The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist (2004), Volume 3

May 1, 2006
The latest collection of the comic-book series chronicling the exploits of the superhero created by the young protagonists of Michael Chabon's " The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay " (2000) includes comics legend Will Eisner's last story. While definitely a minor effort, it fittingly features Eisner's famed creation the Spirit, seldom seen during Eisner's latter years (the Escapist rescues him from archfoe P'Gell). The rest of the stories, which purport to be from various eras of the Escapist's long publishing history but are actually the work of some of today's top comics writers and artists, are the usual mixed bag. Howard Chaykin indulges his affinity for the 1940s with a tale set in occupied Paris, and a contemporary story by Kevin McCarthy and Shawn Martinbrough finds the Escapist battling to free minds in a North Korea-like dictatorship. Most interesting--and illustrative of the admirable anything-goes nature of the series--is alternative cartoonist Jeffrey Brown's depiction of the superhero as a naive romantic drawn in the primitive, awkward style of Brown's disarming autobiographical comics. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)