The Lost Cody Starbuck

Special treat time. And our old pal and FOOBA Mark Frazer has come up trumps again. Last time he found us the unpublished Barry Windsor-Smith Thing. This time, well, it's a Howard Chaykin / Cody Starbuck story that, as far as we know, has never been printed in English.

Here's Mark: This was either published in 1981 or 1982 in Spain by 'Josep Toutain' - who had collected all the previous Starbuck stories in two other volumes - the B & W stuff horribly coloured, by the way - using plates from the Starbuck portfolio as covers.
It's listed in The Art Of Howard Chaykin bibliography - but only as non-English 'European album' with no other information available.
I found it quite by accident when I was doing a simple search - and it turned up the three Starbuck volumes. I had never heard of them being collected like that & I wanted a look-see. I clearly got more than I bargained for - the lesson here being sometimes it pays to be curious.
I can't imagine why Heavy Metal or somebody else never picked this up.

Now a caveat: As with BWS's piece, I did facebook Chaykin to seek his permission to post this. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to respond, which is completely understandable, Howard Chaykin having about a million better things to do with his time than talk to the likes of me.
So just a note to Howard: If you come across this now, or at any time in the future, absolutely no offence intended, just a wish to show off this stuff to fellow fans.
And if you want it removed from the site, of course I'll do so immediately.
Hope you don't though, 'cos it's wonderful!

Shakespeare For Americans

Shakespeare For Americans was an odd little strip that appeared for a while in Heavy Metal, and was by Howard Chaykin & Walt Simonson, ( with one insert by Peter Kuper ) from the time they shared a studio called Upstart, alongside Frank Miller & Jim Sherman.
According to The Art Of Howard Chaykin: 'Frank and I would compare death threats from our various fan bases, and overall, it was a great time to be working... Simonson and I came up with the idea on an afternoon when we were bullshitting in the office.'
Shakespeare For Americans is a lot of fun, and read in one go, has the feel of a jam strip, as Howie & Walt constantly try to outdo each other from month to month. Here's the whole run.

All The Myriad Ways & Means To Die

Here's two versions of the same story, adapted from Larry Niven's original, a tale that's probably the last word in alternate realities. Or one of the last words...

You won't mind one bit reading the same piece twice, as the first ( from Psycho #9 ) is by Jeff Jones, while the other ( from Unknown Worlds Of Science Fiction #5 ) is from Howard Chaykin.

Plus, as you'll see, two subtly differing versions of the same story is entirely in keeping here.