KAVALIER MOVIE MOVING FOWARD
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Source: Entertainment Weekly (12/11/03)

In an article about possible contenders for future Oscar contenders based on novels, Entertainment Weekly managed to snag some new info about the Kavalier & Clay movie adaptation.

And while it may have taken 10 drafts, Michael Chabon's own script for his Pulitzer-winning comic-book epic The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay finally got the okay from Hours producer Scott Rudin last summer; Hours director Stephen Daldry is attached to direct. "It's just hard to do," Chabon says. "You've got this thing that's at least presumably what it's supposed to be as a novel. And then to say, 'I know, let's take it and make it into a movie.' It's kind of a crazy thing to do with stuff." Make it worth his while, Hollywood: Michael Chabon for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2006!

NOT IN THE CREDITS?
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Source: Sony Pictures, Dennis

Well, it doesn't look good for Chabon getting a writing credit in Spider-Man 2. A website visitor, Dennis, e-mailed me the link to Sony Pictures's Spider-Man 2 site's credit listing. Chabon's no where on it. Now, this credit list is no where near complete, but it doesn't give any proof that he will be credited. To see the credits, click here.

HOTZEPLOTZ AND ALASKA
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Source: Seattle Times (11/11/2003), Michael Chabon

In an interview with the Seattle Times, Michael Chabon described the his up-coming novel Hotzeplotz. Included in his novel was a little more insight into the research involved.

In researching the novel, Chabon spent a week in Southeast Alaska to absorb its landscape, climate and milieu. He said his familiarity with the Pacific Northwest environment — he once lived on Vashon Island — helped him appreciate Alaska's relationship to mountains and water (Chabon's recent novel "Summerland" is set in the Puget Sound region).

"It was fascinating, it was strange," Chabon said. "I spent most of my time mentally erasing things that were there, because nothing would have been the way it was. I felt like an advance man for a planned invasion."

ROY THOMAS ON ESCAPIST
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Source: The Times and Democrat (11/18/2003)

In an article discussing a talk today by famed comic book illustrator Roy Thomas at the University of South Carolina, Thomas revealed that he is hoping to work on The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. Thomas's career highlights include a stint as the Marvel editor-in-chief and the creator of Wolverine. Click here to read the entire article.

CHABON AND OTHERS DEFEND TEENAGE POET
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS, Contra Costa Times (11/10/2003), Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, and Nobel Laureatte J.M. Coetzee are amongst a group of writers who have filed an amicus brief urging California's Supreme Court to overturn a ruling against George Julius T., "a San Jose teenager who spent 90 days in Juvenile Hall for writing poetry deemed too violent."

As their brief said, poetry "is an artistic medium particularly well-suited for the examination of one's own potential for depravity. The developing genre of 'dark poetry,' as practiced by Julius, is merely a continuation of this literary tradition."

To read the entire article, click here. However, if you want even more insight into the drama, please click here inorder to read the facts of the case and the opinion expressed by the California Appeals Court.

CHABON JOINS NEXTBOOK
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Source: The Seattle Times (11/11/2003)

According to a recent article in The Seattle Times, Nextbook featured Michael Chabon as their first writer in their year-long series. Nextbook is a nation-wide initiative to promote the understanding of Jewish culture through reading. In the article, Chabon was asked to talk about his Jewish background.

Chabon, whose family tree blooms Russian-Polish with one Lithuanian branch, said he considers his Jewish identity more cultural than religious, although the two often seem to overlap.

"Part of what makes Jewishness so unique and special is that it is very difficult to separate out the cultural from the religious, the ethnic from the liturgical," he said. "It's one big blur, and that is part of what has made Jews so puzzling to others over the years. Unfortunately, at many moments throughout history, that puzzlement has turned quite ugly."

Chabon, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., said that when he sets out to write, he does not think about whether what he is writing will contribute to the overall understanding of Jewish culture. When creating Jewish characters, he said his main objective is that they come across as authentic. "Real people with Jewish issues and questions," he said.

He said he thinks of himself as an American writer, a Jewish writer and a Jewish-American writer, but other labels that have nothing to do with his cultural identity, such as post-modern, also fit.

"To the degree I think about my work as Jewish, I probably tend to think more in terms of what other Jews will think about it," he said.

UPDATE TO CHABON'S WEBSITE
Sunday, October 23, 2003
Source: MichaelChabon.Com

Oooh, some big news on all-fronts from the man himself on his website:

A novella, "The Final Solution," is in the Summer 2003 issue of The Paris Review.

Work on the film version of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay seems to have stalled for the time being. The script, however, is finished.

