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The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #1-2
The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist
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.
159 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2004
About the author
Michael Chabon
146 books9,126 followersMichael Chabon is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, D.C., he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1984. He subsequently received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine.
Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when he was 24. He followed it with Wonder Boys (1995) and two short-story collections. In 2000, he published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel that John Leonard would later call Chabon's magnum opus. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.
His novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 and won the Hugo, Sidewise, Nebula and Ignotus awards; his serialized novel Gentlemen of the Road appeared in book form in the fall of the same year. In 2012, Chabon published Telegraph Avenue, billed as "a twenty-first century Middlemarch", concerning the tangled lives of two families in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004. He followed Telegraph Avenue in November 2016 with his latest novel, Moonglow, a fictionalized memoir of his maternal grandfather, based on his deathbed confessions under the influence of powerful painkillers in Chabon's mother's California home in 1989.
Chabon's work is characterized by complex language, and the frequent use of metaphor along with recurring themes such as nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and most notably issues of Jewish identity. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, he has written in increasingly diverse styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.
Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when he was 24. He followed it with Wonder Boys (1995) and two short-story collections. In 2000, he published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel that John Leonard would later call Chabon's magnum opus. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.
His novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 and won the Hugo, Sidewise, Nebula and Ignotus awards; his serialized novel Gentlemen of the Road appeared in book form in the fall of the same year. In 2012, Chabon published Telegraph Avenue, billed as "a twenty-first century Middlemarch", concerning the tangled lives of two families in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004. He followed Telegraph Avenue in November 2016 with his latest novel, Moonglow, a fictionalized memoir of his maternal grandfather, based on his deathbed confessions under the influence of powerful painkillers in Chabon's mother's California home in 1989.
Chabon's work is characterized by complex language, and the frequent use of metaphor along with recurring themes such as nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and most notably issues of Jewish identity. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, he has written in increasingly diverse styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
November 7, 2016
If you have read Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, this book (I believe it is the first of 3 or 4) of cartoons and backstory on The Escapist comics is a fun and entertaining companion. I liked how they used lots of different styles (classic 60's comix, manga, contemporary graphic novel, watercolour, crumpish pastiche) in writing it and of course LOVE Luna Moth. A fun comic but read Chabon's book first!
December 4, 2017
Awesome literary nostalgia!
The character 'The Escapist' is actually a serious imitation of a fake historical comic character. So. This book - 'Michael Chabon Presents....The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist Volume 1: v. 1' - is a bogus collection of supposedly previously published Escapist issues. Each included issue in this collection has been drawn meticulously in the genuine style of whatever comic Art representation actually dominated the comic publishing industry of every decade since the 1940's.
This fake collection is a brilliant parody of an anniversary book issue of a beloved comic character. If The Escapist had been a genuine comic character first developed in the 1940's, and if the character had survived for decades through the changing art styles and artists and publishers that comics have undergone in real life up to the present, this particular graphic novel collection would serve as a genuine commemorative publication. Fans would have stormed their local bookstore to buy a copy and run home in a rush to encapsulate the book in a protective plastic jacket, hoping to sell it in 20 years for thousands of dollars. However, despite that it is a falsified historical collection about a fake historical super hero, the issues are drawn in the genuine style and the hero, 'The Escapist' is played straight like a real fictional comic Hero reminiscent of the genuine made-up heroes in the fantasy comic fiction we actually grew up reading.
My head is hurting, gentle reader.
The 'Best of The Escapist' comics which have been included are:
The Passing of the Key - origin story
Escapism 101 - written history of how the comic began
Followed by what I am sure would have been favorite top sellers representing the various epochs of 'The Escapist':
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
Sequestered
Prison Break
Three Hundred Fathoms Down
Divine Wind
The Escapegoat
Luna Moth
Reckonings
Old Flame
The Lady or the Tiger
I think people who enjoy literary jokes will like this fake collection best. It is well done, picture perfect actually, but, you know, fake.
The character 'The Escapist' is actually a serious imitation of a fake historical comic character. So. This book - 'Michael Chabon Presents....The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist Volume 1: v. 1' - is a bogus collection of supposedly previously published Escapist issues. Each included issue in this collection has been drawn meticulously in the genuine style of whatever comic Art representation actually dominated the comic publishing industry of every decade since the 1940's.
