Review by Frank Plowright
A rocky outcrop in San Francisco Bay was between 1934 and 1963 the most feared of US prisons. The location may have only been a mile from the shore, but the ferocity and unpredictability of prevailing water currents rendered the sea treacherous and no-one attempting to escape is known to have survived. On the other hand, in June 1962 Frank Lee, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin escaped and their bodies were never discovered.
From that point Out of Alcatraz is fictional extrapolation of what Lee and Clarence Anglin might have done on making it to shore. Christopher Cantwell notes outside help for the escapees for which a form of payment is due, and this centres the plot around a necessity to escape Alacatraz differentiating it from a standard period crime story. Lee may have been among hardened criminals, but he’s no killer, which is important, there’s an excellent, smart and adaptable supporting character introduced early, and as incidents mount a pair of gay law enforcement agents aren’t the only ones following a trail.
Working with watercolours takes a confident artist as there’s far less control over what appears on the page, and occasionally a risk will go wrong, requiring a new start. Tyler Crook’s approach can be loose on other projects, but here the definitions are tight, although there’s still room for the appealing traces of paint pooling. Crook tends towards blonde men with puffy red faces, so confusion is possible, especially with the surprise ending to the first chapter, but otherwise this is great art with locations gorgeously defined.
The improbability of escaping from Alcatraz means pictures of the escapees are posted far and wide, enabling Cantwell to introduce diversions in what becomes a tense thriller. The predicaments are enough to generate suspense even when it’s underlined how few nice people feature in Out of Alcatraz. The nearest to decent folk are the law enforcement couple, one a Marshal, the other from the FBI, and while at first their appearance is only to deliver the threat of chase, they eventually develop their own compelling narrative.
Never quite what you expect, Out of Alcatraz is an exploration of the choices people have in life and their dreams of evading them. It’s also a cracking crime thriller.
