Escapo

Let me digress from tonight’s subject for a start:  Podbean unveiled their “enhanced statistics” package last night.  So if you’ve noticed that the “site visitor” tally is now replaced by a “plays” stat on the right side of the page, that’s the main enhancement they’ve unleashed.  Instead of tracking both podcast hits and traffic, now I just have info on my podcasts only.  I was hoping from more detail on what posts were getting the most traffic with this upgrade, but so much for that.  Of course, I’m willing to bet that my thoughts on this deluxe reprint of an old Paul Pope comic will likely be only of interest to whoever visits this site on a daily basis.  “Escapo” tells two stories about the title character, a scarred and talented escape artist.  The first involves the unrequited love he feels for one of the girls in the circus troupe he performs in while the other has him escaping a rube goldbergian death machine and coming face-to-face with Death himself.

Of the two, the second is the better one by far.  While the story of Escapo’s unrequited love is predictable and straightforward, the second does a far better job of getting into his head regarding his fears as an escape artist.  Though Pope’s art elevates both stories, the latter tale is a far better showcase for his talents with the over-the-top design of the death machine and the palpable tension emanating from the panels involving Death and the title character’s crises of confidence.  This release is padded out with lots of supplementary sketch material, an artist gallery featuring contributions from John Cassaday and Yuko Shimizu, and an illuminating afterword from the creator himself.  Pope also mentions there that a third “Escapo” story is floating in his head somewhere.  Even if it doesn’t involve having the character following up on his encounter with Death, I’d still like to see it.  Ideally in a more reasonably-priced collection as the price-to-content value for this oversized hardcover makes it one for people who are already fans of Pope (who most likely already have this edition in their collection).