I hope to learn very soon the fate of the words that I contributed to the script of next year's Spiderman 2.

In the meantime, I'm exploring the world of my new novel, Hotzeplotz. It's set in the Alaskan panhandle, in the present day, in the territory that was opened to the Jewish refugees of Europe, after Congress passed the King-Havenner Bill of 1940, for settlement during WWII. The precarious balancing act of this Yiddish-speaking nation-within-a-nation is imperiled by the discovery of a mysterious skull in a construction site, and the novel unfolds as its protagonist, a homicide detective named Meyer Landsman, investigates. "Hotzeplotz" is the name of a real town in the Ukraine or someplace, but it's used in the Yiddish expression "from here to Hotzeplotz," meaning more or less the back of nowhere, Bumfuck, Iowa, the ends of the earth.

THE PARTLY CLOUDY PATRIOT
Sunday, October 23, 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (10/23/2003)

Hey, here's something cool. Apparently, the five-disc audio version of Sarah Vowell's The Partly Cloudy Patriot features Michael Chabon as a guest-speaker, along with Seth Green, Conan O'Brien, and Stephen Colbert. If anyone has this CD set, could they e-mail me and tell me specifically what Chabon narrates?

CHABON ON LETHEM'S THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
Monday, October 13, 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (10/9/2003)

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a short article about Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude. Michael Chabon is quoted as saying "He captures precisely -- as only a great novelist can -- how it feels to love the world that is, on a daily basis, kicking your ass."

OOPS... WELLES'S BATMAN A HOAX
Monday, September 29, 2003
Source: Michael Chabon

In all my excitement about the Orson Welles story, I e-mailed Michael Chabon to let him know about the entire thing. He apparently got super-excited too and e-mailed a friend who then... pointed out to him how much of a blatent hoax the entire thing is. *sigh* I just knew this seemed too much like life immitating art.

ORSON WELLES'S "THE BAT-MAN"?!
Sunday, September 28, 2003
Source: The Column @ CBR(October 3, 2003)

Oh man. If this isn't the craziest thing I've ever read, I don't know what is. Mark Miller has written an excellent column over at CBR all about Orson Welles's attempt at making a Batman movie.

It's no secret that Orson Welles had a love of the pulps, having voiced "The Shadow" on radio and conceiving the illustrious "War Of The Worlds" scam, but what's lesser known is his love of comic-books right up to his death in 1985. What's especially startling is that his appreciation for the medium was no real secret and he even wrote an article for The Village Voice in 1973 raving about the Denny O'Neil/ Neal Adams "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" book (The Real Counter-Culture Lives Here) and even attending, with no real fanfare, one of the earliest New York comic conventions organised by Phil Seuling. It's perhaps no accident that his snobbish acolytes have overlooked these facts, but Hutton's vast tome explores this aspect of his character in great detail and I was lucky enough to have been given a draft to preview for this column he happens to enjoy. Welles' diaries are dotted with occasional references to books he was reading at the time and his particular excitement at the late sixties and early seventies work of the new wave of comic-book writers and artists who brought a certain amount of respectability to this medium he had so much affection for. However, the red meat of the book is the details of his proposed Batman picture and the eight months of his life he wasted in pre-production after the success of "Jane Eyre" and "The Stranger."

He began meetings with National Comics (who would later become DC) as early as 1944 to discuss the Batman project, but his work didn't begin in earnest until completion of "The Stranger" in 1946 and Welles immediately threw himself headlong into the project. Gathering many of his old friends and colleagues together from "Citizen Kane," he proposed "a cinematic experience, a kaleidoscope of heroism and nightmares and imagery seen nowhere save the subconscious of Goya or even Hawksmoor himself." Welles planned Batman to be an adult psycho-drama, but combined with what he described as the "heart-racing excitement of the Saturday morning serials, given a respectable twist and a whole new style of kinetic direction unlike anything ever attempted in American cinema." Many of the production sketches he commissioned from Greg Tolland are in the notes and it sends a shiver down your spine when you see them. Unfortunately, I don't have permission to use the most elaborate ones here, but they'll be available in the book with his thirty-six page treatment for a movie that opens with the deaths of Thomas and Mary Wayne (why it's Mary I've no idea) and ends with Batman unmasked and fighting for his life against The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face and Catwoman in a prison they've assumed control of.

CHABON ON GAIMAN
Friday, September 26, 2003
Source: Entertainment Weekly (October 3, 2003)

Entertainment Weekly featured an excellent article on Neal Gaiman, and in it, Michael Chabon speaks about the famous comic writer.