This fake collection is a brilliant parody of an anniversary book issue of a beloved comic character. If The Escapist had been a genuine comic character first developed in the 1940's, and if the character had survived for decades through the changing art styles and artists and publishers that comics have undergone in real life up to the present, this particular graphic novel collection would serve as a genuine commemorative publication. Fans would have stormed their local bookstore to buy a copy and run home in a rush to encapsulate the book in a protective plastic jacket, hoping to sell it in 20 years for thousands of dollars. However, despite that it is a falsified historical collection about a fake historical super hero, the issues are drawn in the genuine style and the hero, 'The Escapist' is played straight like a real fictional comic Hero reminiscent of the genuine made-up heroes in the fantasy comic fiction we actually grew up reading.
My head is hurting, gentle reader.
The 'Best of The Escapist' comics which have been included are:
The Passing of the Key - origin story
Escapism 101 - written history of how the comic began
Followed by what I am sure would have been favorite top sellers representing the various epochs of 'The Escapist':
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
Sequestered
Prison Break
Three Hundred Fathoms Down
Divine Wind
The Escapegoat
Luna Moth
Reckonings
Old Flame
The Lady or the Tiger
I think people who enjoy literary jokes will like this fake collection best. It is well done, picture perfect actually, but, you know, fake.
January 11, 2017
Video-review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCasP...
A collection showcasing the narrative and creative potential of the costumed-hero genre. A must-read for fans of Chabon's Amazing Adventures, it works great the other way round too: if you're on the fence about reading Chabon's masterpiece, this comic book might be what you need to land on the right side of that fence.
A collection showcasing the narrative and creative potential of the costumed-hero genre. A must-read for fans of Chabon's Amazing Adventures, it works great the other way round too: if you're on the fence about reading Chabon's masterpiece, this comic book might be what you need to land on the right side of that fence.
July 26, 2014
To be honest, I read The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist out of a sense of obligation. I read Kavalier and Clay and even though I hated that book, I felt that I needed to give the graphic novel inspired by the story a chance. I didn't mind the parts of K&C that were actually about comics and the Escapist was an interesting idea for a super-hero. This graphic novel is unfortunately not volume one in the Escapist series, this is a faux-non-fiction book about the history of the Escapist and the other characters mentioned in K&C. The entire book pretends that K&C was a legitimate biography of two real life comic book creators and Anapol, Ashkenazy, and Radio Comics were actually real things in our world. That pissed me off a little bit. We get an introduction where Michael Chabon talks about finding his first copy of The Escapist and all of the hard work he put into researching Kavalier's and Clay's lives and the The Escapist's future with other writers. Then we get our first actual comic, The Escapists's origin story. It is fun and the art work is good, but it comes off as indulgent and pretentious. Then, we get the history of The Escapist's creation and development in the world of K&C. After that, it's just random one-shot stories staring different writers and artists versions of The Escapist and Luna Moth. This isn't a graphic novel. It's the equivalent of a "best of" book. Each writer gives The Escapist and Luna Moth a different personality and different motives. This is paired with vastly different art styles, some of which look pretty nice and others are absolutely terrible. I bought this book expecting to read the first chapter in The Escapist story, but instead I got this indulgent, self-righteous meta-book. We get a couple of stories that don't connect in any way or have anything to do with K&C. It's labeled as volume one, giving the indication that this is the start of a series. The only way I see this happening is the way Reader's Digest releases new books in its condensed novels "series." This wasn't about The Escapist, it was about Chabon's ego.
September 4, 2012
Originally from In Lesbian With Books
I told you, I'm shamelessly obsessed with Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I can't seem to move on with the book hang-over after reading it and to make the matter worse, I discovered the graphic novels entitled The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist by Michael Chabon featuring Kavalier and Clay's brainchild, the Escapist. It has different fictional news, history, and essays about the comic books during the birth of comic books and the Escapists, the Depression, the WWII, and the Golden Age which made the book somewhat real (and I really thought the history the book was telling was true because the contributor writers mentioned a LOT of famous comic book artists). Aside from that, it included the main attraction of the book: the story of the Escapist. If you don't know, the Escapist is an escape artist (you know, like Houdini) showing amazing feats of escapology and he's a part of the League of the Golden Key that fights tyranny (Iron Chain gang) and save the oppressed and bounded by the chain!
