Hey Kids! Comics! Vol. III #4 // Review
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had a tremendous journey to make before they could get even a fraction of the money they deserved from creating Superman. Legendary creator Jack Kirby had to fight like hell just to get his original artwork from Marvel. Writer/Artist Howard Chaykin tackles the issue of creator’s rights from various directions in Hey Kids! Comics! Vol. III #4. The weirdly veiled parallel world of Chaykin’s comic book industry enters the early 1970s in another extremely entertaining look at a history that would be kind of confusing for people not already familiar with the history in question.
Neal Adams is fighting for Siegel and Shuster. Everyone thinks he’s crazy for trying to take on a corporate giant. There are also people looking to get Kirby and other artists their original artwork back. You would think that someone who grew up reading and writing comics would respect the rights of creators, but he’s the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. That’s a position that’s going to change anyone as the late 1970s ease into the early 1980s. It’s going to be a whole new decade, and there are going to be a whole lot of changes with the rise and proliferation of a new generation of readers.
Of course...none of the names of the history match those in the comic book, but there’s no question what Chaykin is putting on the page. He’s taking palpable and famous moments from the 1970s and 1980s and putting them on the page with a crisp, brisk, and witty sense of drama. Stan Lee and Jim Shooter end up being pretty prominent figures in the fourth issue of the current series, but Chaykin makes certain that he’s panning the panels around to get a good, solid look at much of the rest of the industry of the era.
Chaykin clearly captures the stony, inscrutable face of the towering Jim Shooter throughout the book. He’s not painted as a hero or a villain--just a very powerful figure at the head of one of the largest companies in the industry at the time. Chaykin delivers the comedy with a very straight face that serves the historical nature of the book quite well. Once again, Chaykin’s pen has a brilliantly precise handle on the styles and fashions of the era. One might expect that a bunch of conversations in comic book offices and bars and things would be appallingly boring visually, but Chaykin amps it up in a way that makes it all feel so engaging.
Given Chaykin’s keen precision, it’s actually kind of surprising that he’s only made it as far as the early 1980s in the first four issues of the current series. Chaykin slices through history with an impressively deft understanding of storytelling. There are so many different stories from the history of the comics industry for Chaykin to roll through, and it would be all too easy to get lost in details. Chaykin knows to keep it simple: get into the heart of an exchange, get out of it, and get on to the next scene. Brilliant pacing.
