What do you think?
Rate this book
The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #5
Michael Chabon Presents... The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist: #5
Leaping onto center stage from the wings of comics history comes that dazzling Master of Elusion, foe of tyranny, and champion of liberation - the Escapist. Operating from a secret headquarters under the boards of the Empire Theater, the Escapist and his crack team of associates roam the globe performing amazing feats of magic and coming to the aid of all those who languish in the chains of oppression. The history of the Escapist's creators Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay was recently chronicled in Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Now the best of the Escapist's adventures are collected into one volume for all to enjoy.
- GenresComics
80 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2005
110 people want to read
About the author
Kevin McCarthy
116 books116 followersKevin McCarthy is the author of the highly acclaimed historical crime novel, 'Peeler' (Mercier Press, 2010). Called a '...dark, brooding, morally complex masterpiece...' by the Belfast Telegraph, 'Peeler' was selected by the Irish Times as one of its Top Ten Thrillers of 2010 and as a Read of the Year 2010 by the Philadelphia Inquirer. His short story "Twenty-five and Out" appears in 'Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century'. Kevin's second novel, 'Irregulars', is published by New Island Books and was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2013. His novel, 'Wolves of Eden', published by W.W. Norton, was selected by Amazon as one of its 20 Best Books 2018. His latest novel, 'The Wintering Place' (W.W. Norton, 2022), a follow up to The Wolves of Eden, was selected by Amazon as one of its 20 Best Books of the Month, November 2022. He is represented by Jonathan Williams Literary Agency.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 6, 2016
This review is supposed to be for the graphic novel # 3 published by Dark Horse, collecting individual issues # 5 and # 6. I didn't see that on the goodreads list, so I'll just run with it.
I liked parts of it. I liked the Yeates Vietnam art. I liked part of the Jeffrey Brown story (surprisingly). I liked a couple of the text sections and the euthanasia story.
It didn't help matters that this was the last Eisner art to surface (it was feeble), or that it spliced a faux 1950 crime comic with a romance comic in which the Escapist never appeared.
But the underlying gag itself seems appropriate for a one-shot issue and no more. As in, comic readers are in on the joke that The Escapist was always supposedly part of comics, existing since the beginning of the medium, going through the artistic changes and legal battles over rights that all the other great and not-so-great characters have underwent during the last 75 years. Non-comic readers have little ability to understand this and would have less reason to care. (A series of articles about a faux musician or foreign politician I never heard of would go right over my head as well.)
So this is supposedly a labor of love bordering on a love letter from one comic lover to another. Not so fast. It's more like a snarky photocopy of a love letter, handed to third parties, and giggled over at the school cafeteria.
When the art style and storytelling sensibility doesn't match the time of the alleged publication decades earlier, when the elder artists can't recapture their original flair, when most of the 'vintage' art is done by modern identifiable artists, and when the fine points of early comics can't be reproduced (no hand lettering, no pulp paper feel, no dye colorists)...it's a joke that no one laughs at. It's like a second-rate impersonation of Christopher Walken...it's something that anyone could do.
I liked parts of it. I liked the Yeates Vietnam art. I liked part of the Jeffrey Brown story (surprisingly). I liked a couple of the text sections and the euthanasia story.
It didn't help matters that this was the last Eisner art to surface (it was feeble), or that it spliced a faux 1950 crime comic with a romance comic in which the Escapist never appeared.
But the underlying gag itself seems appropriate for a one-shot issue and no more. As in, comic readers are in on the joke that The Escapist was always supposedly part of comics, existing since the beginning of the medium, going through the artistic changes and legal battles over rights that all the other great and not-so-great characters have underwent during the last 75 years. Non-comic readers have little ability to understand this and would have less reason to care. (A series of articles about a faux musician or foreign politician I never heard of would go right over my head as well.)
So this is supposedly a labor of love bordering on a love letter from one comic lover to another. Not so fast. It's more like a snarky photocopy of a love letter, handed to third parties, and giggled over at the school cafeteria.
When the art style and storytelling sensibility doesn't match the time of the alleged publication decades earlier, when the elder artists can't recapture their original flair, when most of the 'vintage' art is done by modern identifiable artists, and when the fine points of early comics can't be reproduced (no hand lettering, no pulp paper feel, no dye colorists)...it's a joke that no one laughs at. It's like a second-rate impersonation of Christopher Walken...it's something that anyone could do.
Displaying 1 of 1 review