Part 29 (1/2)

”I heard froht Production is to commence by the end of this year, if not sooner TheM-G-M here-but it isn't bad Not bad at all”

”Naturally we are obliged to ask you to give us half of it,” Joe said

”Naturally,” Anapol agreed He smiled ”Now tell me what it is that you two have worked out”

”Well, basically it's a whole new approach to this game We saw-”

”What do we need with a whole new approach? The old approach has been working great”

”This is better”

”Better in this context can ,” Anapol said ”And that isto make more money for me and my partner?”

Sammy looked at Joe He was, in fact, still not entirely persuaded of this But he was still feeling the sting of Bacon's accusation the night before And as more, he knew Shelly Anapol Money was not-not always-thein the world to hi the violin in the New York Philharmonic, and there was a part of hined itself to the life of a dealer in whoopee cushi+ons As E black cyclones ofin out of the heartland, Anapol, out of this residual auilt over the brainless ease hich colossal success had been achieved, had grown extre the Phi Beta Kappas and literary pooh-bahs whose opinions meant so much to him He had even imposed upon Deasey to write letters to The New York Times The New York Times and and The Aned his own na the unfair treativen his huned his own na the unfair treativen his hues

”Lots,” Sammy said ”Piles, boss”

”Show me”

They fetched the portfolio and tried to explain what it was they intended to do

”Adults,” Anapol said after a fewadults to read comic books”

The cousins looked at each other They had not quite expressed or understood it that way before

”I guess so,” Sammy said

”Yes,” said Joe ”Adults with adulthis chin Saes of his jaw, unknotting the leather swivel chair with a grandeur and an ease not entirely free of the threat of s Whether it was relief at having at last found a worthy basis for his co proximity of certain failure, Sa for his unfinished letter ”We'll give it a try Get to work”

Joe started to walk away, but Sammy took hold of his arm and pulled him back They stood Anapol added another sentence to his letter, considered it, then looked up

”Yes?”

”What about this not-enorot a piece of the radio show You gave us a piece of the newspaper strip I don't see e-”

”Oh, for God's sake,” Anapol said ”Don't even bother to finish, Mr Clay, I've heard it all before”

Saey and very, very small ”I'm not averse I can't speak for Jack, but I'll take it up with hiht,” Sa an iuess what I' Szyum card?”

”Maybe you aren't aware of this,” Anapol said, ”but Parnassus Pictures does a very healthy business in Europe”

”I didn't know that”

”Yes As a est market after the domestic is, of all places-”

”Germany,” said Joe

”Naturally, they're a little concerned about the reputation you two have earned for this coonistic to the citizens and govern talk with Mr Frank Singe, the studio head He made it very clear-”

”Don't even bother to finish,” Sausted ” 'We've heard it all before' ” He looked appealingly at Joe, willing hinities to which they were being exposed, the one hundred cruelties, gross and tiny, to which, with an al subjected by the Reichsprotektorat He was sure that Anapol would give in once again

”All right,” Joe said softly ”I will stop the fighting”

Anapol's eyebrows shot up in surprise

”Joe?” Sa about You can't give up! This-this is censorshi+p censorshi+p We're being censored! This is the very thing we're supposed to be standing up to The Escapist would stand up to so censored! This is the very thing we're supposed to be standing up to The Escapist would stand up to so like this”

”The Escapist is not a real person”

”Yeah, I kno that Christ” that Christ”

”Sa He put a hand on Sa But I want to do this this now” He tapped the portfolio ”I'ht, and I a some more, and it just hting,some more, and it justsoso always to be Good” you know, instead of trying always to be Good”

”Joe, I-” Saave up ”Fine,” he said ”We'll lay off the nazis It won't be long anyway till we're in this war”

”And then I pronoble behavior here thisvery oing to provide us with”