(please continue to read HERE . The pictures don't seem to fit the layout of the Goodreads site.
I told you, I'm shamelessly obsessed with Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I can't seem to move on with the book hang-over after reading it and to make the matter worse, I discovered the graphic novels entitled The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist by Michael Chabon featuring Kavalier and Clay's brainchild, the Escapist. It has different fictional news, history, and essays about the comic books during the birth of comic books and the Escapists, the Depression, the WWII, and the Golden Age which made the book somewhat real (and I really thought the history the book was telling was true because the contributor writers mentioned a LOT of famous comic book artists). Aside from that, it included the main attraction of the book: the story of the Escapist. If you don't know, the Escapist is an escape artist (you know, like Houdini) showing amazing feats of escapology and he's a part of the League of the Golden Key that fights tyranny (Iron Chain gang) and save the oppressed and bounded by the chain!
(please continue to read HERE . The pictures don't seem to fit the layout of the Goodreads site.
August 29, 2018
Esse “As incríveis aventuras do Escapista” é um belo complemento à leitura “As aventuras de Kavalier e Clay”. O Escapista, o personagem de quadrinhos que só existia nas páginas do romance de Chabon, ganha aqui – haja metalinguagem – vida própria, como se fosse um autêntico produto da Era dos Quadrinhos, lá dos anos 1930 e 1940. E mais. Ganha vida ao ter, ainda, uma cronologia fictícia própria, com uma ‘carreira’ que se estendeu pelas décadas seguintes. E alguns artigos sobre a sua história.
Além desses artigos, os quadrinhos são bem interessantes. Alguns são realmente muito boas.
Os meus favoritos: A passagem da chave, escrita pelo próprio Chabon; Os libertadores, com estória e arte de Howard Chaykin (fiquei com vontade de reler American Flagg); Reinar no inferno, de Brian K. Vaughn (o cara não é um superstar dos quadrinhos à toa); A última cortina, escrita por Jason Hall, com arte de Eric Wright, uma provocativa estória sobre eutanásia; e, finalmente, O Escapista e o Spirit, escrita e desenhada pelo próprio Will Eisner, em sua última obra.
Para quem leu e gostou d’O Escapista, essa é uma leitura que vale muito a pena.
Além desses artigos, os quadrinhos são bem interessantes. Alguns são realmente muito boas.
Os meus favoritos: A passagem da chave, escrita pelo próprio Chabon; Os libertadores, com estória e arte de Howard Chaykin (fiquei com vontade de reler American Flagg); Reinar no inferno, de Brian K. Vaughn (o cara não é um superstar dos quadrinhos à toa); A última cortina, escrita por Jason Hall, com arte de Eric Wright, uma provocativa estória sobre eutanásia; e, finalmente, O Escapista e o Spirit, escrita e desenhada pelo próprio Will Eisner, em sua última obra.
Para quem leu e gostou d’O Escapista, essa é uma leitura que vale muito a pena.
October 13, 2019
Erstaunlich gutes Begleit-Comic zum Buch Die unglaublichen Abenteuer von Kavalier & Clay. Hatte mir erst Mal nur den ersten Band besorgt, um zu schauen, ob das überhaupt was ist.
Ist es. Das Format ist kleiner als man das von aktuellen Comics oder Graphic Novels so kennt. Auch die verschiedenen Zeitalter, die der Charakter über die Jahre in seiner Comic-Welt durchläuft sind sehr vielschichtig. Luna Moth bekommt auch ein-zwei Panels mehr, was ich überraschend fand. Hatte erwartet einen schlichten Sammelband mit männlichen Charaktere zu bekommen. Zwischendurch gibt es immer Informationen zur "ausgewählten" Story.
Ich stecke jetzt nicht so tief in der Comicwelt drinnen, aber soweit ich weiß entstammt hier alles der Fantasie von Michael Chabon und die Kollektion dieser "alten" Comics ist allein sein Kopfkind. Mir gefällt's. Es wäre aber hilfreich, das erwähnte Buch gelesen zu haben.
