1983. A comic book that influenced the rest of the decade whether those creators care to admit it or not. I hope you enjoy these early works by a modern master of the medium.
Star Reach July 1976
Heavy Metal April 1979
Heavy Metal February 1982