"Neil is the kind of man who inspires other people, myself included, with strong feelings of affection, even love... He is big-souled. And, also, really, really cute."

MORE ON HOTZEPLOTZ
Friday, September 26, 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (September 16, 2003)

September 16's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle featured an article by Heidi Benson in which several Bay Area writers discussed their current projects. Amongst the writers interviewed was Michael Chabon.

"I am currently at work on a novel, working title 'Hotzeplotz.' Anyone who read my introduction to McSweeney's No. 10, an essay I wrote called 'Guidebook to a Land of Ghosts' -- it's on my Web site (www.michaelchabon.com) -- and knows how much I admire Vladimir Nabokov and Raymond Chandler will be able to form some rough idea of what -- I hope -- it's going to be like."

FIRST PIECE OF FANART!!!
Sunday, September 21, 2003
Source: Exclusive

Well, thought I should let everyone in on the big news: the site just got its first piece of fanart! Donnie Yodha, who is a damn cool artist, did a great picture of Joe's first encounter with Rosa. There's a lot of good detail in this pic; be sure to notice the purse Rosa leaves behind and the overcoat she throws on half-a-minute later.

Click here to see a larger version.

If you, too, are an artist who would like to contribute a drawing based on the book, send me an e-mail! I don't do rejections.

CHABON COMMENTS ON LETHEM
Saturday, September 20, 2003
Source: Yahoo! News, AP

The Associated Press ran an article Wednesday discussing writer Jonathan Lethem's relationship with New York. Michael Chabon is quoted in the article when asked to discuss his friend. "He's always exploding genre conventions, and combining different genres."

To read the entire article, click here.

STEPHEN KING HONORED
Saturday, September 20, 2003
Source: Yahoo! News, AP

On Monday, Stephen King was rewarded an honorary National Book Award for lifetime achievement. Asked to comment, Michael Chabon said "I think he's a force for good in the world... People like writers to stay in the boxes. The 20th century was supposedly about breaking down those barriers between high art and popular culture and yet it still feels like there's some kind of transgression when Stephen King gets a National Book Award medal."

To read the entire article, click here.

MORE ON THE ESCAPIST
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Source: Entertainment Weekly, Amanda

The Septmber 12, 2003 edition of Entertainment Weekly has a small article about the upcoming Escapist comic book. Here's what it said:

Michael Chabon presents... The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist

There's a life after the Pulitzer Prize -- in comic books. In December, Michael Chabon debuts an 80-page tale of the Escapist, the superhero created by the titular comics wunderkinder of Chabon's 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It gets more meta. The quarterly (written in part by Chabon and drawn by such pedigreed artists as Elektra's Bill Sienkiewicz) comes complete with a "history," from the Escapist's first appearance in 1939 to the present: "There's a point in the '60s where the character is in dispute," says Chabon, "and ends up in the hands of a company that produces hair-care products for an African-American market."

CHABON ON KIRBY'S INFLUENCE
Tuesday, August 28, 2003
Source: The New York Times

The August 27, 2003 edition of The New York Times carried a great article about Jack Kirby's legacy. The article leads-off with a quote from Kavalier & Clay and then later discusses the artist with Chabon.

In "The Great Comic Book Heroes," Jules Feiffer summarized the appeal of Kirby's 1940 comic books, a style that took on a smooth and magnetic élan: "Muscles stretched magically, foreshortened shockingly. Legs were never less than four feet apart when a punch was thrown. Every panel was a population explosion — casts of thousands: all fighting, leaping, falling, crawling."

Mr. Chabon agreed with Mr. Feiffer's assessment. "He could make the comics panel seem too small to contain the stories he was telling," he said. "What I loved about him then, and continue to admire about him now, was that sense of the inexhaustibility of his imagination in every issue of whatever comic he happened to be working on. He worked all over the place his entire career and would just fill each one with 15 great ideas for a story and just push them all into the same book together. And then the next issue would come out, and he'd have 15 more."

A trace of Kirby's touch can be detected in Mr. Chabon's descriptions of the driven comic artist's handiwork in his novel "Kavalier and Klay." "Especially when there's a description of the kind of battle scenes that Joe Kavalier draws," Mr. Chabon said. (Kavalier was an escape artist, as was one of Kirby's characters, Mister Miracle.)

"I don't think it's any accident that at this point in their history the entire Marvel universe and the entire DC universe are now all pinned or rooted on Kirby's concepts," Mr. Chabon said, also noting the connection to "Star Wars."

