HEY KIDS! COMICS! takes its cue from nearly a century of turbulence and triumph, despair and drama in the comics racket. Artists and writers, con men and clowns, ganefs and gangsters create the foundations of today's biggest entertainment businessÑor at least the tail that wags the dog. Some of it really happened, and the names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty Éalthough in the end, everyone was guilty of something. Collects HEY KIDS! COMICS! #1-5

In the 1980s, Howard Chaykin broke new ground in American comic books with a series of formally innovative, iconoclastic works that turned the traditional action-adventure tales of mainstream comics into a platform for personal expression, political engagement, and aesthetic experimentation. His original creations American Flagg!, Time2, and the notorious Black Kiss, along with his reshaping of familiar titles like The Shadow and Blackhawk, generated acclaim and often controversy as they challenged expectations of the visual design and subject matter permissible in popular comics. Today, Chaykin remains a vital and prolific artist, but despite the original and influential nature of his work, he receives scant critical attention. In Neon Visions, Brannon Costello offers the first book-length critical evaluation of Chaykin’s work and confronts the blind spots in comics scholarship that consign this seminal artist to the margins. He argues that Chaykin’s contributions are often overlooked because his comics eschew any pretensions to serious literature. Instead, Chaykin’s work revels in the cliffhanger thrills of heroic-adventure genres and courts outrage with transgressive depictions of violence and sexuality. Examining Chaykin’s career from his early successes to compelling contemporary series such as City of Tomorrow, Dominic Fortune, and the controversial Black Kiss 2, Costello explores how this inventive body of work, through its evolving treatment of the theme of authenticity, incisively investigates popular culture’s capacity to foster or constrain individual identity and political agency. Challenging prevailing assumptions about the types of comics deemed worthy of scholarly attention, Costello reveals that the work of an artist as distinctive as Howard Chaykin demands a nuanced reading—one that confronts his unique approach to the comics medium, his blending of autobiographical themes and genre trademarks, and his engagement with comic books as artifacts of consumer culture.

The story Ranger Rueban Flass as he navigates an American landscape that, in retrospect, feels more prophetic with each passing year.

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.

Collected interviews with the cartoonist best known for creating the groundbreaking sci-fi satire American Flagg!

Joel Breakstone, a GI liberator of Buchenwald and brutally damaged goods, follows a path of vengeance that leads to redemption in a violent journey into his own heart of darkness„in a spiritual adventure from comics' contemporary master of crime and punishment, HOWARD CHAYKIN. Collects MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL #1-5

Nearly 25 years ago, Howards Chaykin brought the '80s to a close, and comics to the brink, with his landmark erotic thriller, Black Kiss. Now, after years of anticipation, he's back with Black Kiss II, telling the story behind that legendary story — like the original, in glorious black and white. And really, now — does it have to be so dirty?

Graphically experimental, narratively daring and visually explosive, HowardChaykin's Time2 was a work ahead of its time. Now, to commemorate theproject's 35th anniversary with the arrival of its long-awaitedconclusion...it still is. In addition to remastered versions of thelong-out-of-print first two volumes, The Epiphany and The Satisfaction of BlackMariah, the Time2 Omnibus completes the trilogy with the new 48-page volumeHallowed Ground0, plus many never-before-seen extras from the project.

All-new original graphic novel, modernizing the formative first days of this super-hero icon that defined pop culture! Billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark lived a life of wealth and privilege. That all changed when an on-site visit to a war-torn nation went horribly wrong, leaving Tony gravely injured in the hands of dangerous extremists - one a former friend. When asked to build a weapon, Tony instead constructed a mechanized suit of armor and escaped. But the horrors he left behind are coming for retribution, and the only way to stop them is for the carefree playboy to become the Iron Man!

"Tucker Foyle has been far away from Columbia, the utopia conceived and nano-engineered by his father, for over a decade. Upon his return, the prodigal son finds his idyllic childhood home a crime-ridden shell of its former self, overrun by robot hustlers, hookers and hoodlums. Now Tucker must piece together what went wrong, with Columbia, with his dysfunctional family and with his life, as he struggles to turn things around--without winding up dead in the process."--Cover.