Ist es. Das Format ist kleiner als man das von aktuellen Comics oder Graphic Novels so kennt. Auch die verschiedenen Zeitalter, die der Charakter über die Jahre in seiner Comic-Welt durchläuft sind sehr vielschichtig. Luna Moth bekommt auch ein-zwei Panels mehr, was ich überraschend fand. Hatte erwartet einen schlichten Sammelband mit männlichen Charaktere zu bekommen. Zwischendurch gibt es immer Informationen zur "ausgewählten" Story.
Ich stecke jetzt nicht so tief in der Comicwelt drinnen, aber soweit ich weiß entstammt hier alles der Fantasie von Michael Chabon und die Kollektion dieser "alten" Comics ist allein sein Kopfkind. Mir gefällt's. Es wäre aber hilfreich, das erwähnte Buch gelesen zu haben.
February 19, 2021
Yuh, not bad I guess
March 23, 2020
“The Escapist- dazzling Master of Elusion, foe of tyranny, and champion of liberation! 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.”
Having just finished the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2001) novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay written by Michael Chabon, I was intrigued enough by the fictional comic book hero to find this metafiction graphic novel about The Escapist. To continue the charade that Kavalier and Clay were real men this parody recreates the supposed decades-long publishing history of the character, starting in the Golden Age of Comics. This companion book is a homage to the comics of past eras and showcases The Escapist (plus Luna Moth) in many different styles and moves forward chronologically to how comics are typically drawn today. The collection included a manga-type story, a simply drawn gag-style strip that would appeal to children, watercolors for Luna, plus all the Golden, Silver, Bronze and modern-era types of illustrations and storytelling.
Some of my favorites:
The Passing of the Key– origin story as found in the novel. Written by Michael Chabon and illustrated by Eric Wright in a perfect Golden Era vibe.
300 Fathoms Down– an elderly Escapist still has it and shows amazing abilities to withstand water pressure. Written by Mike Baron and drawn by Val Mayerik, a favored artist of mine, who illustrated Of Dust & Blood and The Legion of Monsters.
Old Flame– Luna Moth has a battle of the wits with the Devil himself. Written by Kevin McCarthy with a lovely painterly approach by Dan Brereton.
The Lady or the Tiger– a gritty what-if story about how the Escapist must forgo love to continue fighting crime. Very emo. Written by David Gold and illustrated evocatively by Gene Colan.
Taking on a life of its own, in another book by Chabon, his essay collection Book-Ends, author Brian K Vaughn (famous for Saga) writes a brief story of fictionally meeting an elderly Sam Clay at a comic convention, and how Clay inspired him to become the “comic book genius” he is today. Vaughn takes it further by writing the graphic novel series The Escapists.
But to understand ALL of this, you must first read the original novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay! (I actually liked this anthology better than the novel)
This review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2020/03/2...
Having just finished the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2001) novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay written by Michael Chabon, I was intrigued enough by the fictional comic book hero to find this metafiction graphic novel about The Escapist. To continue the charade that Kavalier and Clay were real men this parody recreates the supposed decades-long publishing history of the character, starting in the Golden Age of Comics. This companion book is a homage to the comics of past eras and showcases The Escapist (plus Luna Moth) in many different styles and moves forward chronologically to how comics are typically drawn today. The collection included a manga-type story, a simply drawn gag-style strip that would appeal to children, watercolors for Luna, plus all the Golden, Silver, Bronze and modern-era types of illustrations and storytelling.
Some of my favorites:
The Passing of the Key– origin story as found in the novel. Written by Michael Chabon and illustrated by Eric Wright in a perfect Golden Era vibe.
300 Fathoms Down– an elderly Escapist still has it and shows amazing abilities to withstand water pressure. Written by Mike Baron and drawn by Val Mayerik, a favored artist of mine, who illustrated Of Dust & Blood and The Legion of Monsters.
Old Flame– Luna Moth has a battle of the wits with the Devil himself. Written by Kevin McCarthy with a lovely painterly approach by Dan Brereton.
The Lady or the Tiger– a gritty what-if story about how the Escapist must forgo love to continue fighting crime. Very emo. Written by David Gold and illustrated evocatively by Gene Colan.
