The Escapists [Hardcover]

Brian K Vaughan (Author), Jason Alexander (Author), Steve Rolston (Author), Various (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2007

Wizard Top Ten and multiple Eisner Award-winning writer Brian K. Vaughan 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! Brilliantly interweaving the lives of the creators with the world of their creation, artists Steve Rolston and Philip Bond bring the comic-booking trio Maxwell Roth, Case Weaver, and Denny Jones to life, while the inimitable Jason Shawn Alexander and Eduardo Barreto illustrate the thrilling trials and exciting extrications of the new - and old - Escapist!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ambition outpaces execution in Vaughan and company's graphic novel semisequel to Michael Chabon's celebrated novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Most installments in the Escapist comics franchise to date have been perfunctory affairs; Vaughan raises the stakes by setting his story not in that character's fictional world, but in a present-day setting in which nerdy Max Roth, son of the late king of Escapist collectibles, acquires the rights in order to publish a new comic book series with the aid of a love-interest illustrator and a burly letterer. The book's plot—including an ill-fated publicity stunt and challenge from a charming corporate manipulator—is outlined with the same broad strokes as its characterizations, sometimes echoing the source text's events, but achieving none of the novel's texture. Rolston's dominant cartoony visual style fails to credibly ground the book's characters or setting, and alternates with darkly overwrought Escapist pages by Alexander. The book's moral—that inspiration is best honored by total originality—is striking and seems to call for more inspired comics than this. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2001) is the story of two Brooklyn cartoonists whose World War II–era comic books feature a Houdini-like superhero called the Escapist. Vaughan and a first-rate art team craft an inventive spin-off from Chabon about a contemporary comic-book writer’s efforts to revive Kavalier and Clay’s legacy. When his father dies, Cleveland-based elevator repairman Matt Roth spends his entire inheritance buying the Escapist’s trademark rights. Using the artistic chops of a potential girlfriend he meets on an elevator job and the lettering skills of his best friend Denny, Roth hopes to introduce the Escapist to a new generation of superhero fans. Yet when a publicity stunt featuring Denny in an Escapist costume goes haywire, the collaborators’ sudden success spirals downward toward imminent bankruptcy. Vaughan neatly slips several superbly drawn faux Escapist adventures into the proceedings, and a fanciful introduction by Chabon describes how a chance meeting with Sammy Clay launched Vaughan’s career in comics. --Carl Hays

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse Books (December 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593078315
• ISBN-13: 978-1593078317
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brian K. Vaughan has previously written episodes of Swamp Thing and The Hood mini-series. His current work includes Runaways and Y: The Last Man.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Amazing Adventures of Roth, Weaver and Jones, March 21, 2008

By 

Steve Fuson "comics geek" (Beaverton, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Escapists (Hardcover)

In Michael Chabon's Pulitzer-Prize winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," two teenagers create the comic book character The Escapist in the forties. Since then Dark Horse comics has been featuring comics about the Escapist and other characters from Chabons book. This book, however, is actually a sequel to the original book.

Just in case you're unaware, Amazon offers a "Search Inside" feature. If you go up to the image of this graphic novel above and click on it, you can read the first six pages of the book. Go up and read it. Seriously. Those pages sold me on the book.

Back already?

After his father's death, Maxwell Roth discovers his collection of Escapist comics. We see young Max's geeky, awkward youth. We meet his equally awkward but much bigger--and therefore bully repelant--friend Denny Jones. When Max's mother dies, she leaves him an inheritance which he uses to buy the rights to the Escapist. He bumps into Case Weaver, a cute starving artist, who he approaches to illustrate the book.

After months of work and a publicity stunt gone horribly right, they achieve a modicum of success, but a big businessman is interested in reacquiring the rights to the now popluar character, and he has the money and the lawyers to do it.

Broken down that plot sounds like a cheesy eighties movie, but the characterization is done well so you don't notice, and the story doesn't play out in a predictable or sacharine fashion. Through some major highs and major lows, the book ends with a simple but strong ending.

If you haven't heard of Brian K. Vaughan, you should know he's one of the top comics writers of his generation. This book proves why.

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" used the comics industry of the forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies as a back drop. This book uses the present. While this story and its characters aren't as complicated (and to be fair it has less than half the page count, and Michael Chabon uses more words in one sentence than most comics have on a page) The Escapists is still a great book, and really shows what the medium of sequential art can achieve while holding onto and honoring its superhero roots.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BKV does it again, October 19, 2008

By 

Robert Nunez "coolrobert" (WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Escapists (Hardcover)

Brian K. Vaughan is so predictable. Predictable in the sense that his stuff is always the best f what comics can be. Pride of Baghdad, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways. I've been reading comic for over 30 years and BKV makes me more excited about the medium than I've ever been.

This book is beautiful. The story is exciting, moving, personal and, most of all, fun. It works as a sequel to Michael Chabon's delightful The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

A collection of extremely talented artist take on different aspects of the story and it really works. Instead of feeling disjointed, the various art styles take us to the different moods and states of mind the story weaves in and out of. Word and pictures here work like the music and lyrics of a beautiful song. Masterful.

If you love comics and good storytelling, you'll love this book. I sure did!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BKV strikes gold., January 14, 2008

By 

N. Maldonado (Tempe, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Escapists (Hardcover)

Beautiful, dialog and character driven story. The artwork was amazing on all accounts, with Bond and Rolston making a near flawless transition that could not have been pulled off better. i Can't read this book enough. This is just one smart and fun read for anyone who likes reading about a major character from the past who never existed.