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Howard Chaykin (born 1948) is an American comic book writer and artist. He began working for Marvel Comics in the early 1970s drawing-one off stories for publications such as Marvel Spotlight. Chaykin had an interest in Jazz and the 1920s-1930s era that was in-tune with editor Roy Thomas who gave him a series of adventurers-for-hire to illustrate. In 1976 Chaykin landed the job of drawing the Marvel Comics adaptation of Star Wars that proved a great success and also got him work doing illustrations for the numerous tie-in projects. Chaykin produced a number of projects for the Heavy Metal and Star Reach anthology magazines including the space opera hero Cody Starbuck that revealed an interest in sexually explicit material as well as graphic violence. There were also a number of lavish Graphic Novel projects with an adaptation of Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination and original collaborations with Michael Moorcock and Roger Zelazny. Chaykin also worked on the design of the movie Heavy Metal .
In 1982 Chaykin launched American Flagg! for First Comics, writing and drawing the the first twelve issues exclusively. The series was a massive critical and popular success, winning a number of awards. In 1985 Chaykin also wrote and drew a re-launch of The Shadow for DC Comics and produced Time2, a quasi-spin-off to American Flagg! that allowed him to indulge his love of Jazz and New York. The mini-series based on Blackhawk of 1987 was another chance to indulge in the 1930s mileu as as provide a witty recasting of a defunct DC character.
Black Kiss in 1988-89 provided Chaykin with the chance to fully show the sex and violence content hinted at since his work of the late 1970s. Since then his original output has been limited. There was a return to Marvel for a Wolverine/Nick Fury graphic novel and the mini-series Power and Glory.
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