Taking on a life of its own, in another book by Chabon, his essay collection Book-Ends, author Brian K Vaughn (famous for Saga) writes a brief story of fictionally meeting an elderly Sam Clay at a comic convention, and how Clay inspired him to become the “comic book genius” he is today. Vaughn takes it further by writing the graphic novel series The Escapists.
But to understand ALL of this, you must first read the original novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay! (I actually liked this anthology better than the novel)
This review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2020/03/2...
October 29, 2016
I picked this up at a discount book shop for pretty cheap, having loved Chabon's novel. As a companion piece to the book, this works fairly well. It slightly expands upon the (fictional) publication history of the Escapist comics, though repeats some of what is explained in the novel. The stories are satisfying little one-shots. For Chris Ware completists, the back cover has been written and designed in his typically detailed style and with his particular style of humour. These are all the more positive aspects of this comic.
The bad: There is a variety of art styles, which makes this interesting, but I don't really love any of them, and I don't think they really capture the period they are trying to depict. For example, the 'Passing Of The Key' origin story seems a bit more angular and modern than the clean, curvy style I associate with the Golden Age of comics (I'm thinking Curt Swan). Kyle Baker's caricatured style suits his story but I wouldn't otherwise get into it. Chaykin provides something closer to Frank Miller's style than his 'American Flagg' work, which fits the story and era but is a bit ugly. Tony Leonard Tamai pulls off a great Manga style but the story isn't great. Bill Sienkiewicz even gets involved but it's far from his best work.
The format is quite small: the book is about half of the size of a regular comic. On the plus side, it means that it can be shelved alongside Chabon's novel on your shelf. On the other hand, it's not very realistic as a supposed archive of classic comics. Releasing this as a full-sized comic would have been great in some ways, but may have made some of the art look even worse.
Some positives and negatives here. OK if you loved the novel and want to get more of the Escapist, but I don't think it would really work as a standalone comic. Some big names are involved but it unfortunately never quite gels for me.
The bad: There is a variety of art styles, which makes this interesting, but I don't really love any of them, and I don't think they really capture the period they are trying to depict. For example, the 'Passing Of The Key' origin story seems a bit more angular and modern than the clean, curvy style I associate with the Golden Age of comics (I'm thinking Curt Swan). Kyle Baker's caricatured style suits his story but I wouldn't otherwise get into it. Chaykin provides something closer to Frank Miller's style than his 'American Flagg' work, which fits the story and era but is a bit ugly. Tony Leonard Tamai pulls off a great Manga style but the story isn't great. Bill Sienkiewicz even gets involved but it's far from his best work.
The format is quite small: the book is about half of the size of a regular comic. On the plus side, it means that it can be shelved alongside Chabon's novel on your shelf. On the other hand, it's not very realistic as a supposed archive of classic comics. Releasing this as a full-sized comic would have been great in some ways, but may have made some of the art look even worse.
Some positives and negatives here. OK if you loved the novel and want to get more of the Escapist, but I don't think it would really work as a standalone comic. Some big names are involved but it unfortunately never quite gels for me.
February 1, 2008
If you conisder yourself a hardcore fan of Chabon's Kavalier and Clay, then this is for you. The premise is that The Escapist really WAS some long-forgotten Golden Age character that Chabon "rediscovered" and wrote about. This book collects alot of key issues of The Escapist from his long life. Chabon himself even writes an opening where he discusses the first Escapist book he ever read (which was later re-created in the newest mini-series...it all gets very meta). The first story in the collection is an exact recreation (scripted by Chabon) of the first comic that is laid out in the novel. All in all, it was this series of books that led to my confusion for years over which came first - Chabon's book or the actual character The Escapist.
So how long until Michael Chabon does what so many others before him have done (like Brad Meltzer and Greg Rucka) and start writing actual superhero comics?!? Imagine what he could do with some third-tier characters!
So how long until Michael Chabon does what so many others before him have done (like Brad Meltzer and Greg Rucka) and start writing actual superhero comics?!? Imagine what he could do with some third-tier characters!
