American Flagg! and Mortadelo y Filemón (Pomploma Comicon 2010)

Reuben Flagg and Spanish comedy duo Mortadelo y Filemón (Mort & Phil) join the Running of the Bulls in the streets of Pomploma, Spain. Heritage listed the piece as poster art from 2012, but I'm going with 2010 as on the additional image (with colors by Jed Dougherty). Makes me wanna tell my Howard Chaykin story, but I'm a bit too embarrassed, so maybe next time…

Art from 2010 - 11x17.


OK, twist my arm, John, clearly I need to purge this story…

I first met Chaykin at some early ‘80s Bay Area con, probably Creation in ’83, making me around 15 and a total punk—not in the musical sense. I remember Byrne & Perez were supposed to headline the show but both had to cancel. Of course, they were the main reason I was going!

Anyway, at the con I rounded a corner into a wide hallway that was Artists Alley, totally separated from the rest of the con and almost completely empty of fans. Just two other fans, me and the artists. As I neared the end of the row, the last three artists were Scott Shaw!, Ernie Chan and Howard Chaykin. I stopped in front of Scott Shaw! and noticed he was promoting Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew. Now as a vitriolic teen, funny animal books, Richie Rich and their like were pure poison, devil spawn, and only for kiddies. So, I kinda loudly said to Scott in my most condescending way, “Why do you even DO this comic??” To this day I cannot believe he didn’t rip thru the table in a rage and tear my throat out. Instead, he calmly and collectedly answered why he loved doing what he does and why the comic was so great. None of which I listened to. He was still answering as I moved on to Ernie Chan. Chan was face down in a John Buscema Conan page and quietly applying ink wash. I was enthralled, what a moment, to see Chan making the magic happen! Finally, I moved on to Chaykin. He had a couple cronies behind him as I neared. Right off, he goes, “Hey Kid… What’s yer favorite comic?” I was probably an issue away from dropping the X-Men after Cockrum’s return, and was ready to drop the New Teen Titans soon enough but proudly answered anyway, “The X-Men and Teen Titans.” “Those comics are SHIT!” he said, while his buddies busted up all over the place. “What you really need to read is American Flagg! It’s got girls, action, a real lead character…” as he opened up issue #1, turned it towards me on the table, and proceeded to sell me on how great it was. I was still reeling a bit over an adult swearing to a kid, which kinda blurred the rest…

Some time later it dawned on me Chaykin must have heard my terrible question to Scott Shaw! and probably wanted a little fun—revenge style. I couldn’t have deserved it more! Because of that day, I skipped American Flagg! until most recently and really liked what I had missed, whatta job Chaykin was doing!

Sorry Scott!