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Loading... The Escapistsby Michael Chabon (Editor), Brian K. Vaughan
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book is in a way an extension of the novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It begins with a prose story in which a much older Sammy Clay goes to a comic convention and has a chance meeting with a boy there, thus inspiring the youngster to become a comic book creator in the future. The comic itself is set in the present day and centered around Maxwell Roth, a young man who learns on his father's death that the older man was obsessed with collecting "The Escapist" comics and paraphernalia. ("The Escapist" is the fictional comics series written by the characters Kavalier and Clay in the novel.) Later, Roth decides to buy the rights to the old character and write a new series run, along with his childhood friend (an expert letterer) and an artist he recently met (and has a crush on). For starters, it was really fun to see the fictional comic series from within the novel come into being, and I'm glad to see Dark Horse got on board in producing that. While readers of the novel will enjoy seeing the fictional comic come to life in a roundabout way, this book also stands on its own and those who didn't read the novel will not be confused in reading it. Throughout, The Escapists is very much a love song to comics in general. Although it does have some heavy moments, it manages to feel light overall and reads very quickly. It covers a lot of ground in terms of friendships, romantic feelings, family relations, corporate greed, creativity and the act of writing itself. The color-saturated illustrations are well done, with different styles used for the meat of the story versus the new Escapist series and the old Escapist series. The Escapists by Brian K. Vaughan is one of several comics inspired by Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Like that prose novel, this graphic novel plays with the boundary of reality and fiction. In it, a young man from Cleveland, Max Roth, buys the rights to a defunct comic-book character, the Escapist. He finds two friends to help create a new version of the comic book, then tries to publicize it in the manner of the character’s creators, Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier. It tells the story in real time, with flashback and pages of the fictional comic the team creates, all with different artists to distinguish the changes in story. Like the novel it’s inspired by, The Escapists is clever with sympathetic characters, a layered narrative, and a story both tragic and hopeful. A fitting, post-modern complement to Chabon’s excellent novel. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesThe Amazing Adventures of the Escapist (Escapists 1-6)
The Escapists tells the tale of three aspiring comics creators with big dreams, small cash, and publishing rights to one forgotten Golden Age hero-The Escapist! Inspired by Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, this is Vaughan's love letter to his chosen medium, a story about what it takes to start out with nothing in Cleveland, Ohio, and end up with a comic so hot a major corporation wants to steal it from you! No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)741The arts Graphic arts and decorative arts Drawing & drawingsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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