Howard Chaykin On the Appeal of Fargo: Hell on Wheels
The beloved comics artist is adapting a series of pulp novels into prestige graphic novels.
There's just two weeks left to pre-order Fargo: Hell on Wheels, the first in a planned series of graphic novels from acclaimed cartoonist Howard Chaykin. The book, now available on Zoop, centers on a character that Chaykin describes as "Conan meets The Wild Bunch" -- a take-no-prisoners soldier of fortune who carries a trunk full of weapons wherever he goes. Living at the turn of the 20th Century, Fargo is something of a man out of time, dealing with a world that is transitioning from his old-school setting into something more modern and recognizable as the world around him industrializes. The novels, written in the 1970s, reflect the sensibilities of fiction created much earlier, with the gritty feel and quick pacing of dime novels from the first half of the century.
Chaykin, who was turned on to the series by Gizmoe Press's Michael Stradford, fell in love with it right away, saying that they're reminiscent of the kind of dime-store novels that he used to read when he was young. Fargo is, like early James Bond, something meant to kill time on the train during your commute. Gizmoe is teaming with Chaykin for the project, which they are funding through Zoop.
"Fargo at its core is Conan at the turn of the century, explained in his most reductive way," Chaykin told ComicBook.com. "He is a soldier of fortune -- a guy who's really good with every weapon. One of the signatures, in the same way that the Aston Martin is the James Bond, Fargo's, trunk is one of his signifiers. There's a sequence in the novel, which happens in almost every novel, where he does the itemizes and legitimizes his weapons."
Chaykin explains that the character is not just a soldier of fortune colloquially, but a former, literal soldier, having served with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders.
"The character is a 19th century badass who's finds himself vital and filled with energy in the beginnings of the 20th century," Chaykin explained. "One of the things That we forget is our early modernity began. the modern world was invented between 1865 and 1900, by the guys who made railroad fortunes and made fortune. So I'm selling to various governments and they invented the for 20th century and that first decade, and everything was in place, pretty much. We had airplanes and cars and the beginning of radio, and it was all there, and Fargo is too."
Chaykin's art is instantly recognizable -- something that's true even with the preview art for Fargo -- but he admitted that he was a little hamstrung by the very specific look and feel that was established by the original Fargo novels by John Benteen, and the result is a book that plays to Chaykin's strengths without allowing him to fall back on some of the habits he has built up in recent years.
"Fargo has a specific look," Chaykin explained. "I mean, it's Lee, Marvin. It's the Lee Marvin character from The Professionals with a new name and an involved backstory."
He added, "I like doing period material because for me it's like visiting an alien planet. I don't like science fiction much anymore but I do like historical stuff. And yeah, the idea having a look on the imposed of a character, that I can't rely on my own visual tropes, is a challenge....It's also an opportunity."
That opportunity? To present Fargo the way he was originally conceived, without worrying about the constraints of major comics publishers or the direct market.
"I've often described the novels as two-fisted guys in heaving bosoms and that's really where it's at," Chaykin joked.
