American Flagg!
| American Flagg! | |
|---|---|
American Flagg! #1 (Oct. 1983).
Cover art by Howard Chaykin. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | First Comics |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date(s) | October 1983 – March 1988 |
| No. of issues | 50 |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Howard Chaykin |
| Written by | Howard Chaykin |
| Artist(s) | Howard Chaykin |
| Letterer(s) | Ken Bruzenak |
| Colorist(s) | Lynn Varley |
| Editor(s) | Mike Gold |
| Collected editions | |
| Volume 1 | ISBN |
American Flagg! is an American comic book series created by writer-artist Howard Chaykin, published by First Comics from 1983 to 1989. A science fiction series and political satire, it was set in the U.S., particularly Chicago, Illinois, in the early 2030s. Writers besides Chaykin included Steven Grant, J.M. DeMatteis, and Alan Moore.
American Flagg, which ran 50 issues (Oct. 1983 – March 1988), was one of the first titles to be published by First Comics, an early alternative press comics company founded in Evanston, Illinois in 1983. Unusually for the time, the company offered its freelance writers and artists creator rights, including ownership of their creations. 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,
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 t]hey 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]. It was encouraging, so I went home and concocted a scenario, a pitch document, and that was it.
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 the Plex. The series star is Reuben Flagg, a former TV star drafted into the Plexus Rangers and posted as a deputy in Chicago, Illinois.
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