American Century (comics)

American Century was a comic book series published by DC Comics as a part of the Vertigo imprint starting in early 2001. It was co-written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman.[1]

American Century
Publication information
PublisherVertigo
ScheduleMonthly
FormatOngoing series
Genre
Publication dateMay 2001 – October 2003
No. of issues27
Creative team
Created byHoward Chaykin
David Tischman
Written byHoward Chaykin
David Tischman
Penciller(s)Marc Laming
Luke Ross
Lan Medina
Inker(s)John Stokes
Digital Chameleon
Collected editions
Scars & StripesISBN 1-56389-791-1
Hollywood BabylonISBN 1563898853

The story concerned a former American pilot who fakes his death and goes on the run in the 1950s. Chaykin intended it as a "left-wing version of Steve Canyon",[2] and wrote all of the issues. The comic ran for approximately two years.

Plot

Harry Block, a World War II veteran, fakes his own death and makes his way to Central America to create a new identity for himself as Harry Kraft, a hard-drinking smuggler. During a war in Guatemala, a CIA operative blackmails Block into assassinating Rosa de Santiis, a popular leader in opposition to the CIA puppet dictator General Zavala. Afterward, he heads back to the United States, taking a road trip from Hollywood to Chicago to New York, exploring myriad avenues of 1950s American culture.

The comic ends with Block essentially turning into the character he had created for the fictional "Starburst Comics", a vigilante known as "Dr. Dream".[1]

Collected editions

Some of the series has been collected into two trade paperbacks

  • Scars & Stripes (collects issues #1–4, DC/Vertigo, 2001, ISBN 1-56389-791-1)
  • Hollywood Babylon (collects issues #5–9, DC/Vertigo, 2002, ISBN 1-56389-885-3)

Notes
  1. Irvine, Alex (2008). "American Century". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 20. ISBN 0-7566-4122-5. OCLC 213309015.
  2. American Century #1
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References
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