BOOM! goes the dynamite!

Howard Chaykin is one of my favorite writer/artists. Doesn’t matter if he’s working on his own stuff (like American Flagg!, Barnum!, or American Century,), or reconfiguring existing characters (like The Shadow, Challengers of the Unknown, Blackhawk). I’m all in.

And then there’s DIE HARD, one of my favorite action movies ever, thanks in large part to Bruce Willis. At a time when no one was making any kind of Batman movie (Tim Burton’s Batman was a year away), DIE HARD filled the void. Watch it again and think of John McClane as Bruce Wayne. It’s all there. Die Hard is a Batman movie without the cape, the fancy Hot Wheels car and the nipple-suit.

Now BOOM! Studios – which has already scored with licensed properties like Farscape and The Incredibles - has hit the mark again. Chaykin and artist Stephen Thompson (who did Buckaroo Banzai for Moonstone Books) are uniting to bring the pre-Die Hard adventures of McClane to the comic book page.

DIE HARD: YEAR ONE #1 is set in New York City during the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, with McClane as a rookie cop. Chaykin grew up in New York, and is well-familiar with the time and place, so I’m expecting a tough, gritty crime thriller, packed with action and the wry Chaykin humor. The series promises to be well worth reading. The first issue is scheduled for an August release.

And you know how a blog post like this has to end, don’t you? Yippy-ki-yay…

[Artwork: Promotional art from Die Hard: Year One]