Escapo

by Paul Pope

Paul Pope is not a very prolific cartoonist, and I find that there are often more older pieces by him that I wasn't aware of that keep resurfacing or showing up almost at random.  Escapo, the 2014 book published by Z2, collects two short stories from the 90s, and gives them the deluxe treatment, with colours by Shay Plummer, in a nice hardcover volume.

Escapo is an escape artist who works in a travelling circus.  He has feelings for an acrobat, has a bit of a facial deformity or wound, and some self-doubt.

In one story, he tries to get with the acrobat, and in the other, he ends up making a deal with the devil when it looks like he might not be able to escape from a water-filled deathtrap.

There's not a lot of story here, but there is a great deal of big, exciting Paul Pope pages, and that's what I bought this book for.  Pope is a dynamic and exciting cartoonist, and this is a very cool looking book.  I'm not sure it would be worth the cover price of $25, but I paid less than half of that, so it's all good.

I do wish we would see more work from this amazing artist.