What do you think?
Rate this book
Escape From New York #1
Escape From New York Vol. 1
John Carpenter's classic antihero, Snake Plissken, is back!
The crime rate in the United States has risen 400 percent. After humiliating the President in front of the world and destroying America’s one chance to end World War III, Snake Plissken has become America’s Most Wanted man in a land of criminals and the insane. Everyone wants Snake dead. Luckily, Snake knows the feeling all too well. War hero. Outlaw. Renegade. Snake’s back!
After bringing the John Carpenter classic Big trouble in Little China to comics, the response has been so strong that we knew we had to bring another Carpenter classic to comics in a style and approach that does Escape From New York justice. Eisner-nominated writer Christopher Sebela (HIGH CRIMES, DEAD LETTERS) and artist Diego Barreto (IRREDEEMABLE) bring a action-packed adventure that rocks for both long-time Snake fans and newcomers.
The crime rate in the United States has risen 400 percent. After humiliating the President in front of the world and destroying America’s one chance to end World War III, Snake Plissken has become America’s Most Wanted man in a land of criminals and the insane. Everyone wants Snake dead. Luckily, Snake knows the feeling all too well. War hero. Outlaw. Renegade. Snake’s back!
After bringing the John Carpenter classic Big trouble in Little China to comics, the response has been so strong that we knew we had to bring another Carpenter classic to comics in a style and approach that does Escape From New York justice. Eisner-nominated writer Christopher Sebela (HIGH CRIMES, DEAD LETTERS) and artist Diego Barreto (IRREDEEMABLE) bring a action-packed adventure that rocks for both long-time Snake fans and newcomers.
112 pages, Paperback
First published December 8, 2015
21 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 16, 2020
I was a big fan of the movie growing up and I honestly expected more from Boom! than this. The art was sloppy and cartoony for such a gritty movie. The Tim Bradstreet cover was the only thing reminiscent of Snake Plissken.
The volume is an Escape from Florida. Although if the writer knew anything about the movies it should have been Escape from Cleveland. The story is sloppy and lazy. Florida has seceded from the U.S. and is supposed to be run by these psychic twins Romulus and Remus, but the psychic angle is dropped after the first issue so why even make it part of the plot. The rest of the book consists of Snake being captured and then escaping EACH issue. There's no characters that Snake keeps around long enough to be a sidekick and really no characterization at all. For a book based on an action movie, this was a snoozefest.
The volume is an Escape from Florida. Although if the writer knew anything about the movies it should have been Escape from Cleveland. The story is sloppy and lazy. Florida has seceded from the U.S. and is supposed to be run by these psychic twins Romulus and Remus, but the psychic angle is dropped after the first issue so why even make it part of the plot. The rest of the book consists of Snake being captured and then escaping EACH issue. There's no characters that Snake keeps around long enough to be a sidekick and really no characterization at all. For a book based on an action movie, this was a snoozefest.
May 28, 2016
3.5 Stars
I'm a huge fan of the movie Escape From New York, as well as the Snake Plissken character. Sometimes I expect too much from the character, and this was probably one of those times.
Overall not bad. This picks up just as the movie ends. Snake ends up in Florida, which has seceded from the United States and is under the control of 2 psychotic preteen twin boys. Snake is taken prisoner by the regime and things go from there.
I thought the ending was a bit of a cop out, and really the story didn't do a great job of conveying the United States outlined by the movie. At the same time, we saw hardly any of the outside world in the movie, so I suppose it's open for interpretation.
The art was decent but I'm not sure if it was the best fit for this type of gritty story.
I liked this one, but I think it could have been better. I'll read the other volumes and see how the story progresses.
I'm a huge fan of the movie Escape From New York, as well as the Snake Plissken character. Sometimes I expect too much from the character, and this was probably one of those times.
Overall not bad. This picks up just as the movie ends. Snake ends up in Florida, which has seceded from the United States and is under the control of 2 psychotic preteen twin boys. Snake is taken prisoner by the regime and things go from there.
I thought the ending was a bit of a cop out, and really the story didn't do a great job of conveying the United States outlined by the movie. At the same time, we saw hardly any of the outside world in the movie, so I suppose it's open for interpretation.
The art was decent but I'm not sure if it was the best fit for this type of gritty story.
I liked this one, but I think it could have been better. I'll read the other volumes and see how the story progresses.
January 7, 2017
was expecting this to be better but it's okay and kind of ridiculous at times.
http://geekpronblog.blogspot.com/2017...
http://geekpronblog.blogspot.com/2017...