The cousins started away Sammy looked back

”What about the japs?” he said

10

THE SUDDEN SMALL EFFLORESCENCE of art, enuine, in the tawdry product line of as then the fifth- or sixth-largest comic book company in America has usually been attributed to the potent spell of Citizen Kane Citizen Kane acting on the renascent aspirations of Joe Kavalier But without the thematic ban imposed by Sheldon Anapol at the behest of Parnassus Pictures-the censorshi+p of all story lines having to do with nazis (japs, too), warfare, saboteurs, fifth columnists, and so on-which forced Sammy and Joe to a drastic reconsideration of the raw ical run of issues that co on the renascent aspirations of Joe Kavalier But without the thematic ban imposed by Sheldon Anapol at the behest of Parnassus Pictures-the censorshi+p of all story lines having to do with nazis (japs, too), warfare, saboteurs, fifth columnists, and so on-which forced Sammy and Joe to a drastic reconsideration of the raw ical run of issues that commenced with Radio Coht up to the two-month Empire lead time in the twenty-first issue of 19 and finished when Pearl Harbor caught up to the two-month Empire lead time in the twenty-first issue of Triumph Comics Triuht issues apiece of (February 1942) looks pretty unlikely In eight issues apiece of Radio, Triumph, All Doll, Radio, Triumph, All Doll, and the now-monthly and the now-monthly Escapist Adventures, Escapist Adventures, the emphasis is laid, for the first time, not only on the superpowered characters - normally so enveloped in their inevitable shrouds of bullets, torpedoes, poison gases, hurricane winds, evil spells, and so forth, that the lineaments of their personalities, if not of their deltoids and quadriceps, could hardly be discerned-but also, almost radically for the comic book of the time, on the ordinary people around them, whose own exploits, by the tied in the early round of each story that such emphasis itself, on the everyday heroics of the ”powerless,” ht, a kind of secret, and hence probably ineffectual, propaganda There were stories that dealt with the es of the emphasis is laid, for the first time, not only on the superpowered characters - normally so enveloped in their inevitable shrouds of bullets, torpedoes, poison gases, hurricane winds, evil spells, and so forth, that the lineaments of their personalities, if not of their deltoids and quadriceps, could hardly be discerned-but also, almost radically for the comic book of the time, on the ordinary people around them, whose own exploits, by the tied in the early round of each story that such emphasis itself, on the everyday heroics of the ”powerless,” ht, a kind of secret, and hence probably ineffectual, propaganda There were stories that dealt with the es of Triumph, Triumph, liked to call ”the hero biz,” told not only from the point of view of the heroes but froirlfriends, assistants, shoe-shi+ne boys, doctors, and even the criun though the mean streets of Empire City, in which the Escapist appeared on only liked to call ”the hero biz,” told not only from the point of view of the heroes but froirlfriends, assistants, shoe-shi+ne boys, doctors, and even the criun though the mean streets of Ees two pages Another celebrated story told the tale of Luna Moth's girlhood, and filled in gaps in her biography, through a coroup of une rats and cats and reptilian whatsits, in a ”dark little hangout outside of Phanto for sixty-four pages on one little street in E the terrible news that the Escapist lies near death in the hospital, recall in turn the way he has touched their lives and the lives of everyone in town (only to have it all turn out, in the end, as a cruel hoax perpetrated by the evil Crooked Man) Another celebrated story told the tale of Luna Moth's girlhood, and filled in gaps in her biography, through a coroup of une rats and cats and reptilian whatsits, in a ”dark little hangout outside of Phanto for sixty-four pages on one little street in E the terrible news that the Escapist lies near death in the hospital, recall in turn the way he has touched their lives and the lives of everyone in town (only to have it all turn out, in the end, as a cruel hoax perpetrated by the evil Crooked Man)

All of these forays into chopping up the ele odd points of view, in stretching, as far as was possible in those days, under the constraints of a jaded editor and of publishers who cared chiefly for safe profit, the li, all these exercises were, without question, raised far beyond the level of mere exercise by the unleashed inventiveness of Joe Kavalier's pencil Joe, too, made a survey of the tools at hand, and found the than he ever had before But the daring use of perspective and shading, the radical placeration of narrative and picture by ed, dislocated panels that stretched, shrank, opened into circles, spread across two full pages, e, unreeled themselves like the frames of a film-all these were made possible only by the full collaboration of writer and artist together

Whether the delightful fruit of this collaboration came at a price; whether the thirty-two extra issues, the two thousand extra pages of nazi-sht somehow, incrementally, have slid Aained in time would have precipitated an earlier victory; whether that victory co a day or a week or a month earlier would have sufficed to preserve a dozen or a hundred or a thousand nancy, as both the ghosts and those haunted by theures for the Kavalier Clay titles increased steadily until, by the abrupt termination of the partnershi+p, they had nearly doubled, though whether this aroas due to the books' marked advance in sophistication and quality, or was sieneral explosion in co up to the entry of A blizzards-blowing in from Hollywood, from radio, from Milton Bradley and Marx Toys, Hostess Cakes and (inevitably) the Yale Lock Coaree pockets, and Genuine Latex Rubber Escapist Coin Banks of the nation-blanketed the offices on the twenty-fifth floor of the E It required shovels and snos and crews ofavalanche of money Some of this snowfall ended up, in due course, in the bank account of Josef Kavalier, where it towered in fantastic drills and was left that way, aloof and glinting, to cool the fever of exile from the day his fae, the head of production for Parnassus Pictures, caot Sammy in to see hiht, writing out scenarios, and Sammy, bleary-eyed and poorly shaved, had three ready to show Singe the following afternoon Singe, a big, barrel-chested ante, said that he had triters in mind already, but that he liked what Sames He was not at all discouraging; it was clear that he was personally fond of Bacon, and furtheruys up for the job were Kaufman and Hart After twenty-five , he told Sammy and Bacon that he had a very is, and the intervieas over The pair walked down to the street with the ul fro afternoon The weather had been fine all day, and though the sun had already set, the sky overhead was still as blue as a gas fla hint of black carbon in the east said that he had triters in mind already, but that he liked what Sames He was not at all discouraging; it was clear that he was personally fond of Bacon, and furtheruys up for the job were Kaufman and Hart After twenty-five , he told Sammy and Bacon that he had a very is, and the intervieas over The pair walked down to the street with the ul fro afternoon The weather had been fine all day, and though the sun had already set, the sky overhead was still as blue as a gas fla hint of black carbon in the east