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.
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