April 18, 2016
Really bad. Despite being a direct continuation of the film, nothing in this comic even comes close to approaching the movie's wit and funky-cool style. The plot is serviceable enough, I guess, but the writing is vapid, the artwork is dull, and the action scenes are so much cartoonish nonsense. Poor John Carpenter... It feels like the ESCAPE FROM NY and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA comics are working overtime to tarnish his amazing legacy with each and every new issue.
February 9, 2017
to many plot holes combined with poor writing and lackluster art create a book only saved by happy movie memories.
August 23, 2018
This was kind of disappointing. I was not expect much since this was supposed to be a sequel to the movie Escape From New York. But somehow in trying to maintain the feel of the movie the writer went a little to far. There are unexplained jumps in story, jumps forward in time and what others have called plot holes. Things that make you say "That was Dumb".
It was not a horrible read, but maybe steal more from Escape from New York and less from Escape from L.A.
2nd read - how did I forget I had already read this? Warning story did not improve with age.
It was not a horrible read, but maybe steal more from Escape from New York and less from Escape from L.A.
2nd read - how did I forget I had already read this? Warning story did not improve with age.
January 8, 2023
Fun continuation of Escape from New York. The kid antagonists are weird and funny. The art is a little samey though, and uses a lot of dull colors.
December 9, 2015
In 1981, John Carpenter's Escape from New York introduced filmgoers to anti-hero Snake Plissken, the one-eyed former Special Forces soldier turned criminal. Cynical and hypocritical of the government, he's a bad boy - a survivor at any cost with humor as sharp as a switchblade. Plissken has made periodic returns to the public eye via the silver screen in the 1996 Escape from L.A., but his story has been featured in comic book form with The Adventures of Snake Plissken (1997 one-shot from Marvel Comics) and John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles (2003 four-part series from CrossGen and Hurricane Entertainment). This month, BOOM! Studios released Escape From New York Volume 1: Escape from Florida, written by Christopher Sebela, with art by Diego Barreto, colors by Marissa Louise, letters by Ed Dukeshire, and cover art by Tim Bradstreet. The first volume collects issues one through four - the rebellious bad boy is back!
Please read my entire review at Fanboy Comics:http://www.fanboycomics.net/index.php...
Please read my entire review at Fanboy Comics:http://www.fanboycomics.net/index.php...
April 11, 2019
Immediate continuation of the '81 movie whose employment of the iconic Snake Plissken and the opportunities afforded by the set up are hampered by bad writing, bad art, and - combining the two - notably poor visual storyelling. There's no voice here, no narrative flow, and no theme - things just happen to and around Snake, who is given no reason to participate beyond immediate survival (which Kurt Russell himself noted as Snake's dominant character trait, but is not a good basis for a longform story). The world-building is cartoonishly broad, the plot episodic and haphazard, the supporting characters thin caricatures, and the whole thing adds up to... well, fuck all, really. This would be a 1.5 star if the rating system allowed it - I can't quite bring myself to take it all the way down to 1.
April 12, 2019
A disappointment from start to finish...if you love the film, you’re going to barely tolerate this comics sequel.
February 21, 2016
For years after the release of John Carpenter's dystopian sci-fi masterpiece Escape From New York (1981), hopes and possibilities for a sequel were stoked. I suspect many fans anticipated a follow-up along the lines of what George Miller did with the Mad Max sequels -- something that built upon and broadened the post-apocalyptic world that had been established in the first movie, rather than a beat-for-beat remake.
Carpenter, ever the antiauthoritarian rebel like his eye-patched antihero Snake Plissken, did get around to that sequel -- fifteen years later -- but delivered the film he wanted to see, not necessarily the ones fans had been clamoring for. Escape from L.A. -- an underappreciated gem, in my opinion -- was the kind of remake-cum-sequel Carpenter's idol Howard Hawks was known for. An exercise in world-building à la The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome it wasn't; EFLA is a gonzo, grand-scale exploitation film masquerading as a big-studio action movie, full of in-jokes and social commentary that, understandably, left both fans and non-fans scratching their heads upon its release; those who loved the first one didn't care for the second, and those that saw the second without familiarity with the first didn't know what the hell they were watching! Twenty years later, Escape from L.A. still hasn't gotten its due.
There have been two previous attempts to flesh out the only-briefly-alluded-to span of time between the two movies: a one-off comic from Marvel in 1997 called The Adventures of Snake Plissken, and a four-issue miniseries from CrossGen in 2003 titled John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles. Neither took.
