Product Description: 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!
Could not put it down Buy it. Seriously. You don't need to know anything else, just click 'add to cart' you'll love it.
The Amazing Adventures of Roth, Weaver and Jones 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.
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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.
Great Book, different size format This book is a great companion to "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay". The artwork and writing are top notch. My only complaint is in the packaging, the book is smaller than a normal comic book, but larger than a Manga. I wish they had made it a standard hardcover size.
BKV strikes gold. 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.
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