Kavalier and Clay
Samuel Klayman is in his Brooklyn bedroom one night in 1939 when his mother introduces him to his cousin, Josef Kavalier, newly arrived from Prague, who will be staying with them, having escaped Europe and the Nazis. Samuel is initially suspicious of Josef, but agrees to try to help him obtain employment at the company where he works, Empire Novelties.
The son of two Jewish doctors, Josef had become interested in the art of escape and studied with Bernard Kornblum, a famous escape artist. To safeguard him, Josef’s parents arranged to send him out of the country, but he was thrown off the train because of a change in regulations. In desperation, he begged Kornblum to help him flee. Kornblum had already contracted to arrange the shipment to Vilna of Rabbi Loew’s golem (a giant clay man said to come to life to protect Jews) in order to protect it, and he agreed to secrete Josef with the golem, allowing him to escape.
The morning after Josef’s arrival, Samuel awakes to find him drawing on a comic panel and is very impressed by his work. Josef reveals that he studied for two years at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts. Samuel asks Josef to draw a portfolio to show his employer, Sheldon Anapol. The cousins meet with Anapol and propose that they create a new hero similar to Superman. Anapol agrees to entertain the idea if they can come up with a good sample comic. They leave to begin work and Samuel reminisces about his father, the “Mighty Molecule,” a strongman on the vaudeville circuit who abandoned the family during Samuel’s childhood. He returned when Samuel was a teenager and promised to take him along on the circuit, but left in the middle of the night and died soon afterward.
Samuel and Josef go to the apartment where several of Samuel’s artist friends live; they all begin creating characters for the sample comic. Samuel and Josef create The Escapist, whose real name is Tom Mayflower. Mayflower trains with a famous escape artist and takes over his role as helper of
The son of two Jewish doctors, Josef had become interested in the art of escape and studied with Bernard Kornblum, a famous escape artist. To safeguard him, Josef’s parents arranged to send him out of the country, but he was thrown off the train because of a change in regulations. In desperation, he begged Kornblum to help him flee. Kornblum had already contracted to arrange the shipment to Vilna of Rabbi Loew’s golem (a giant clay man said to come to life to protect Jews) in order to protect it, and he agreed to secrete Josef with the golem, allowing him to escape.
The morning after Josef’s arrival, Samuel awakes to find him drawing on a comic panel and is very impressed by his work. Josef reveals that he studied for two years at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts. Samuel asks Josef to draw a portfolio to show his employer, Sheldon Anapol. The cousins meet with Anapol and propose that they create a new hero similar to Superman. Anapol agrees to entertain the idea if they can come up with a good sample comic. They leave to begin work and Samuel reminisces about his father, the “Mighty Molecule,” a strongman on the vaudeville circuit who abandoned the family during Samuel’s childhood. He returned when Samuel was a teenager and promised to take him along on the circuit, but left in the middle of the night and died soon afterward.
Samuel and Josef go to the apartment where several of Samuel’s artist friends live; they all begin creating characters for the sample comic. Samuel and Josef create The Escapist, whose real name is Tom Mayflower. Mayflower trains with a famous escape artist and takes over his role as helper of