Michael Chabon presents ... The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist: Various

"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."










A collection of short stories written and illustrated by a team of comic stars, based on The Escapist, the creation of Michael Chabon's comic writer characters in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

At its heart it attempts to spin off a Golden Age superhero supposedly created by the 'real' Kavalier and Clay into a series of through the ages snapshots of how a 'forgotten' comic creation fared, an idea that's maintained, Princess Bride-like, by the wonderfully poe-faced prose sections which seek to flesh out the history of the character and the legal wrangles which left The Escapist languishing in pulp roots.

There's an obvious missed opportunity here in not trying to tie the artistic styles of each age in a little more clearly to the Ages each story is supposed to be from, and whilst The Escapist is an enjoyable, but slight, read it adds very little to Kavalier and Clay and doesn't really stand on its own merit. The problem is that it's a curio. Whilst the writer of the majority of the tales, Kevin McCarthy, is paired with some genuinely excellent big name artists (Gene Colan,  Jim Starlin and Bill Sienkiewicz all feature) and some less well known (Dan Brereton needs a big book to launch off, but his Luna Moth story features, at its best, some excellent Milo Manara-esque pin-ups without the extreme raunch). Unfortunately, McCarthy's writing fails to capture the best of the pulp fiction styling that the book could showcase. The Escapist as a character isn't very interesting and the one-and-done natures of the tales means we can't develop much of a bond in the brief panel time available.

There are lots of better comics out there, and though The Escapist has great source material to draw on it's a book that isn't as original, exciting or amusing as Kavalier and Clay was. The cover art is FANTASTIC though - a wonderful piece of graphic design which houses a thoroughly mediocre read.

Also Try:
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Will Eisner, The Spirit
Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, Tomb of Dracula
William Goldman, The Princess Bride