REVIEW: Kavalier and Clay and the Escapist

Kavalier and Clay A Novel and the Amazing Adventure of the Escapist

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay were published in 2000.

The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist were published in 2004.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay:

·         It’s to note that this book was inspired by the creative teams of the Golden Age of Comics, starting roughly around the time Action Comics 1 was already published to many years onward

·         The creation of the Escapist amalgamates the aspects of Captain America, the Spirit and other pulp fiction style masked vigilantes during the Golden Age. The Escapist even punches Hitler in his first issue much like Captain America did in his

·         Joe and Sam mirrored many American comic book writers at the time, being Jewish Americans who were taken advantage of financially for their work as they had no copyright royalties

·         They are noted to be the contemporaries of Will Eisner in the novel, a footnote in the novel in fact

·         The telling of the Golem and Kavalier with it was interesting though served no other purpose than to symbolize the artificial hero that Joe was to create with the Escapist in American comics

·         Joe’s disdain for the Germans during the World War II era was noted in fueling his tales of the Escapist fighting Nazis and the like (though not named as such in the comics). It’s noted that during this time war-time comics were popular and used such imagery in their own stories, like how “The Haunted Tank” and “Blackhawks” made use of the war propaganda movement to fuel their stories

The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist:

·         It’s to note that though this book was illustrated by many contemporary artists that Chabon still kept to the style of the in-universe telling of Kavalier and Clay in that he claims most of the work to be influence by Joe and Sam.

·         The Escapist book ties in with the novel with its references to important characters like Anapol and Rosa who had an influence in the novel

·         It’s interesting that they faked a manga adaptation of the Escapist, which mirrors the Bat-manga that was published in real life. It’s to note that this adaptation mirrors a good number of current American hero comics adapted to manga, like Stan Lee’s creations of Wolverine and Iron Man currently being made in manga and anime form overseas.

·         In “Sequestered,” the Escapist is noted to being a mock up joke caricature more so than even the child friendly version. This plays into the joke that the Escapist is no longer being written by Clay and drawn by Kavalier in universe and much like other Golden Age heroes grew to a state of mockery.

·         In universe, it is claimed that the Escapist along with other Radio Comics characters were bought up by DC Comics, a trend that followed with many other comic companies at the time, like Fawcett Comics with their titles like “Captain Marvel” (later to be called “Shazam”) “the Spy Smasher” and more

·         The Escape Goat story was noted to mirror the DC comics pet versions of title characters that is aimed towards a child demographic, notably with its slapstick comedy and its use of classic characters for children stories

·         With “The Passing of the Key,” it is noted that the Kavalier and Clay Escapist dies and gives his back story in order to provide a new Escapist with a back story to becoming a new superhero. This mirrors the development of the Blue Beetle franchise of DC Comics, with Dan Garret of Fox Comics (which would eventually be bought up by DC Comics), passing on his legacy to Ted Kord, who would become the next Blue Beetle in the name of a previous hero

Bibliography

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel. New York: Picador USA, 2001. Print.

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 2004. Print.

REVIEW: Crumb (film)

Crumb (film)

Crumb film released 1995

Crumb (film):

·         It is of interesting note that Crumb reluctantly allowed this movie to be made

·         It is also of note that the sisters did not wanted to be interviewed for the film

·         Finally, of the points of the Crumb family’s reluctance to be documented, it is of note that one of Crumb’s brothers committed suicide some time after the interview and the other brother giving up on cartooning altogether

·         The mother is also noted to be in her own depressed state during the film’s duration

·         While Crumb is sometimes seen as a cartoonist who draws the proportions of his women with overemphasized features, there are women who praise said style for the apparent bluntness of sexuality towards less skinnier women to be a socially acceptable thing

·         It is of interest that R. Crumb’s children have artistic talent, be it from the nurture of being raised by a cartoonist who disciplined him or a continued lineage of cartoonist given that Crumb and his siblings seem to display artistic prowess

·         For Fritz the Cat to be killed off due to the nature of Crumb’s disdain for the film is an interesting one, as he took the action of violence against his art as a means to get back at the media industry who he saw as perverting his works in the ways he didn’t want it to be

·         Despite noting himself not to be one assertive to his sexuality, it is of note that he did date several quite attractive women and did show up in a porn magazine feature shot with noted attractive women

·         Given his disdain for the modern aspect of consumerism, Crumb constantly criticized the consumer nature of America in one scene where he sat sketching while other people walked by with their brand logo shirts and loud boom box music (given that this film was being made during the 90’s, people were carrying boom boxes around)

·         During the duration of the film, Crumb aimed to move him and his family to Europe, where he saw difference not in what Europe held but rather in what it didn’t had in comparison to Midwest America

