CHABON, KING TO DISCUSS SHERLOCK
Sunday, October 31, 2005, 9:10 AM ET
Source: Laurie R. King's blog

Michael Chabon and author Laurie R. King will discuss writing about Sherlock Holmes on Wednesday at the San Francisco Public Library.

Both Chabon and King have written books featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective during his retirement. Chabon authored The Final Solution, a Holmes novella set iin World War II. King wrote The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and The Game, starring Mary Russell, Holme's apprentice, partner, and eventually wife.

At her blog, King said Chabon's Final Solution is "a gorgeous little book that left me breathless with Michael’s sense of prose."

She adds: "He also happens to be a terribly nice person, and handsome to boot. Sorry, I can come up with no drawbacks to the man, and I’m greatly looking forward to the event. Please, come join us."

The talk runs from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.

Chabon has only one other public event listed on his schedule for the rest of the year, a reading on Nov. 19 in Corte Madera, Calif., to celebrate the reissuing of D’Aulaires’ Norse Myths.

AYELET: 'I HATE HOMEWORK'
Sunday, October 23, 2005, 12:40 PM ET
Source: Salon

In her newest Salon column, Ayelet Waldman lets loose about her frustrations over her kids' homework.

Eight-year-old Zeke routinely has an hour of homework a night. He's an interesting kid, one who's described as having a lot of "personality." He's the kind of kid who, left to his own devices, thinks it's funny to write "a Rottweiler" as the answer to every question on the homework page, even the math problems. Especially the math problems.

Accordingly, either my husband or I have to sit next to him and insist that he read the directions in his homework packet, instead of riffing on the crazy soundtrack that runs in his head.

School for Zeke is work, and by the end of a seven-hour workday, he's exhausted. But like a worker on a double shift, he has to keep going. When, halfway through kindergarten, we had to break it to him that this wasn't a one-year gig, that in fact he was looking at, conservatively, 17 more years of school, the expression on his face was one of deep, existential despair. That evening he calculated that the next time he could count on being really, truly happy was in 60 years, when he retires. His sister, however, is one of those cheerful Pollyanna types who finish their summer reading list before Memorial Day, and at 11 is already counting on getting at least one graduate degree. But even she hates homework.

STANFORD INTERVIEW ABOUT K&C ON iTUNES
Saturday, October 22, 2005, 1:00 PM ET
Source: Stanford on iTunes

Just when you thought you'd heard and read every interview with Michael Chabon about Kavalier & Clay that existed, Stanford University decides to prove you wrong.

As part of its Stanford on iTunes project, the university has indexed a 12 minute audio interview with Chabon from April 2003. Like all of its other audio clips, the interview can be downloaded for free.

Go listen. Now.

ROLSTON BLOGS ABOUT ESCAPIST
Saturday, October 22, 2005, 1:00 PM ET
Source: Steve Rolston's LiveJournal

Over at his LiveJournal, artist Steve Rolston has some more to say about his addition to the Escapist crew:

The word's out... I'm replacing Philip Bond as the artist on Brian K. Vaughan's ongoing story in Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist!

As reported at The Amazing Website of Kavalier & Clay, the story entitled "The Escapists" will debut in November's issue #8 of the Harvey and Eisner award winning anthology from Dark Horse Comics. Due to scheduling problems, that will be Bond's first and last issue. I take over in issue #9, which will be out in January.

I'm extremely happy to be on board this project. I've wanted to work with Brian for a while and this story suits me perfectly. Philip Bond has been a pretty big influence on me artistically, so it's been fun working from his designs. And I sure as hell can't complain about being coloured by Dave Stewart! "The Escapists" also has some comic-within-a-comic sequences which are being illustrated by Jason Shawn Alexander and coloured by Matt Hollingsworth. There's so many great people involved, it's crazy.

So make sure you pick up issue #8 on Nov. 9th, so you can get the first part of the story. That issue also includes stories by Harvey Pekar, Dean Haspiel, Andi Watson and Jeff Parker.

BOND OUT, ROLSTON IN
Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 6:20 AM ET
Updated: Friday, October 21, 2005, 4:00 AM ET
Source: Exclusive

EXCLUSIVE: Panels from Steve Rolston's Escapist debut

Steve Rolston will replace artist Philip Bond for Brian K. Vaughan's "The Escapists" story arc, according to Michael Chabon.

Rolston's name is no where to be seen on in the solicitation for Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #9, but Dark Horse spokesperson Lee Dawson confirmed that would be his first issue. Bond (Vimanarama) will leave the series with only one issue, November's Escapist #8, under his belt.

