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The Whirling Spinner Rack   Review: The Escapists HC By Kevin Agot Published: 2008-04-28

Comic books were first introduced to me by my older brother’s 60s collection of silver age classics which included Ditko’s Spider-Man and Dr. Strange; Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four; the aptly-named X-Men and The Mighty Thor; Heck’s The Mighty Avengers; and Colan’s masterful line work on Daredevil. These books transported my mind to fantastical other worlds and a host of Marvelous multi-verses. Over the years, I have developed an inseparable bond between the comics medium and myself. There was a gap where I weaned myself from my weekly fix as a result of financial limitations, but I always ended up going back to one of the first things in my life that captured my heart and fueled my imagination.

“There are few literary works that can be considered a writer’s love letter to a medium that has given birth to his creative genius. This is one of them.”

One of my dreams as a young kid was to be an artist and own my own comic book shop. I remember drawing the Six Million Dollar Man leaping from building to building in a single bound. The only way I could draw him was to illustrate him from an above-view angle with his back to the camera with his jacket flowing like Superman’s cape. I drew the backs of people’s heads very well when I was five or six years old.

I started out this review with an anecdotal reference to my past because Brian K. Vaughan’s The Escapists (the recent hard cover edition published by Dark Horse Comics) just takes me back to a time when comics were published on newsprint, and you could feel and smell the browning pages as they aged over the years. I’m taken back to the time when I’d go to the local drug store or 7-11 each week and buy my stash of comics for only 20 cents a book. I loved flipping through the whirling spinner rack digging for my favorite comic books. Comic books were 4-colored paper movies all for two dimes (with a Slurpee thrown in every once in a while).

There are few literary works that can be considered a writer’s love letter to a medium that has given birth to his creative genius. The Escapist is one of them. The Escapists hard cover book contains stories that are reflective of Brian K. Vaughan’s love for the medium as it follows the lives of comic book creators who have risked everything to produce their art and breathe life into a long-forgotten but beloved character.

What makes The Escapist story work so well is the cast of characters. The cast is comprised of a core group whose lives pull us into the book: publisher and writer Maxwell Roth, whose love for the character cost him his entire inheritance and almost everything else he owned; Case Weaver, the artist and co-creator who brought to life the character through her pencils and inks; and, finally, there is Denny Jones, a letterer (by hand) with a deep loyalty to his fading craft and his quixotic high school buddy, Maxwell. Roth and crew attempt a marketing scheme that is reminiscent of the latest “Kick-Ass” viral video that was sent throughout the Internet via YouYube to create a pre-publication buzz for the titular character. However, in the case of the Escapist, they put Denny in spandex and domino mask and he inadvertently foiled a store robbery. The gimmick caught the eye of a mega-publisher who seeks to pull the rug from Maxwell’s dream and take over the publishing and creative rights.

This book is filled with a uniquely, ingenious storytelling vehicle that serves to progress the story further. Artists Steve Rolston and Philip Bond frame the main book with their rather open and intricate artwork. This artistic style contrasts with the artists of the comic within the comic illustrated by Jason Shawn Alexander and Eduardo Barreto. The panels of The Escapist comic book within the comic book are interspersed throughout the series to parallel true-to-life action behind the scenes. For example, as Roth clashes with the mega-publisher, Ominigrip International, this is detailed in the comic book they are creating as the Escapist clashes with Luna Moth and The Saboteur.

There are other remarkable storytelling techniques. For example, BKV uses illustrations from a particular comic book that has nothing to do with the words written in the adjoining caption. There is a sequence where the Escapist is battling the evil Iron Chain. Pages from this comic of old are used to frame Roth’s current, ongoing internal dialogue recounting what he did with an issue of The Escapist #17 once he found it, the only missing book from his entire Escapist run.

Vaughan’s writing is much more than the interesting use of various storytelling vehicles. He’s a great storyteller…period! There is an endearing quality to his writing that captures the readers’ hearts. This story serves as an homage to the comic industry and to those who over the years have kept comics near and dear to their hearts. One can tell that BKV is a comic fan that ended up writing for an industry he’s loved for years. As an avid comic book collector, I can relate to the deep desire to complete a set of comics or dream about creating my own stories inspired by those that I’ve read over the years. BKV and his crew of talented artists have captured this spirit and have created one of the best miniseries ever made.