Now BOOM! is publishing an ongoing series under the title of the original movie (which doesn't make much sense, frankly, since the first issue begins with the closing shots of the film, but, hey, I guess a brand name's a brand name). This book is clearly an attempt to present a "world-building" sequel that eschews the camp humor and repeat-the-plot-points approach of Carpenter's cinematic successor with a pretty good (certainly brisk) plot about Snake getting embroiled in an attempt by the rogue state of Florida to secede from the rest of the United States (this story arc is titled, appropriately, Escape from Florida). Along the way, Snake meets a wild assortment of characters, in keeping with the tradition Carpenter established, and his characterization is pretty spot-on -- you can easily picture Kurt Russell delivering the dialogue. (Though rendering Snake in merely pen and ink, detached from Russell's playful, tough-guy charisma, only emphasizes how much Russell's performance raised this character above what could've been a one-note Chuck Norris archetype. Perhaps, though, that will serve to enhance appreciation for his 1996 reprisal, the only sequel to one of his own films in which Russell has ever appeared.)
Carpenter's best movies -- which includes his two great Escapes -- always spoke to the political ethos of their times (as great horror and sci-fi can and should), and I admire that writer Christopher Sebela aims higher than your average licensed cash-in here, crafting a story that echoes the militant rallying cries of states' rights and secession as misguided means of preserving our freedoms. Like Carpenter's films, the political commentary is subtextual -- it only supports a perfectly entertaining adventure story in its own right, if that's all you've come for.
On the subject of entertaining adventure, here's my only gripe: Sebela has a habit of cueing up big action sequences, only to then leapfrog right through them in a handful of panels. Such an approach robs the story of both its logic (how does Snake manage to plausibly escape Liberty Island in the first issue, 'cause it all came off a little too easy by my read?) and coherency: Some of the action scenes are so clipped, they are maddeningly difficult to follow (and certainly devoid of excitement, consequently).
Some of the blame for that should perhaps go to artist Diego Barreto, whose disjointed action sequences lack the fluidity a comic like this needs to be viscerally (and narratively) effective. But, beyond that, I didn't much care for his cartoonish style, which seemed inappropriate for this particular book. For a comic that's attempting to recapture the urban, nocturnal aesthetic of the 1981 movie -- Carpenter shot that film, after all, on actual streets in a burnt-out, abandoned section of downtown St. Louis, not some set-decorated Hollywood back lot -- I would have liked to see the artwork rendered in a way that is more reminiscent of that exploitation-film aura (like the film's grindhouse-style one-sheet). Carpenter, after all, is a master of mood and framing -- he's always been better at atmosphere than characterization -- and what better way to recapture the mise-en-scène of the original Escape from New York than through a visual style as equally grand and somber -- a Greek underworld odyssey reimagined as a post-Watergate American nightmare?
In short: decent story; subpar art; probably only demonstrates how much of Carpenter and Russell's own personal idiosyncrasies elevated this material to the classic status it now rightfully enjoys. But, die-hard fans looking for a Snake Plissken fix could do worse that Escape from Florida. Here's hoping future installments feature more compelling visuals.
Carpenter, ever the antiauthoritarian rebel like his eye-patched antihero Snake Plissken, did get around to that sequel -- fifteen years later -- but delivered the film he wanted to see, not necessarily the ones fans had been clamoring for. Escape from L.A. -- an underappreciated gem, in my opinion -- was the kind of remake-cum-sequel Carpenter's idol Howard Hawks was known for. An exercise in world-building à la The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome it wasn't; EFLA is a gonzo, grand-scale exploitation film masquerading as a big-studio action movie, full of in-jokes and social commentary that, understandably, left both fans and non-fans scratching their heads upon its release; those who loved the first one didn't care for the second, and those that saw the second without familiarity with the first didn't know what the hell they were watching! Twenty years later, Escape from L.A. still hasn't gotten its due.
There have been two previous attempts to flesh out the only-briefly-alluded-to span of time between the two movies: a one-off comic from Marvel in 1997 called The Adventures of Snake Plissken, and a four-issue miniseries from CrossGen in 2003 titled John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles. Neither took.
