Howard Chaykin continues to examine the meta-history of the comic industry in the third volume of Image Comics Hey Kids! Comics! entitled “Schlock of the New” this April.
Chaykin’s third volume focuses on comic fandom and how it “…evolves into mania, and how that mania impacts commitment, conviction, and intention.”
Chaykin (in an interview with Conskipper at last August’s TerrifCon) further explained that the new story arc is “…also about the evolution of the next generation who grew up reading comics and became comic book talent, and then the generation who grew up reading comics and everything else, the Stoner Generation which is mine, who read everything that preceded it, and made an amalgam.”
Chaykin also believes that the third volume is not “as bitter as the first one” as “The first one is really a reflection of the endemic bitterness of how those guys felt about their experience in comics. I don’t think my generation had that bitterness, except for the narcissists. Whenever I hear that “Comics will break your heart kid”, there is an unspoken, unacknowledged second sentence that goes “But I didn’t think it would happen to me”. Just because you are as good as you are, and you think that you are as good as you are, that you aren’t going to get screwed like everyone else, is an enchanting and interesting aspect of the comic book culture.”
Look for Hey Kids! Comics! The Schlock of the New #1 in stores on April 5. The first two trade paperback volumes are also currently available at your local comic shop.