February 2, 2011
Michael Chabon and collaborators have some fun with The Escapist, the character he invented for Kavalier & Klay. K&K, I thought, was brilliant; The Escapist is a playful footnote, a real treat for comics fans in the way it plays with the Escapist character in all his different possible incarnations. it's rendered as a series of Escapist comic books from over the years, each from a different era, all mashed together in an imaginary anthology. The artists and writers have a field day recreating possible pasts for a fictional fiction, in drawing styles and story lines that mirror aesthetic trends in comics as well as changes in the wider culture.
May 2, 2008
I thought this was fun, even though I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The stories are written and illustrated like vintage comics, so you'll get a lot of puns and KA-POW! type sequences that are entertaining. I was expecting something more... I dunno?... just more? Brilliant, maybe? from Chabon, but this book was full all-in-all. My favorite part is actually the cover of the book. The front cover is gorgeous simplicity and the back is fantastic. I wish all those gimmicky items for sale really existed! :)
July 18, 2007
Fun book, that gives the history of the fake comic book characters that the characters from Michael Chabon's book the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay made up (the Escapist, Luna Moth, etc). It also gives, basically, a history of the comic book and, to illustrate the evolving comic book style, employs multiple talented comic book artist that, I imagine, if you are familiar with comic books are artists of note.
June 11, 2007
Not really one for comics/graphic novels, but having read 'Kavalier and Clay' earlier in the year, this was a must. Nice to see both The Escapist and Luna Moth in drawn form. I would have liked to see the Luna Moth story regarding her origins, but maybe that will be in one of the later books?
July 10, 2016
No, no i no.
Tot allò que a Kavalier i Klay era la promesa d'un heroi clàssic, aquí es transforma en un còmic de pega amb pretensions i sense xixa. Avorrit, amb historietes insofribles. Només se salva la de Kyle Baker.
Tot allò que a Kavalier i Klay era la promesa d'un heroi clàssic, aquí es transforma en un còmic de pega amb pretensions i sense xixa. Avorrit, amb historietes insofribles. Només se salva la de Kyle Baker.
October 17, 2024
Michael Chabon has written some really cool stuff. He has also written stuff I couldn’t finish.
He’s definitely a comic book guy. The back of this comic is a parody of the types of advertisements that were in the older comics (which I never bothered to read back in the day but which fascinate me now!). It’s actually outright hilarious! Well, this is certainly a good start!
The first story is an origin story. A rather old-fashioned one where a person is freed from bondage by a mysterious person and given a golden key. They will therefore use its mystic powers to free all others who are in chains.
I gotta be honest, this ‘fake history’ of here’s how the comic book faired in the real world, except the comic book never existed and these inkers and writers never existed either is always a tiresome trope. And believe it or not it’s come up before and is always slog reading. Cause who cares. It doesn’t say anything about your story or tell anything about the characters that so-and-so did such-and-such on a comic that never existed.
Are you now or have you ever been…
Ugh! We finally got past that pointless blathering about the comic’s creators and financial histories (which I’m fascinated by when it’s a true story) and actually got back to comics! Better yet comics drawn by Howard Chakin!
LOL! And it’s not a Chakin comic if it doesn’t include BDSM!
Sequestered is almost a ‘MAD Magazine’ parody of the Escapist being called to Jury duty. A fun little bon mot.
So, some more tales follow. They are in their own way ‘parodies’ of other tales.
Sigh. I’m not really understanding what I’m supposed to get out of these various tales of the ‘Escapist’. If they were ‘real’ then they’d be historically interesting. But since they are not real, they are just imitations of mundane and boring stories that might have been told in past comics.
`
”Father? Won’t you =cough= tell me a bedtime story?”
Some fairy tale with magic and the like? Certainly not!
Reckonings was an interesting almost wordless story. About who and why I have no idea, but I still thought it was kinda cool.
All of the guest artists have produced great work for this book but Gene Colon has done some amazing work and his work is generally always amazing!
Well I really didn’t get this book. I assume it was probably related to the book “Kavalier and Clay” which I have not read. Maybe it was pure joy to those who have
But since I hadn’t, it was a weird, parody of old timey comics.
I can’t say it was badly done, but since I picked it up more or less at random it didn’t really resonate with me.
I’ll give it 3 stars as it was really good art. But I don’t have any interest in learning anything more about the Escapist.
