For years, the United States federal prison known as Alcatraz was considered one of the most airtight, impenetrable penitentiaries in the nation. Located in San Francisco Bay, the prison was long considered impossible to escape…
…until it wasn’t.
In 1962, three men jumped on Alcatraz and into the waters below, never to be seen again. Speculation about what happened to them has shifted into legend. Did they die, drowned in the waters of the bay? Or did they make their way to a life well outside the eye of the law?
Writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Tyler Crook are taking those questions and running with them in their new historical fiction comic Out of Alcatraz, debuting next month from Oni Press. Assuming the trio initially made their path away from the prison and evaded the law, what’s next? I spoke with Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook recently about the idea of Out of Alcatraz, the cast we encounter, the elements of California noir, and why we continue to be enthralled with stories of the famous/infamous prison.
I’ve read the first two issues of Out of Alcatraz and the pace is a mix of high action and something I can only call marinating tension. The thrust of the narrative feels like it goes at a clip, but never at the expense of the tension Cantwell and Crook are building. Alcatraz is full of kinetic discomfort that makes you cringe as you turn the page, but you can’t stand not to. This is noir at its best.
Out of Alcatraz #1 Cover A by Tyler Crook
FreakSugar: For folks who are considering picking up the book, what is the conceit of Out of Alcatraz?
Christopher Cantwell: Three men jumped off an inescapable prison in 1962 and were never found. Some say they drowned. But that’s boring. Some things point to them having made it. But what happened then? And why have they never been heard from again if they survived?
FS: This world and these characters feel lived-in from the jump. What can you tell us about who we will encounter?
CC: Frank Morris is our primary POV and he architected the escape. The Anglin brothers aided him and are equally wily and good in a tight spot, in tough trouble. But they don’t have much else once they escape. Only each other, as well as a woman who helped them from the outside for her own reasons. We also follow some federal agents hot on their trail, who are also not what they seem.
FS: The book uses the story of the three Alcatraz escapees as a jumping-on point. What kind of research went into your tale? What about the real-life events drew you to wanting to revolve a story around them?
Tyler Crook: Like all period pieces, I had to do a ton of visual research to try to get the clothes, the hair, the cars just right. Nearly every page required some sort of research to figure out what stuff looked like in 1962. One of my favorite resources was a Fresno State college year book that I got off of eBay. It’s been a god-send for drawing 1960’s hairdos!
FS: Following up on that, was there something that surprised you in the course of your research?
CC: It surprised me that remains of a raft were found on Angel Island and a car was reported stolen that night of the escape in Marin County. The car Tyler Drew matches the exact make and model of the stolen car. The Feds initially said no vehicles were reported missing.
FS: The press release has a quote that praises that you did California noir correctly. I wholeheartedly agree. What does that mean to you, California noir? What distinguishes it from other forms of noir?
CC: California is at once the living embodiment of problematic manifest destiny, “Go West Young Man,” and often portrayed as paradise. But it has its own troubled toils and history. It’s as far west as you can go before you hit the pacific. That can make people on the fringe or on the edge particularly desperate in a unique way.
TC: For me California is a place where people go to find freedom. Like the family in The Grapes of Wrath or the hippies in the 1960s or the gold prospectors in the 1850s. There has always been this feeling in America that California is a place you can go, be free and find your fortune. I think California Noir taps into that feeling and finds the flaws in that line of thinking.
FS: What has the collaboration process been like with him and the rest of the creative team?
CC: I’ve been honored by the experience. Letting Tyler do his thing, alter layout as he needed… I’ve just followed his lead. It’s been a joy to watch him work. There’s a Timelapse video he did of the first issue’s double spread and it’s breathtaking. Even sped up it’s like twenty minutes. You see how intricate his work is, and the respect of the craft, which is top tier.
TC: I could say the same for Chris. The scripts he delivers are tight as a drum. There hasn’t been a ton of back and forth on this project because I feel like we both understand and admire what the other is doing. It’s been a wonderful project.
FS: The escape has been a mystery for so long. Why are we still so fascinated by it?
CC: It’s open-ended. The official story doesn’t line up perfectly. It asks more questions than provides answers. And it stands in defiance of the idea that if you do the crime, you will do the time because our overlords command it. It’s a radically American story about freedom and our desire for it.
TC: I think it’s a lot like our fascination with the “unsinkable” Titanic. The public was told and believed that escape from Alcatraz was impossible. But when it became clear that was not true, there was never a satisfying explanation for how or why it wasn’t true. Knowing that these guys escaped but not knowing what happened next is vexing! It’s like starting a sentence that is quite interesting but then nev–
FS: What are you reading at the moment?
CC: Ghost Story by Peter Straub. But the writing is so good I get intimidated and stop reading every couple pages. It’s that good.
TC: I’ve been getting caught up on those Richard Corbin books that Dark Horse has been putting out lately. They are doing such a beautiful job on those. I’d never read more than a handful of pages of Den before and I’m loving it. I’ve also been reading Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie. This is the second time I’ve read it. I’m a pretty big fan of Leckie’s writing.
FS: Are there any other projects coming down the pike you’d like to discuss?
CC: I have a show coming out I did with Victor LaValle based on his novel The Devil in Silver. It will air on AMC this year as the third season of The Terror.
TC: Other than Alcatraz, I don’t have anything I can talk about right now. I guess I could plug my Friday Live streams on YouTube where I draw, do art experiments and chat about comics.
FS: If you had one final pitch for Out of Alcatraz, what would it be?
CC: Who gets to be free? Do any of us?
Out of Alcatraz #1 goes on sale Wednesday, March 19, from Oni Press.
From the official issue description:
Born from one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th century, this taut and breathtaking original limited series launches with a double-sized, 48-page debut from Eisner Award-nominated writer Christopher Cantwell (Plastic Man No More, Briar) and Eisner Award-nominated illustrator Tyler Crook (Harrow County, The Lonesome Hunters)!
Convicts Frank Morris and Clarence Anglin have washed ashore in San Francisco after surviving their infamous escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in June 1962. They soon meet their gruff and disappointed handler, a mysterious young woman who’s also running from something, and hope to quickly get their way north to the border-if they can even make it out of Modesto alive. As a dogged federal manhunt and chance encounters threaten the desperate convicts, everyone involved is about to discover the same bloodstained truth: life on the run is an even more hellish prison than Alcatraz could have ever been.