The Escapists

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!

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