Escape from Florida (2015)
Author: Christopher Sebela | Illustrator: Diego Barreto | Page Count: 112
They have at least half a dozen collected editions currently available that I'm interested in, but the money-tree the pikey sold me failed to grow and the golden goose turned out to be male, so I need to be selective with purchases. However, Escape from New York was one that I definitely couldn't pass up.
Like the continuation of their other Carpenter and Russell pairing, Big Trouble in Little China (2015), it picks up the story just after the film ends. It's not as good as Big Trouble, but it's still better than Carpenter's own sequel to his cult classic, namely the Escape from L.A. (1996) movie, and for that I'm at least thankful.
It's advisable to have watched the film before reading for two reasons. Firstly, it's a fun film, but also because the book doesn't waste time with unnecessary reintroductions. We (should) already know who Snake Plissken is and what he stands for, or doesn't stand for, as the case may be. The significance of the cassette tape and the reasons for his movements will then be understood.
The political situation is given some extra attention, the threat of an escalating war being pertinent to the story. Snake's interests don't extend much beyond Snake keeping his freedom, so he needs to find a place to lay low, a place where the pursuing USPF won't find him. But with America's borders being what they are, it's not going to be such an easy task.
The anti-hero is a man of few words, so it's left largely to the secondary characters and antagonists to fill the dialogue spaces. Much of it is as bad as it was in the film (i.e. as good as it was), which helps keep the belated continuation feel faithful.
There's a Dredd-esque Cursed Earth vibe to a lot of it, with many of the folks that Snake meets not far removed from the kind of violent scavengers that live outside the Big Meg's borders.
At time of writing, the series is ongoing, so hopefully the forthcoming Volume 2 (2016) will continue to work on further developing the world in which Snake exists as much as it does on deepening his role within it, because so far it isn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be.
There's a Dredd-esque Cursed Earth vibe to a lot of it, with many of the folks that Snake meets not far removed from the kind of violent scavengers that live outside the Big Meg's borders.
At time of writing, the series is ongoing, so hopefully the forthcoming Volume 2 (2016) will continue to work on further developing the world in which Snake exists as much as it does on deepening his role within it, because so far it isn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be.
Volume 1 collects together Escape From New York issues 1-4.
Individual covers. Click for FULL size.
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