Howard Chaykin
Howard Victor Chaykin[1] (/ˈtʃeɪkɪn/; born October 7, 1950)[2] 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
Howard Victor Chaykin
October 7, 1950
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Eric Pave
Inkpot Award, 1977
7 Eagle Awards, 1984
Eagle Award, 2006
Early life[edit]
Howard Chaykin was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Rosalind Pave and Norman Drucker, who soon separated.[3] 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,[1] Chaykin moved with his now divorced mother to the Kew Gardens section of Queens.[3] 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. Chaykin's "nutty and cruel" adoptive father, whom Chaykin until the 1990s believed was his natural father,[3] encouraged Chaykin's interest in drawing and bought him sketchbooks.[1]
He was introduced to comics by his cousin, who gave him a refrigerator box filled with them.[4] 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.[3] 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,[5] whom he would name as his greatest influence.[4]
Personal life[edit]
In 1972, Chaykin married Daina Graziunas.[3] The marriage ended in 1977, and the following year he married Leslie Zahler.[53] That marriage ended in 1986, and in 1989, in Los Angeles, Chaykin married Jeni Munn, a union that lasted through 1992.[54] In November 2002, in Ventura, Chaykin married Laurel Beth Rice.
As of 2013, Chaykin serves on the Disbursement Committee of the comic-book industry charity The Hero Initiative.[55]