Now BOOM! is publishing an ongoing series under the title of the original movie (which doesn't make much sense, frankly, since the first issue begins with the closing shots of the film, but, hey, I guess a brand name's a brand name). This book is clearly an attempt to present a "world-building" sequel that eschews the camp humor and repeat-the-plot-points approach of Carpenter's cinematic successor with a pretty good (certainly brisk) plot about Snake getting embroiled in an attempt by the rogue state of Florida to secede from the rest of the United States (this story arc is titled, appropriately, Escape from Florida). Along the way, Snake meets a wild assortment of characters, in keeping with the tradition Carpenter established, and his characterization is pretty spot-on -- you can easily picture Kurt Russell delivering the dialogue. (Though rendering Snake in merely pen and ink, detached from Russell's playful, tough-guy charisma, only emphasizes how much Russell's performance raised this character above what could've been a one-note Chuck Norris archetype. Perhaps, though, that will serve to enhance appreciation for his 1996 reprisal, the only sequel to one of his own films in which Russell has ever appeared.)
Carpenter's best movies -- which includes his two great Escapes -- always spoke to the political ethos of their times (as great horror and sci-fi can and should), and I admire that writer Christopher Sebela aims higher than your average licensed cash-in here, crafting a story that echoes the militant rallying cries of states' rights and secession as misguided means of preserving our freedoms. Like Carpenter's films, the political commentary is subtextual -- it only supports a perfectly entertaining adventure story in its own right, if that's all you've come for.
On the subject of entertaining adventure, here's my only gripe: Sebela has a habit of cueing up big action sequences, only to then leapfrog right through them in a handful of panels. Such an approach robs the story of both its logic (how does Snake manage to plausibly escape Liberty Island in the first issue, 'cause it all came off a little too easy by my read?) and coherency: Some of the action scenes are so clipped, they are maddeningly difficult to follow (and certainly devoid of excitement, consequently).
Some of the blame for that should perhaps go to artist Diego Barreto, whose disjointed action sequences lack the fluidity a comic like this needs to be viscerally (and narratively) effective. But, beyond that, I didn't much care for his cartoonish style, which seemed inappropriate for this particular book. For a comic that's attempting to recapture the urban, nocturnal aesthetic of the 1981 movie -- Carpenter shot that film, after all, on actual streets in a burnt-out, abandoned section of downtown St. Louis, not some set-decorated Hollywood back lot -- I would have liked to see the artwork rendered in a way that is more reminiscent of that exploitation-film aura (like the film's grindhouse-style one-sheet). Carpenter, after all, is a master of mood and framing -- he's always been better at atmosphere than characterization -- and what better way to recapture the mise-en-scène of the original Escape from New York than through a visual style as equally grand and somber -- a Greek underworld odyssey reimagined as a post-Watergate American nightmare?
In short: decent story; subpar art; probably only demonstrates how much of Carpenter and Russell's own personal idiosyncrasies elevated this material to the classic status it now rightfully enjoys. But, die-hard fans looking for a Snake Plissken fix could do worse that Escape from Florida. Here's hoping future installments feature more compelling visuals.
January 23, 2023
Escape From Florida: The Snake-en-ing!
You know what I like about Snake? He genuinely doesn't give a shit. There are parts in Escape from NY where Snake, if he were a traditional hero, could intervene and help someone out, and he totally doesn't.
It makes the story fun to watch because he's kind of an unpredictable character. Not in a real life sense, a selfish person isn't all that interesting, but a person who is 100% focused on his own goal or mission, and has NO interest in playing the hero, is kind of an unusual character to follow throughout a movie.
Snake is also an interesting character because his actions feel organic. He does a thing, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, then he does another thing, and sometimes he's kicked back to square one, sometimes he makes a little progress. It's a very non-linear story for a good chunk of the movie.
The comic doesn't have either of these qualities.
You know what I like about Snake? He genuinely doesn't give a shit. There are parts in Escape from NY where Snake, if he were a traditional hero, could intervene and help someone out, and he totally doesn't.
It makes the story fun to watch because he's kind of an unpredictable character. Not in a real life sense, a selfish person isn't all that interesting, but a person who is 100% focused on his own goal or mission, and has NO interest in playing the hero, is kind of an unusual character to follow throughout a movie.
Snake is also an interesting character because his actions feel organic. He does a thing, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, then he does another thing, and sometimes he's kicked back to square one, sometimes he makes a little progress. It's a very non-linear story for a good chunk of the movie.
The comic doesn't have either of these qualities.
April 12, 2022
Ok, i'm a fan of the movie and everything John Carpenter has ever did, so i had to got this one a chance. Aaand it was ok.
It's all happening after the first movie, and our guy Snake Pliskeen is still trying to live his life and stop fighting, but war always come in, somehow.
Diego Barreto has a nice pen, reminds me of Pia Guerra somehow, but Christopher Sebela has his issues, with his storytelling and how his telling the story. Sometimes, it's seems story is missing through the panels and it's just weird how somethings happens.
