A new hardcover edition of The Escapists will feature an introduction by Michael Chabon that will introduce real-life writer Brian K. Vaughan to Sam Clay, according to the comic’s writer and artist.

The hardcover, set to hit stores Dec. 12, collects the six-part series about Maxwell Roth and Case Weaver, two Cleveland comic fanatics who try to revive the dormant Escapist line of comics. In his e-mail newsletter Wednesday, Steve Rolston, who drew the “reality” sequences in the series, says an intro Chabon wrote for the collection is “almost like an epilogue to Chabon’s novel, as the fictional Sam Clay meets a young boy at a comic convention.”

Vaughan, who wrote the series, talked about the introduction with Los Angeles CityBeat in September. It features “a character from Kavalier & Clay, who’s at a convention for old-timer comics creators in the 1980s, and inspires a young Brian Vaughan to become a comic book writer.”

“It’s the most surreal experience to read my favorite novelist writing me into the canon of his world,” Vaughan said. “It’s awesome.”

The collection also features a cover by Alex Ross. It’s priced at $19.95.

If you’re living in Washington state, you might consider checking out the Village Theatre’s newest production on Monday. Among the short stories being performed is Ayelet Waldman’s controversial essay “Truly, Madly, Guiltily.”

A recap: In 2005, Waldman published the essay in the New York Times and says she loves her husband, Michael Chabon, more than her children. Readers reacte — negatively. Lots of name calling on the blogs and dirty letters-to-the-editor culminated in an appearance on “Oprah” where Waldman tried to explain herself.

Since then, things have been quiet, but the essay remains in the minds of her followers as, at the very least, a definitive landmark in her writing career. Now, the Village Theatre will perform an adaptation of the essay as part of Love is Love, which runs Nov. 29-Dec. 16.

“It’s like a one woman show with a bunch of monologues, one based on my essay,” Waldman says.

Tickets are $20-25.

The Jewish Daily Forward has named Michael Chabon one of the 50 Most Influential Jews.

The editors cite Chabon’s work on The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Gentlemen of the Road as reasons why they picked him.

Sharing space on the list is Attorney General Michael Mukasey, director Judd Apatow, and George Soros.

A new Chabon interview with The Washington Post sheds some light on the origins of Gentlemen of the Road, which hit stores this week.

The book takes place in the 10th-century empire of Khazaria, a kingdom of Jewish nomads in what’s now southern Russia. Chabon says he picked up the idea around 1982 after discovering Borges.

“I remember wondering if this article or encyclopedia entry or whatever it was might be some kind of elaborate historical hoax,” Chabon says. “A medieval empire at war with the Vikings and Byzantium that lasted for more than four centuries, that was famous all over the world at the time, and everybody was Jewish! What? How come nobody ever told me about them? The Khazars felt like secret knowledge, and secret knowledge is definitely a source of inspiration for me.”

To read the rest of the interview, follow the white rabbit.

It’s been a while since Chabon wrote anything superhero related. These days, quasi-genre fiction seems to be more his thing.

But for those of you who got into reading Chabon because of a certain novel’s comic book ties, you might want to pick up Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, which carries an introduction by Chabon. (The news was first reported by Artnet News and Fashion Week Daily.)

The book is being released in limited distribution as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute in New York presents a summer-long show on the same subject. The show will feature around 70 ensembles and promises “to reveal how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body.”

The show is scheduled to run May 7 to Sept. 1, 2008.