2000 AD Online Forum

This is off-topic, but not totally. The book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chambon is about comics, so it would be more interesting to people who like comics.
  The story mainly takes place just before and during WW2. Joeseph Kavalier has had to leave his family in Czeckoslovakia to flee to New York. He came to New York with a golem being smuggled out. Kavalier and his cousin Sam Clay invent a comic character called The Escapist, who fights Nazis. They make a fortune, especially for the old bastard who owns the right. This is the age of the first superman and batman stories and there is a lot of careful research here. Chambon talked to Stan Lee and a lot of other old comic types whilst writing the book.
  I haven`t finished it yet, but I couldn`t wait to recommend it to you (I`m about half way through. If the rest of the book turns out to be crap, I`ll let you know).
  Recommended for people who know about comics and/or people who like good readable books
yours irrelevantimagepostingly

Crazy. I'm about halfway through too - Just after pearl harbour - but it keeps getting better.

It's brilliant how they use whole chapters in the comic-book world as metaphors for the paths their lives are taking. And the dialogue is brilliantly natural.

There is one paragraph at the end of a recent chapter about the meaning of magicians tricks that is absolutely beautifully written. I'll try to find it.

Just wondered if Tharg has got anything lined up for Rufus after his fantastic Whatever Happened to Giant strip in the Meg?

Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Beware the Icing Dalek!!!

Notice how the icing Dalek dwarfs the heroclix Hulk figure........

 I`ve found one touch of anachronism in Kavalier and Clay. In the midst of lots of research and period detail (the characters go to a party Salvador Dali went to in a diving suit) John F Kennedy is shoehorned into a scene. This jars, he`s important now, but would a young woman have bothered with his picture then?
   

Hmm - not sure I've read that bit. But the famous characters have been subtly placed in generally. They're not just poked in as a gimmick, like in say 'forrest gump'. As the book is written in past tense, long after the happenings, I guess it would highlight those people who are now famous. I know it's fiction, but it's written as if it's a history of comic books.

How about the Amazing Adventures of Mills and Wagner set during the 1970s British Comics Boom?

I'd pay good money to read that.

Oy, FJ, did you know there's a very good comic spin off that takes the form of compilations of Escapist/Moth stories pulled together from the various publishers that owned the license over the years? Chabon (one quarter of the Spiderman2 writing team) oversees it a jolly good read it is too. Image comics, I think.

Yoinks. I hope it doesn't spoil my imagined view of the strips.

Floyd, my memory is weak, but are you sure it isn't Kennedy's father, who was a senator?

- Trout

NO Trout, the reference is to a picture of Senator Kennedy`s handsome young son.

Just to let you know, Chabon has an interesting website. He almost worked on the x-men script, he claims.
 I have almost finished the book. The shoe-horning people who are famous now into the past still grates, and some of the writing is a little over-wrought but it`s a terrific read, still much recommended.

Link: Michael Chabon`s website