Escapist Cancelled; LTR Breathes Sigh of Relief
January 16th, 2006The comic book anthology based on Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, perhaps my favorite book of all time, has been cancelled. And thank god for that. Despite Chabon’s involvement and some industry awards, I haven’t really been impressed by the eight issues. Officially, it was cancelled because of poor sales, but I really think the sales reflect the fact that it’s something of a vanity project which would have been better served as a one-time thing.
A new storyline, authored by Brian K. Vaughan (yes, the Y and Ex Machina guy) and drawn by Steve Rolston, is going to continue as a regular monthly mini-series. The first installement in issue eight actually showed some promise, because it genuinely approached the source material in a different way, so I’m glad it will get a chance.
January 16th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
It’s funny. I had just picked up the (now) last issue of the anthology, specifically for the BKV story. I’m glad to see that it will survive in another format at least. Overall, though, I agree with you on the series. Some of the stories were okay but the whole thing seemed a bit too…academic? Something was missing. I do have hopes for the BKV story just for the fact it is supposed to be layered and might have more of the spirit of the novel.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Hard to see how it counts as a vanity project since he presumably got paid and has said in interviews that Dark Horse and DC both approached him about doing the book. What would you have done if you were him, said, “No, thanks I’m a big pulitzer winner so you comic book companies just go taking a flying — Sure I have a chance to work with Gene Colan and Howard Chaykin and Harvey Pekar but screw that those guys are beneath me.”
It was MC’s own stated view (on his website) that the book was “missing something” and that in his view that something was a continuity like BKV’s. He always seemed frank about the book failings and room for improvement which also doesn’t really fit with the vanity tag IMHO.
So maybe the anthology format didn’t work over the long haul. It’s just too bad it took them too long to figure that out and fix it (don’t forget lead times they might have brought BKV in after like four issues) that they lost readership. I think your post has a hint of schadenfreude like you are glad he didnt’ succeed in fanboyland.