Hey Kids! Comics! Vol. 1
Howard Chaykin, writer & artist; Wil Quintana, colorist; Ken Bruzenak: letterer
Image Comics, 2019
Howard Chaykin has enough history in the comic book industry to tell plenty of personal stories. But this series goes far beyond his experience, portraying the evolution of comic book publishing from its origins to the present day. The story begins in 1967, at the premier of a Broadway music based on the superhero Powerhouse (who is clearly modeled on Superman). A comic book company executive is on the red carpet on the way in, when he is greeted by one of the creators--who is not attending, and looks down on his luck.
Cut to 1945. Two comic book artists have been discharged from the armed services, and are starting to look for work. 1955, and the same artists are meeting to start a union...while others have left comics for other fields. 1965: "Same players...new chessboard." 2001: everyone meets at a memorial service for a recently departed artist. One of the attendees is the latest young hipster hotshot (I'm guessing a composite of the Image Comics founders).
Each issue presents a series of vignettes from the different time periods. Significant real-life events are covered, such as the collapse of several smaller comic book companies in 1945 and the congressional hearings in 1955 (including a version of the testimony of EC Comic's head William Gaines). 2015 finally gets a visit to show the failure of creator lawsuits attempting to regain ownership of their creations from the big comic book publishers. The final scene is set in 1938, showing the two young creators (artist and writer) pitching their new creation Powerhouse to a publisher, jubilant in their new jobs making comics for a living.
In his afterward "Who's That Over There?" Chaykin admits a couple of obvious character derivations: Bob Rose (the smiling comic book ambassador Stan Lee) and Sid Mitchell (his opposite number, angry creator's rights advocate Jack Kirby). He insists the rest are "combinations and conflations" that weren't built for name-checking. But no doubt the professional jealousy and personal conflicts are real, as well as the constant hustle of the freelance life. I have to think Chaykin took particular delight in the violent accidental deaths of several of his characters, which I'm pretty sure were entirely fictional!
Replies
If one of the violent deaths involved a train, it was probably was a reference to Joe Maneely:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Maneely
Thanks, Richard. I figured there might be some factual basis, but couldn't see a reasonable way to research it. There was no train involved, but the artist hit by a taxi might be a reference. The other is a woman bumped out of a window high in a skyscraper.