He’s definitely a comic book guy. The back of this comic is a parody of the types of advertisements that were in the older comics (which I never bothered to read back in the day but which fascinate me now!). It’s actually outright hilarious! Well, this is certainly a good start!
The first story is an origin story. A rather old-fashioned one where a person is freed from bondage by a mysterious person and given a golden key. They will therefore use its mystic powers to free all others who are in chains.
I gotta be honest, this ‘fake history’ of here’s how the comic book faired in the real world, except the comic book never existed and these inkers and writers never existed either is always a tiresome trope. And believe it or not it’s come up before and is always slog reading. Cause who cares. It doesn’t say anything about your story or tell anything about the characters that so-and-so did such-and-such on a comic that never existed.
Are you now or have you ever been…
Ugh! We finally got past that pointless blathering about the comic’s creators and financial histories (which I’m fascinated by when it’s a true story) and actually got back to comics! Better yet comics drawn by Howard Chakin!
LOL! And it’s not a Chakin comic if it doesn’t include BDSM!
Sequestered is almost a ‘MAD Magazine’ parody of the Escapist being called to Jury duty. A fun little bon mot.
So, some more tales follow. They are in their own way ‘parodies’ of other tales.
Sigh. I’m not really understanding what I’m supposed to get out of these various tales of the ‘Escapist’. If they were ‘real’ then they’d be historically interesting. But since they are not real, they are just imitations of mundane and boring stories that might have been told in past comics.
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”Father? Won’t you =cough= tell me a bedtime story?”
Some fairy tale with magic and the like? Certainly not!
Reckonings was an interesting almost wordless story. About who and why I have no idea, but I still thought it was kinda cool.
All of the guest artists have produced great work for this book but Gene Colon has done some amazing work and his work is generally always amazing!
Well I really didn’t get this book. I assume it was probably related to the book “Kavalier and Clay” which I have not read. Maybe it was pure joy to those who have
But since I hadn’t, it was a weird, parody of old timey comics.
I can’t say it was badly done, but since I picked it up more or less at random it didn’t really resonate with me.
I’ll give it 3 stars as it was really good art. But I don’t have any interest in learning anything more about the Escapist.
July 23, 2020
The concept here is interesting: take the characters of The Escapist and Luna Moth from Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and create actual comic book stories featuring them. There are some really great creators here, including Gene Colan, Howard Chaykin, and Kyle Baker. The stories themselves are a mixed bag. They're all at least mildly entertaining. And the art on most of them is great.
If you've read the novel and like the idea of reading actual Escapist and Luna Moth stories, then you'll probably like this. If you haven't read the novel, this might still be a fun collection of oddball stories, but you'd be missing some context.
I read the TBP version of this, and have one complaint about it. It's printed at a much smaller size than a standard comic book, so some of the stories suffer from being printed at that reduced size. If your eyesight is as bad as mine, maybe get the digital version, or look for the original comics.
If you've read the novel and like the idea of reading actual Escapist and Luna Moth stories, then you'll probably like this. If you haven't read the novel, this might still be a fun collection of oddball stories, but you'd be missing some context.
I read the TBP version of this, and have one complaint about it. It's printed at a much smaller size than a standard comic book, so some of the stories suffer from being printed at that reduced size. If your eyesight is as bad as mine, maybe get the digital version, or look for the original comics.
November 25, 2017
From the amusing cover art work by Chris Ware, to the quirky histories and back stories slotted in between the different adventures. This is a nice collection of stories from a fairly varied set of artists and writers. Howard Chaykin, Michal Chabon, Kyle Barker, Mike Baron, Dan Brereton to mention but a few, all weigh in with something in this spin off from the highly successful book.
Based on Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” often lifting directly from it, it was almost inevitable that a graphic spin off would emerge from the Pulitzer Prize winner, and so here it is. This is not just a one dimensional tribute to the Golden Age, but stretches it’s talents to many other forms, including manga and to almost, straight ahead cartoon strip. This is an enjoyable collection of many different styles. It’s funny, smart and well-drawn, at times with some stunning colour, and even a gallery at the end.