·         It was noted that Crumb did take some drugs in order to gain the inspiration for his works, especially for his works with Zap Comics

·         He was noted to even be shocked with his own work, as with the case of his tale of Mr. Natural with a headless women, which was given to his male friend to be a sex object despite the protest of the young man, who would later have sex with said body of a woman yet feel guilt for it afterward

·         His artistic styles of telling the racist Black American comics were interesting in that he didn’t held back in depicting harsh black face representations in his drawings. While objectionable, it does convey his own voice in his racism: as it is not flattering or anything but a personal opinion for his view of Black Americans

·         The Crumb family as children notably lived in “the Projects” of their neighborhood and had many issues with their father. They also notably formed their own comic book group where they drew comics. With this, it can be seen that even at a young age R. Crumb and his brothers had artistic talent

·         It is to note that R. Crumb consistently turned down fortune opportunities to maintain his personal integrity of having his works unabridged and unaltered for the viewing audience, a view that he claimed happened with the “Keep trucking” phenomenon and the animated adaptation of “Fritz the Cat.”

·         The film also provided views from other underground cartoonists on their opinion of R. Crumb, most praising him yet some female artisans criticized his later depictions of women being sex objects when he previously depicted women as sexual yet independent and strong in his previous works

·         It is also interesting to see R. Crumb’s son and his opinion of his father, as both a mentor and someone he notes as eccentric despite being his son

·         R. Crumb also notably loves his daughter over all other women, consistently noting in the movie how he felt no love for most women he knew (past sex objects) yet he felt intimate with his daughter

·         R. Crumb notably shows features of xenophobia towards the development of the American culture as opposed to people moving in. He criticized people building houses at one point where he lived in California yet it was due to the advancement of development in the area and the destruction of the natural surroundings. This is also prevalent with R. Crumb’s critique on how consumerism took over the American mindset

Bibliography

Crumb. Dir. Terry Zwigoff. Perf. Robert Crumb. Sony Pictures Classics, 1995. DVD.

REVIEW: Tatsumi (film)

Tatsumi (film) and A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Tatsumi film released 2011

A Drifting Life published 2008 in Japan and 2009 in America

Tatsumi (film):

·         The film took a live action approach in depicting the onsets of both the life of Tatsumi and the graphic novels to which he worked on

·         It is interesting to note where the adult manga genre came from, given that manga had the same connotation of as the “funny papers” of children as opposed to a medium that was supposedly enjoyable by adults as well

·         It is interesting to see Tatsumi as the contemporary of Tezuka, another influential man on the art of manga. It is also interesting to see Tatsumi note Tezuka to be envious of him at the time

·         It is assumed that the film followed the format of the graphic novel, though portions of Tatsumi’s life is abridged in favor of fitting the film to a certain time limit

·         The outlay of Tatsumi’s life alongside the works he made relevant to the events in his life placed publication date out of order yet still maintained the importance of how certain factors in his life contributed to the style of narration and drawing to which he is noted for

·         The graphic tales in black and white have a feel similar to a motion comic in that the line work and use of black on white notably define how one views the work. This is comparable to the colored work to which the film illustrates the autobiographical portions of Tatsumi’s life

·         It is noted the adult themes of Tatsumi’s works that are featured, given that the contemporary style of Japanese manga was that stereotyped to Tezuka’s style: which is somewhat of a Golden Age of manga style

·         The publication industry of Osaka and Tokyo are made known by Tatsumi’s relations to reporters and how he gained money by working long hours in miserable conditions to pay for his family: a stereotyped trend for manga artists that persists to this day save for those who actually succeed in fame and fortune.

·         The transition from the “Occupied” short story to his real life narration was done beautifully, with how he had his protagonist drop a pen into the toilet after being arrested for sketching profanity onto the walls while Tatsumi in the next panel picks up supposedly the same pen while still narrating

·         The themes of Tatsumi’s stories are also of interest: being the ones shown in the film to be on topics of post-World War II Japan, Japan during the contemporary industrial life, Japanese middle age and sexuality, the field of Japanese manga artists and their depictions of sexuality in society, Japanese women post-World War II and his own autobiography

·         It is interesting to note that Tatsumi phrases each story as him discovering a new world rather than creating one, showing he draws inspiration when writing and drawing as opposed to forcing his own imagination onto reality

·         Tatsumi having his characters read their own books in the end of the film was a good touch, having it seem like all is full circle with his depiction of the worlds he creates

Bibliography

Tatsumi. Dir. Eric Khoo. Perf. Tetsuya Bessho and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Zhao Wei Films, 2011. Film.

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life. Quebec, Canada: Drawn and Quarterly, 2009. Print.