Editor Diana Schutz said in an e-mail that Bond had left due to "scheduling difficulties."

The change in artists came without any official announcement. Bond's departure came to light after this website noticed the solicitation for January's Escapist #9 did not list Bond as an artist. An e-mail to Chabon confirmed Bond had left the series and that Rolston, whose name is also absent from the solicitation, would take the reigns.

Rolston is perhaps best known for his work on the first four issues of Greg Rucka's Queen & Country in 2000 for Oni Press. His art can most recently be found in Image Comics' anthology Four-Letter Worlds and Cartoon Militia's Jack Spade & Tony Two-Fist #1. He also drew Brian Wood's Pounded from Oni Press.

Contacted by e-mail, Rolston said he was "happily surprised to get a phone call from Diana Schutz, offering me the gig."

"I hadn't worked with her before but she was familiar with my work and Brian had suggested me as an artist," he said. "As fate would have it, I was about to take a trip to Portland so I was able to meet Diana face-to-face and visit the Dark Horse offices."

Rolston, who has never teamed with Vaughan before, said his main goal is "to do justice to Brian's excellent script and the mythos that Chabon has created."

As the artist drawing the "real world" adventures of Maxwell Roth and Case Weaver, Rolston said he wants to bring youthfulness to the characters and have them "acting more realistic, less over-the-top than what you would get from ye ol' Escapist adventures."

Up until the publication of Escapist #9's solicitation, comments from creators on the Escapist series made it sound as if Bond was in for the long-haul. Chabon announced in April that Bond had signed onto the series, touting him at the time as a "wildly talented arist" and "well-suited to tackling the remarkable use that Vaughan's Escapist script makes of the urban landscape and landmarks of Cleveland, OH."

In an interview with this site in early September, Schutz made no mention that Bond would be leaving.

"He was just finishing up Vimanarama for DC/Vertigo as well as being stay-home dad to his and his wife (DC/Vertigo editor) Shelly's new baby, so this quarterly gig was perfect for Philip in every way," Schutz said at the time.

Bond's first and final issue, Escapist #8, hits stands Nov. 9. Issue #9 is scheduled for Jan. 11, 2006.

GAIMAN HAS 'GREAT WIT', SAYS CHABON
Sunday, October 16, 2005, 1:45 PM ET
Source: Associated Press via Poughkeepsie Journal

The Associated Press is carrying a profile of author Neil Gaiman today, and Michael Chabon is in it.

[Gaiman] forged an amalgam of mythologies, both European and Asian, in the "Sandman" series and employs classic forms of storytelling, says friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay").

"I do think his books would reward reading by people who think they don't like fantasy," Chabon says.

Chabon says Gaiman has a "great wit" that comes through in his writing and a charming personality. When Gaiman approached him with the idea for the character auction, Chabon quickly said yes.

LUNA MOTH TAKES OVER FOR ESCAPIST #9
Saturday, October 15, 2005, 10:10 AM ET
Source: Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse has released their January comic book solicitations, and included in that bag is a little comic known only as Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #9.

Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #9

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan, Howard Chaykin, Stuart Moore
Artist: Jason Alexander, Jed Dougherty, Phil Winslade
Cover Artist: Brian Bolland

For the first time in the illustrious illustrated history of Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, the mysterious Luna Moth takes center stage! Kicking it off is a stunning image of our heroine by regular cover artist Brian Bolland.

Writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways) returns with the second installment of their ongoing feature "The Escapists"! This chapter also introduces rising star Jason Alexander (Damn Nation, Tales of the Vampires) as a new regular contributor to the feature!

Next, Luna Moth takes her faithful readers on a mind-bending tour of "The Library of Consciousness" as curated by the good Messrs. Howard Chaykin and hot new artist Jed Dougherty. Decades worth of Luna Moth incarnations materialize and battle over a malicious sprite, but why?

Also in this issue, Stuart Moore and Phil Winslade present their own version of the Adams/O'Neil "relevant comics" of the 1970s with "Union City Blues." Fitting neatly into the Sunshine Comics era of the Escapist series, our blue-suited hero appears in this story of Nixon, unions, and a thinly disguised gonzo journalist.

Don't miss this notable ninth installment of the award-winning quarterly anthology!

Pub. Date: Jan 11, 2006

HARPERCOLLINS REVEALS YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION THEMES
Saturday, October 15, 2005, 10:10 AM ET
Source: Buzz Girl

Buzz Girl has posted snippets from HarperCollins' spring 2006 catalog, which includes a description of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.

