Thieves? I say "YES." | American Flagg! Volume 1 Signed & Numbered Edition (American Flagg!)

book: American Flagg! Volume 1 Signed & Numbered Edition (American Flagg!) | Howard Chaykin, James Sherman, ...

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	• American Flagg! Volume 1 Signed & Numbered Edition (American Flagg!) Howard Chaykin, James Sherman, ... Image Comics, 2008 - 440 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Great series, so-so reissue

A few years back I wrote an Amazon review raving about American Flagg! and what a groundbreaking work it is. Howard Chaykin's work predated more well known works such as Dark Knight (Frank Miller) and Watchmen (Alan Moore) by a few years. It is as daring now as it was 25 years ago.

It was a swell review and I am still amazed how prescient Chaykin was in perfectly nailing a future of reality TV, media-soaked culture, the Net, video piracy, enhanced sports and over-the-top sexuality. America, your future is now. That review is gone, I guess, because it took years for this work to actually get produced!

So...years after I wrote that in anticipation of the hardcover, it finally issues. My first reaction was - all this wait ...for this?

It is great to have the work collected,and the overall quality is good... but it deserves better, especially for the years it took to put together. If any series demands an Absolute, oversized edition, it is American Flagg! The artwork bristles and is packed with layers and details, even the lettering soars to new levels of excellence. This edition seems...small. It is reproduced the same size as the original art and is on matte white paper.

I have some previous collections (paperback) that are slightly oversized on glossy paper (the actual art is the same size). I think these are superior. Unfortunately, they didn't do the whole series like this.

Flagg! is better than this; Flagg! is bigger than this.

So...5 stars for the actual work and minus 1 for the format.

Oh, and for those debating whether the signed and numbered edition is worth it...well, after all those years of waiting, Chaykin must have been in a hurry to get these out because his usually abbreviated signature is even further reduced to a checkmark and a dot. Up to you to decide if that is worth the extra $.

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Thieves? I say "YES."

So, Amazon never sent me this book. Ever. Sure, I did get a tracking number all manner of information indicating that that product would be in my hands in a handful of days. But the product never arrived. Now, yes I can't complain because I did get a full refund on the product. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

But I find it noteworthy that when I first purchased the product, as a pre-order many moons ago I only paid $39.99 on the product. Not soon before the product was released, but before it was 'sold out,' they began charging $69.99 for the thing. So honestly, something tells me that it really wasn't 'lost.' Somebody screwed up, charged me and others too little on the book and never alleviated the error. And rather than being forthright about it? They just came up with a wonderful fabrication. This is not the first time Amazon has "lost" products that were then mysteriously raised in price; they've done it a great many times especially with Graphic Novels and Hard Cover Edition Graphic Novels.

The book itself? I did get it eventually from a different merchant, a different site and it is great. I'd actually owned a good number of the original American Flagg! floppy comics from First Comics back in the 80's and it was great then. The presentation and the restoration on the art and the colors is great. Though I wish they'd included a bit more material; though I anxiously await the next volume in this collection.

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At last: American Flagg! - created, written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin and winner of numerous awards and honors, including nine Eagle Awards - available for the first time as a deluxe hardcover collecting the series' first groundbreaking story arc! Plus! Additional cover paintings and promotional pieces by Chaykin, a Michael Chabon introduction, an afterword by Jim Lee, and as a special bonus - a brand-new American Flagg! story written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin exclusively for this edition!