"But it worked both ways," he said, "because Kirby was a huge movie fan. And his comic books are sometimes subtly, sometimes very blatantly borrowing from the movies that he loved. There was always this very strong element of that Warner Brothers, George Raft, John Garfield, Jimmy Cagney gangster stuff going through all of the books. And there's all the Universal horror movie stuff he kept going back to over and over. You can just tell the influence of movies was very, very heavy on him."

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

CHABON DISCUSSES SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON
Tuesday, August 15, 2003
Source: Entertainment Weekly

The August 1, 2003 issue of Entertainment Weekly had an article discussing Hollywood's current interest in promoting their movies at comic book conventions, specifically the San Diego Comic-Con. The article poses the question of whether this is a good or bad thing for the conventions, and then quotes Michael Chabon.

"I feel like comic books are being farmed and broken down for parts," says Michael Chabon, 40, a repeat attendee and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic-biz opus The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. He notes that the movie and toy trades seem to have supplanted comics, sales of which remain unspectacular despite the media's interest in comic-book characters. "The guys going through the comic bins are getting older and balder. Like me."

THE WRITING LIFE
Tuesday, August 5, 2003
Source: NPR

Alright, this one slipped under the radar for a lot of us I imagine. For over a month, a book titled The Writing Life, edited by Marie Arana, has been on the stands apparently and features Michael Chabon's "Recipe for Life," also available on his website. The book's focus is on the joys and horrors of writing. To order the book from Amazon, click here. To hear a NPR interview about the book, click here.

THE ESCAPIST TAKES FORM
Sunday, August 3, 2003
Source: Comic Book Resources

See, this is what happens when I'm gone for a month. Something big happens, and then I have to look like an idiot for not posting it when it's fresh news. Oh well. Anyway, Dark Horse officially announced that The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist #1 will hit stands in December. Here's the article:

It's not often that a fictional character within a fictional book comes to life in a fictional comic book. Wait, let's start over again.

Late last week Dark Horse Comics announced they would publish a quarterly comic anthology called "Michael Chabon Presents?The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist." In 2001, Michael Chabon won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the most prestigious literary award, for his novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay." The novel tells the story of Josef Kavalier and Samuel Klayman, cousins who together create the comic book hero the Escapist in the Golden Age of comics and go on to enormous commercial success. With this new book from Dark Horse, the anthology will feature stories of the Escapist and his cohorts set in the style of various comic book eras from the 40's through today. Chabon will act as guide for the book, overseeing stories written by other authors and will himself be contributing original stories.

"When I first began my research into the careers of Joe Kavalier & Sam Clay, their classic creations--the Escapist, Luna Moth and the rest--had lapsed into near-total obscurity," Chabon said in a release. "I'm delighted and very grateful that Dark Horse has decided to breathe new life into these grand old characters, and that we have the opportunity to continue the Escapist's good work using the Golden Keys of imagination and storytelling."

"This is a very exciting project for Dark Horse," Dark Horse President Mike Richardson said in a release. "Presenting the work of such a talented and esteemed author such as Mr. Chabon continues our tradition of releasing the finest books by the industry's top talent. Bringing his wonderful characters featured in 'The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist' to life on the comics' page is a true honor. Comics fans are in for a real treat!"

The first issue is set for release this December and will be 80 pages long.

CBR News has learned that comics creator Howard Chaykin ("American Flagg!") will be contributing to the first issue. In addition to the front cover art (which will be available as a promotional poster at the Dark Horse booth at Comic-Con International in San Diego later this week), Chaykin will be contributing to the interior of the book.

"I'm doing a ten page story which I'll be writing and drawing," Chaykin told CBR News Friday evening. "It'll be a '50s 'Escapist' story. It's probably going to involve a pastiche of Irving Claw. Irving Claw was the guy who took all the photographs of Bettie Paige. He's a guy who made a living selling movie star headshots who ended up getting into the business of doing pin-up modeling, sort of as a sideline, because people were constantly asking for it. That's where Bettie Paige came from. What better thing to do than to do an adventure involving sort of playful bondage with a character like the Escapist, a guy who basically gets out of tight situations."

Chaykin and Chabon were hooked up together through a previous literary collaboration.

"Somehow I ended up being asked to do the 'McSweeney's' book. McSweeney's is a magazine published by Dave Eggers, author of 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.' It's a quarterly arts and literary magazine. Michael guest edited an issue [('McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales ')] of genre fiction, short stories, pulp fiction, and I illustrated it. Some twenty illustrations for the likes of Steven King, Lorie King, Elmore Leonard, Rick Mooney, Nick Hornby, Michael Moorcock, just a whole bunch. Some fabulous talents. Micahel and I start talking and ended up doing this!"