According to blog's catalog quotes, the new book, a "monumental work of imagination," has roots in 1940s noir and tells a "bittersweet fable of identity, home and faith."

CHABON STORY MAY FEATURE CHANDLER
Sunday, October 9, 2005, 9:30 AM ET
Source: Exclusive

A story Michael Chabon is writing for the Virginia Quarterly Review could feature author Raymond Chandler as the main character.

In response to an e-mail question, Chabon said, "I told them it might be Raymond Chandler but I actually have no idea. It might be Chandler."

Chandler, a crime novelist, authored Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye, among others. All of his novels starred Philip Marlowe, an Los Angeles-based private eye. Numerous film adapations of Marlowe stories exist, including 1946's The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart.

Chabon most recently took a crack at detective tales in The Final Solution, starring Sherlock Holmes. His next book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, is a murder mystery set in an alternative history universe where Alaska became a Jewish state after World War II. His wife, Ayelet Waldman, has authored several mystery novels.

Chabon mentioned Chandler's "The King in Yellow" in the introduction to McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, comparing it to a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Genre fiction has specific rules, Chabon says.

"Even among experienced, professional writers who have long since internalized or intuited the rules, and thus learned to ignore them, there are, at the very least, particular conventions—the shuttling of the private eye from high society to the lower depths, the function of a literary ghost as punishment for some act of hubris or evil—that are unique to and help to define their respective genres," Chabon writes.

The story is scheduled to see print in the summer 2006 issue of Virgina Quarterly Review. The issue, based on an idea of Chabon's, will feature a collection of short stories starring real-life writers as the main characters.

CHABON TO WRITE STORY STARRING FAVORITE WRITER
Friday, October 7, 2005, 11:00 PM ET
Source: Exclusive

Michael Chabon will likely contribute a story to an up-coming issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, according to an editor.

Kevin Morrissey, managing editor at the publication, confirmed rumblings that the publication was planning an issue based on an idea of Chabon's. The publication had not yet received Chabon's story, which would run with a collection of short stories starring real-life writers as their central characters, he said.

Contrary to the details laid out in an e-mail making its way around the blogosphere, Morrisey told this site via e-mail that the stories may only be a section of the issue, depending on how many stories they receive.

According to an e-mail posted on the blog EarthGoat, the stories will feature each author's "favorite writers as a central character."

"It may be a straightforward biographical narrative, such as Robert Walser's 'Kleist in Thon,' which recounts an actual journey of Heinreich von Kleist; an imagined (or even fantastic) approach, such as Allan Gurganus's 'Reassurance,' in which one of Walt Whitman's soldier friends writes from heaven; or a humorous take, such as Ian Frazier's 'LGA/ORD,' in which Frazier riffs on Samuel Beckett's claim that, had he not become a writer, he would have been an airline pilot," the e-mail said.

Who Chabon will feature in his story is unknown. Some of his favorite authors include Vladimir Nabokov, John Cheever, Robert Stone, and Edith Wharton, to name a few.

The literary journal, based out of the University of Virgina, has set the tentative date for the collection as July 2006, "but that also depends on the work coming in on time," Morrissey said.

VQR BUILDING ISSUE BASED ON CHABON IDEA
Tuesday, October 4, 2005, 7:00 PM ET
Source: EarthGoat

The Virginia Quarterly Review is soliciting stories for a special 2006 issue "based on an idea given to us by Michael Chabon," according to an e-mail posted on the blog EarthGoat.

"We are asking writers to contribute stories that take one of their favorite writers as a central character," the e-mail continues. "It may be a straightforward biographical narrative, such as Robert Walser's 'Kleist in Thon,' which recounts an actual journey of Heinreich von Kleist; an imagined (or even fantastic) approach, such as Allan Gurganus's 'Reassurance,' in which one of Walt Whitman's soldier friends writes from heaven; or a humorous take, such as Ian Frazier's 'LGA/ORD,' in which Frazier riffs on Samuel Beckett's claim that, had he not become a writer, he would have been an airline pilot."

The e-mail adds: "The length is also completely open."

No word yet if Chabon is actually participating in this newest issue. Chabon's work last appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review in spring 2004, when the publication printed "Breakfast at the Wreck," a cut chapter from Kavalier & Clay, as well as the Escapist's origin story from The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #1.

The deadline for stories is March 1, 2006, according to the blog.

To read the blog's post in its entirety, click here.