Howard Chaykin

Howard Victor Chaykin (born October 7, 1950) is an American comic book artist and writer.

Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.

Howard Chaykin was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Rosalind Pave and Norman Drucker, who soon separated.

Chaykin was initially raised by his grandparents in Staten Island, New York City, until his mother married Leon Chaykin in 1953 and the family moved to East Flatbush and later to 370 Saratoga Avenue, Brownsville, Brooklyn.

At 14, Chaykin moved with his now divorced mother to the Kew Gardens section of Queens.

He graduated from Jamaica High School at 16, in 1967, and in mid-1968 worked at Zenith Press.

He attended Columbia College in Chicago that fall, but left school and returned to New York the following year.

Chaykin said that after high school, "I hitchhiked around the country" before becoming, at 19, a "gofer" for the New York City-based comic book artist Gil Kane, whom he would name as his greatest influence.

Chaykin's earliest work with comic books was under the tutelage of Gil Kane, whom he would later call his mentor.

"I'd heard on the grapevine that Gil's assistant had dropped dead of a heart attack at 23. I gave Gil a call, and he said, 'Yeah, I can use you.' So I went to work for him. ... He was doing [the early graphic novel] Blackmark, and I did a really bad job pasting up the dialog and putting in [ Zip-a-Tone ] .... It was a great apprenticeship. I learned a lot from watching Gil work."

In 1970, he began publishing his art in comics and science-fiction fanzines, sometimes under the pseudonym Eric Pave.

Leaving Kane, he began working as an assistant to comics artist Wally Wood in the studio he shared with Syd Shores and Jack Abel in Valley Stream, Long Island.

He worked there for a "couple of months", and in 1971 published his first professional comics work, for the adult-theme Western feature Shattuck in the military newspaper the Overseas Weekly, one of Wood's clients.

He also "ghosted some stuff" for Gray Morrow: "I penciled a Man-Thing story he did [for Marvel Comics' Fear #10 (cover-dated Oct. 1972)], and I penciled a thing for [the magazine] National Lampoon called "Michael Rockefeller and the Jungles of New Guinea." He then apprenticed under Neal Adams, working with the artist at Adams' home in The Bronx. This led to his first work at DC Comics, one of the two largest comics companies:

"Neal showed me to [editors] Murray Boltinoff and Julius Schwartz. Murray gave me a one-page filler. I also got some work from Dorothy Woolfolk, who edited the love comics. It was all just dreadful stuff, but you stumble along, and you learn. A problem for me was that by the time I became a professional, I lost any interest whatsoever in superhero comics. I'm not a horror [comics] guy, and I didn't know what the hell to do! (laughter) What I wanted to draw is guys with guns, guys with swords, and women with big tits, and that was the extent of my interest in comics at the time."

in Young Romance #185 (Aug. 1972), and penciling the eight-page supernatural story "Eye of the Beholder" in Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #7 (Oct. 1972) and the one-page "Enter the Portals of Weird War" in Weird War Tales #9 (Dec. 1972).

At one point Chaykin lived in the same Queens apartment building as artists Allen Milgrom, Walter Simonson, and Bernie Wrightson.

Simonson recalls, "We'd get together at 3 a.m. They'd come up and we'd have popcorn and sit around and talk about whatever a 26, 27, and 20-year-old guys talk about. Our art, TV, you name it. I pretty much knew at the time, 'These are the good ole days.'"

Chaykin's first major work was for DC Comics drawing the 23-page "The Price of Pain Ease"—writer Denny O'Neil's adaptation of author Fritz Leiber's characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser—in Sword of Sorcery #1 (March 1973).

Although the title was well received, it lasted only five issues before cancellation.

Moving to Marvel Comics, he began work as co-artist with Neal Adams on the first Killraven story, seen in Amazing Adventures #18 in 1973.

After this, Chaykin was given various adventure strips to draw for Marvel, including his own creation, Dominic Fortune (inspired by his Scorpion character, originally drawn for Atlas Comics), now in the pages of Marvel Preview.

The "one-page filler", titled "Strange Neighbor", was inventoried and eventually published in the Boltinoff-edited Secrets of Sinister House #17 (May 1974).

His other earliest known DC work was penciling and inking the three-page story "Not Old Enough!"

Chaykin drew the character Ironwolf in the science fiction anthology title Weird Worlds for DC, and did the pencils and ink for a 12-page Batman story written by Archie Goodwin and published in Detective Comics #441 in 1974.

In 1976, Chaykin landed the job of drawing the Marvel Comics adaptation of the first Star Wars film, written by Roy Thomas.

Chaykin left after 10 issues to work in more adult and experimental comics, and to do paperback book covers.

In 1978, he wrote and drew his Cody Starbuck creation for the anthology title Star Reach, one of the first independent titles of the 1970s.

These strips saw him explore more adult themes as best he could within the restrictions often imposed on him by editors and the Comics Code Authority.

The same year, he produced for Schanes & Schanes a six-plate portfolio showcasing his character.

In late 1978, Chaykin, Walt Simonson, Val Mayerik, and Jim Starlin formed Upstart Associates, a shared studio space on West 29th Street in New York City.

The membership of the studio changed over time.

Chaykin penciled DC Comics' first miniseries, World of Krypton (July–September 1979).

In the next few years he produced material for Heavy Metal, drew a graphic novel adaptation of Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, and produced illustrations for works by Roger Zelazny.

Chaykin collaborated on two original graphic novels—The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell with writer Michael Moorcock, and Empire with Samuel R. Delany—and found time to move into film design with work on the movie version of Heavy Metal.

In 1980 he designed the album cover of The Legend of Jesse James, a concept album about legendary outlaw Jesse James.

Chaykin's "nutty and cruel" adoptive father, whom Chaykin until the 1990s believed was his natural father, encouraged Chaykin's interest in drawing and bought him sketchbooks.

He was introduced to comics by his cousin, who gave him a refrigerator box filled with them.

He said in 2000 he was raised on welfare after his parents separated and that his absent biological father eventually was declared dead, although Chaykin, as an adult, located him alive.

In 2018 he looked back on this Batman story as one of the worst things he had ever drawn, adding, "Anything of value in that story was Archie's."