Anyway, it was really fun, gotta finish this one. But yeah, the movie is still better.
It's all happening after the first movie, and our guy Snake Pliskeen is still trying to live his life and stop fighting, but war always come in, somehow.
Diego Barreto has a nice pen, reminds me of Pia Guerra somehow, but Christopher Sebela has his issues, with his storytelling and how his telling the story. Sometimes, it's seems story is missing through the panels and it's just weird how somethings happens.
Anyway, it was really fun, gotta finish this one. But yeah, the movie is still better.
July 16, 2020
Two stars for the art only; the story was something out of the early days of [british comic] 2000 AD when it was sci-fi for kids. Doesn't even match the tone of the 2nd more light hearted film, this is Snake turned up to twelfty stupid. I don't have the energy to continue on to the rest of the volumes.
February 10, 2019
Decent read. More silly than action-packed.
September 25, 2016
John Carpenter’s dystopic vision continues in Escape From New York: Volume One – Escape From Florida, though it’s but a pale imitation of the beloved cult film. Picking up where the film ended, notorious criminal Snake Plissken heads for Florida; which has fallen under the control of two young warlords and separated from the United States. The writing is quite bad, with rather poor pacing and disjointed storytelling. And the artwork isn’t very good either; lacking the dark and gritty aesthetic that Carpenter brought to the martial. Incredibly disappointing, Escape From New York: Volume One – Escape From Florida fails to recapture the thrill and excitement of the original film.
December 19, 2021
Second Reading:
So this graphic novel has pretty much everything I like in storytelling going for it. I like the immediate continuation, the main character repeatedly just being thrown into high stakes situations, and a meandering little-spoken protagonist who, don't worry, has it in the bag. The Escape From New York movie is very similar to this, and I could see Snake reacting the way he did to all of it. My main problem with this Volume is that we're just moving a little too fast to really breath in this world. The movie has its good fun action moments, but there's also a lot of downtime we're you're talking or walking or looking. I really like Romulus and Remus and wish they could have been dived into a little more, the actual Escape from Florida, too. I hope these pick up a little, but I've already read them and don't thing I do.
3.5
So this graphic novel has pretty much everything I like in storytelling going for it. I like the immediate continuation, the main character repeatedly just being thrown into high stakes situations, and a meandering little-spoken protagonist who, don't worry, has it in the bag. The Escape From New York movie is very similar to this, and I could see Snake reacting the way he did to all of it. My main problem with this Volume is that we're just moving a little too fast to really breath in this world. The movie has its good fun action moments, but there's also a lot of downtime we're you're talking or walking or looking. I really like Romulus and Remus and wish they could have been dived into a little more, the actual Escape from Florida, too. I hope these pick up a little, but I've already read them and don't thing I do.
3.5
May 8, 2016
Hard to bottle atmosphere.
March 23, 2017
Perfect follow up to one of my favourite movies.
April 19, 2017
This series does some fun world-building that feels like it exists authentically in the same world as the film. And it certainly doesn't take itself too seriously. But aside from those good points, I didn't get much enjoyment out of it.
The pacing is way too hectic in the first half, although it does eventually slow down a bit. There isn't much variety to the proceedings: Snake meets someone, they die about two pages later, he kills some bad guys and escapes. The art is unexceptional, and the action is both stale and incredibly difficult to follow.
As a character, Snake's personality is about right, but in a fight he comes across as an impossible badass, not someone who is at the extreme high end of plausibility (as I felt he was in the film). He usually ends up running away, but you don't get that same sense that he is first and foremost a survivor. Also, I think even a more talented writer would have had a hard time making Snake a memorable character without the charisma of Kurt Russell doing most of the heavy lifting.
This series takes the correct approach of trying to be big, dumb fun with a bit of satire thrown in. Unfortunately, it's just not all that fun.
The pacing is way too hectic in the first half, although it does eventually slow down a bit. There isn't much variety to the proceedings: Snake meets someone, they die about two pages later, he kills some bad guys and escapes. The art is unexceptional, and the action is both stale and incredibly difficult to follow.
As a character, Snake's personality is about right, but in a fight he comes across as an impossible badass, not someone who is at the extreme high end of plausibility (as I felt he was in the film). He usually ends up running away, but you don't get that same sense that he is first and foremost a survivor. Also, I think even a more talented writer would have had a hard time making Snake a memorable character without the charisma of Kurt Russell doing most of the heavy lifting.
This series takes the correct approach of trying to be big, dumb fun with a bit of satire thrown in. Unfortunately, it's just not all that fun.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews