Neon Visions: The Comics of Howard Chaykin

Plot

In Neon Visions, Brannon Costello offers the first book-length critical evaluation of Chaykins work and confronts the blind spots in comics scholarship that consign this seminal artist to the margins. He argues that Chaykins contributions are often overlooked because his comics eschew any pretensions to serious literature. Instead, Chaykins work revels in the cliffhanger thrills of heroic-adventure genres and courts outrage with transgressive depictions of violence and sexuality. Examining Chaykins career from his early successes to compelling contemporary series such as City of Tomorrow, Dominic Fortune, and the controversial Black Kiss 2, Costello explores how this inventive body of work, through its evolving treatment of the theme of authenticity, incisively investigates popular cultures capacity to foster or constrain individual identity and political agency