While Chaykin has on occasion drawn stories written by others, generally that's not the case. Like he's doing in the "Escapsit" anthology, he usually both writes and draws his work.

"I'll tell you the truth, I'm not crazy about the idea," Chaykin responded when asked about drawing other writers' work. "I've done it a couple of times. I do it every couple of years just to remind myself what it feels like. What I find is that I don't very much like it. The stories are always great, but I much prefer doing it myself."

But when asked if he'd do it if the author was none-other than Michael Chabon, Chaykin left open the possibility.

"Always possible! Let's not get ahead of myself, I haven't done the 10 pages yet!"

Both Chabon and Chaykin will both be in attendance at Comic-Con International in San Diego this week. Chabon will be signing the afore mentioned promotional poster in the Dark Horse booth.

LIFE IN BERKLEY
Sunday, August 3, 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle

July 27's San Francisco Chronicle featured an awesome article about Michael Chabon's and Ayelet Waldman's life in Berkley. Here's a snipit:

Fame is evident when Waldman and her daughters Sophie, 8, and Ida-Rose, 2, go into Star Grocery. Posted is a recent full-page color picture of a pregnant Waldman with Chabon and three of the kids from People magazine.

Star is "the center of it all," Waldman says. "We're here at least once a day, sometimes three times."

This time Sophie takes care of the transaction. "How much is it?" she asks the clerk. "$5.57." She writes it on the chit, then slowly signs her name in the careful cursive her father taught her.

CHABON IN SUPERHEROES UNMASKED
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Updated: Monday, June 23, 2003
Source: Ring of Collectorsy, The History Channel, USA Today

Well, this is old news, but seeing as my site is brand new and the documentary still has two days until it airs, I think I'm in the clear. Here's some info on the show:

Superman. Batman. Spider-Man. The Hulk. The X-Men. For much of the past century, comic book superheroes have captured the imaginations of readers around the globe. They are often dismissed by adults as "kid's stuff," but a look beneath the cowls, capes, and brightly colored spandex costumes reveals another story. Comic book superheroes reflect the best and worst of humanity, tackling personal, political, and social stories in a way that no other medium can. Hosted by Peta Wilson, COMIC BOOK SUPERHEROES UNMASKED debuts on The History Channel on Monday, June 23 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

COMIC BOOK SUPERHEROES UNMASKED was granted unprecedented access to comic books published by DC and Marvel Comics from the late 1930s to the present. Featured are interviews with many of the most influential comic book writers and artists of the past fifty years, including Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Denny O'Neil, Michael Chabon, Jim Steranko, Kevin Smith, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, and Joe Quesada. The program was designed to bring visual depth, energy and movement to classic comic book images while still preserving the integrity of the artwork.

UPDATED (Monday, June 23, 2003): USA Today did an article about the program, and included in the article was a quote by Chabon.

Substitute war-shattered Europe for exploded Krypton, and Superman is just another refugee. Except, of course, he can fly.

"Even if you don't see (Superman) as an allegory of an immigrant, he is an immigrant," says Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, two fictional comic creators. "He came to America and he did make good."

Don't forget to watch the show tonight!

CHABON VOICES VIEW ON KIRBY/LEE STORIES
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Source: Entertainment Weekly (June 20, 2003)

In an interview with Stan Lee, Michael Chabon is quoted in regards to what role Jack Kirby may have had in creating Marvel's famous heroes. For those of you unfamiliar with comic history, after Kirby and Lee had their falling out, Kirby began to claim that he was the sole creator of many Marvel characters.

"The nature of the stories changed so drastically once Stan wasn't telling them and Jack was doing them on his own, that it's clear that Jack was exaggerating [his creative role] with his rhetoric in those interviews... The sad thing is that those guys had an amazing partnership. When they were at their peak, something really magical was happening."

STEVE RUDE NOT DRAWING KAVALIER & CLAY COMIC
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Source: Exclusive

The title sort of says it all, but I'll go into more detail. I got in contact with an individual who maintains Steve Rude's website to ask whether or not Rude would be drawing a comic book adaptation of Kavalier & Clay. Although I did get confirmation that Dark Horse had indeed approached Rude for the project, apparently Rude had to turn it down due to his busy schedule. Steve Rude is best known for his work on the comic book Nexus, and his website can be accessed by clicking on this link.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Source: Exclusive

Well, the site has officially opened! I had been wanting to build a Kavalier & Clay site for a long time, but I needed time to re-read the novel first. My goal with this site is to make it as comprehensive as possible without turning this site into being a Cliff Note. I hope that over the coming years this site can act as a source of information and celebration regarding my favorite novel, Kavalier & Clay. Enjoy!