he Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, Volume 1 collects the first two issues of Michael Chabon's Dark Horse Comics series, with a brand-new wraparound cover by multiple award-winning cartoonist Chris Ware, of Acme Novelty Library fame.
Who is the Escapist? Readers of Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, will remember that he's a World War II-era superhero created by the legendary (and wholly imaginary) duo of Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, the Jewish misfit geniuses who are the focus of Chabon's fictional journey through the history of the U.S. comics industry. In this new anthology, Chabon opens up his metafictional playground to welcome a diverse roster of writers and cartoonists, including comics icons such as Gene Colan, Jim Starlin, Bill Sienkiewicz and Howard Chaykin; recent cartoonists such as Kyle Baker, Eric Wight and Dan Brereton; and fellow novelist Glen David Gold (author of Carter Beats the Devil).
The conceit of this new enterprise is that Kavalier and Clay did, in fact, exist and that their various creations have spawned a 60-year legacy of comics. This conceit is reinforced by the text pieces scattered throughout the book, which not only detail a wholly fictional publishing history for The Escapist and Luna Moth (Kavalier and Clay's second-most-important creation) but also situate the "archival" stories "reprinted" here in the context of this history.
This collection features eight Escapist tales, three stories starring Luna Moth, five metafictional text pieces and a pinup gallery by illustrators Eric Wight, Howard Chaykin, Chris Warner, Jeff Parker, C. Scott Morse, Jae Lee and Dan Brereton.
A postmodern escape from reality
Context is, if not quite everything, an important factor in how we perceive, consume and interpret cultural products. A case in point is this anthology of "imaginary" comics. These stories work principally to reinforce the anthology's amusing conceit, and this they do quite well, presenting various interpretations of The Escapist and Luna Moth as the changing fashions and mores of decades of comics history would have shaped these characters.
The design of The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, Volume 1 is cool and snazzy, resulting in a physical object that is a seductively beautiful pop-culture artifact. Chris Ware's cleverly ironic yet delectably elegant cover sets exactly the right tone. The illustrators within provide top-notch work: stimulating, attractive and inspired. In addition to the exquisite pinups, some of the illustrative highlights include Eric Wight's iconic rendering of "The Passing of the Key"; Kyle Baker's deft homage to Mad Magazine's Jack Davis in "Sequestered"; the smooth irony displayed by Steve Lieber in "Prison Break"; Kevin McCarthy's droll "animated"-style cartooning in "The Escapegoat"; Bill Sienkiewicz's sublimely chaotic "The Mechanist!"; the heavy sensuality of Dan Brereton's painted art in "Old Flame!"; and Gene Colan's moody noir depiction of Glen David Gold's "The Lady or the Tiger," which is the highlight of the book in every way. The story is emotionally involving, evocative of a larger history yet self-contained, and masterfully constructed and paced. Colan did it justice by handing in some of the most beautiful pages of his long and distinguished career.
The only truly disappointing selection is the pseudo-manga "Divine Wind"—purporting to be a licensed Japanese version of The Escapist—whose story is rushed, muddled and forced, with artwork to match.
All told, The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, Volume 1 is a solidly entertaining collection.
