The first time I read it, the story of The Escapists continually surprised me, and the art’s marvelous style represents different time periods and moods is at turns cartoony and goofy, sexy and exciting, or scratchy and dark where appropriate.
And then there’s that truly clever introduction to the book by Michael Chabon himself, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, relating the one, brief sweet meeting between fictional Sam Clay, now old and lost in the hallways while attending a comic book convention, and the young and very real Brian K. Vaughan (writer of The Escapists), in the same hotel for a youth baseball recognition banquet.
Another great thing about The Escapists is its approach to the blood,sweat and tears of putting together a comic book. The illustrator talks about how her hand doesn’t cramp because drawing is the only time she feels free. The letterer loves the control of creating precise, tiny letters in precise, tiny boxes.
The Escapists is many things, all of them good. One of those things is being a love letter to those who made and continue to make comic books. It’s a wonderful life.
One of the illustrators is Eduardo Barreto, who draws Judge Parker. See my post on that comic strip here as well as a post on his leaving that strip here.
Gosh, I must be psychic. Last week in this blog I wondered why Edward Barreto’s art on the Judge Parker comic strip these days didn’t appear to be up to his usual high standard.
In his blog for yesterday (which I just read today), illustrator Michael Manley announced he’s taking over illustration duties on Judge Parker when Barreto retires next month. Manley cites health concerns as Barreto’s reason for leaving the strip. Which is great for Manley, but I’ll be sorry to see Barreto go. His art has been wonderful.See Manley’s post here, in which he claims to be a “fan of the classic comic strip.”
You can read my post extolling Barreto’s talents on The Escapists in the second part of my post on that book, which will be up tomorrow, Feb. 25.
Wait, is that still Eduardo Barreto drawing Judge Parker? Maybe the artist has been rushed lately, or he’s on vacation. But the strips the past few days look like someone’s trying to imitate Barreto.
That would be a shame if he’s moved on. It was only about a year ago when both Judge Parker and Rex Morgan M.D. — both written by Woody Wilson — debuted a new look straight out of Milton Caniff’s World War II pin-up days.
The women in those two strips all became — well, there’s no other way to say this — hot.
Judge Parker in the past year has introduced one femme fatale after another, each dangerous and wearing very little in the way of clothing.
In Rex Morgan, as drawn by Graham Nolan, once-demur nurse June Gale herself has taken to dressing like a Victoria’s Secret model. In a storyline last May, to cite one memorable example, while she, Rex and their daughter were on an ocean cruise, June paraded about the ship in a bikini so revealing other passengers stopped to stare. And more than one panel showed her striking poses to lure her physician-husband into a closer examination of their suite’s mattress.
Voyeurism aside, this new-old look brings an accompanying attention to overall detail in all the panels — in the slit of the woman’s skirt, the snap of the man’s tux and the lines of his sports car, the olive in her martini glass …. It’s better art across the board, and that’s a good thing.
But in case you haven’t noticed, such well-rendered characters — and fine drawing — in contemporary popular daily comics is unusual. As I say, you’d have to go back almost to the 1950s to find similarly stylized women and men. Unless of course you count the Girls in Apartment 3G (later to be demoted to just Apartment 3G). Tommie, Margo and what’s her name up until relatively recently were rendered with an eye toward attracting the men folk.
Then, with a change in illustrators, the sex appeal — and the better art itself — moved from the third floor to the basement. We lost the view.