August 14, 2018
Hmmmm. I was not a comic book reader as a kid. We didn't have any money "to waste" and I think my mother thought comics were lower class and perhaps anti-Christian. As a result, I would read one or two at another kid's house. Walking to the local library (after school) became a habit and I found that I could imagine some pretty wonderful visions (in my head) when reading "Swiss Family Robinson," without resorting to explicit pictures. Nevertheless, I loved Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" and, so, when I found this little paperback first edition of "Michael Chabon Presents....," I snatched it up. It turns out I still don't like comics much. But, the fact that this copy is signed "To Bob Bason. Michael Chabon" means it is going to go in my stacks, comfortably close to all the rest of the Chabons, right between the signed copies of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and "The Yiddish Policeman's Union."
November 19, 2024
I do enjoy a bit of alternate history with actual facts folded into the fiction. This book contains a series of Escapist stories, (and a couple of Luna Moth tales) created by some pretty big names in comics, such as Jim Starlin and Gene Colan, and written in the Golden Age style. It was a mostly enjoyable meander but some of the stories had confusing endings and varied in quality and style. It certainly demonstrated how far story telling has progressed since that early era. I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time on the back cover, which featured "An Empire of Novelty" advertising such items as the midget radio, absentee father, clay lump, bar code and masquerade costumes. Reminiscent of the bizarre ads which appeared in comics when I was a kid.
November 26, 2018
It was cool to read actual Escapist and Luna Moth comics, being a huge fan of Kavalier and Clay . But for me, the comics part of this volume was somewhat underwhelming - art, story, everything, just O.K. The little essays of fake comics history which present this volume as a collection of kind of found Escapist stories doesn't work at all for me. I'm not sure what the point is. It's kind of meta but not in a way that is interesting to me. What would I even classify this as? I have a historical fiction shelf, maybe I should have a fictional history shelf.
July 1, 2019
What I found interesting reading is I thought the prose descriptions of the comic would obviously work better as a comic... I now think they worked better as prose. More depth, more analysis, whatever it was, this fell flat. I liked the history that was supplemental to the book, knowing what happened to the characters, but the comics themselves just weren't that special. I appreciate the different writers and art styles, which is consistent with a long running comic, so points for effort, but that's about it.
October 16, 2018
The exact book I read isn't on Goodreads, but is bigger than this one and called "The Escapist: Amazing Adventures." Being a collection of comics and a few stories, it's a mixed bag, with some very very good stuff, and other stuff that's meh. On the whole, though, I like that they've taken the fake comics of the Kavalier and Clay novel, and made them real. It feels like a alternate history kind of thing.
October 31, 2019
I read "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" years ago and read this when it was selected by my book club. I asked my comic book-loving pre-teen to read it with me, turning it into an opportunity to discuss a book we both read.
I cannot say that I love comics but the detail in this one is very thorough and the illustrator and editor managed to keep the general ideas on the page while bringing the characters very much to life.
I cannot say that I love comics but the detail in this one is very thorough and the illustrator and editor managed to keep the general ideas on the page while bringing the characters very much to life.
November 24, 2019
I think I like the idea of this collection more than the collection itself. It's a clever conceit and some of the stories are fun, but I'm not sure the Escapist stands alone outside of Kavalier and Clay. Props to the various writers and artists here -- I did escape for an hour and enjoyed myself -- but I think this collection has sufficiently mined most of the "escape" twists and puns.
February 4, 2018
Michael Chabon is one of my favorite authors, but I don't really have much interest in comic books or graphic novels. This is the only book of his besides Kavalier and Clay that I just couldn't get interested in. It's not the fault of the book, I just don't care for the genre
September 3, 2018
A collection of stories by some very well-known comics creators based on characters from Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." There are some nice-looking styles respresented, but the stories struck me as a bit too campy.
May 29, 2019
It was OK. The artwork is not bad, but the styles change frequently, which is a little jarring in reading a volume. The origin story of the Escapist is OK. But most of the "adventures" fell a little short of amazing, and I found myself getting bored with the story.
June 10, 2019
Tem Harvey Pekar sendo Harvey Pekar, Will Eisner sendo Will Eisner (na sua última história) e acima de tudo tem um jogo delicioso de verdade e mentira. O único ponto fraco é a história sobre o Vietnã.
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