Flight: Volume 1
Flight: Volume 2 - Kazu Kibuishi et al. 
As I promised earlier, I wanted to check out the first two volumes of Flight after seeing Volume 3. Volume 1 is the smallest of the bunch and the least polished, but it's an impressive feat for a bunch of young cartoonists, most of whom had only published their work on the web before. There's an afterword by Scott McCloud that tells a little more of the story behind Flight, which is nice because it has no introduction. McCloud, however, can't do anything straightforward, so it's written as if he's reminiscing from 2054, fifty years after Volume 1 was published. McCloud points to a generation of comics artists with a different attitude about print, different influences in comics, different demographics (almost half are women), and showing that comics that aren't about superheroes can still have broad appeal.
Aside from McCloud's prescient appraisal, none of the comics in Volume 1 really jumped out at me except Rad Sechrist's "Beneath the Leaves" story (not the same as in Volume 3 but also featuring talking animals).
Volume 2 (almost twice the size) seemed already to be a good jump in quality. Doug TenNapel was delightful and absurd as usual in "Solomon Fix." "The Robot and the Sparrow" by Jake Parker was beautifully illustrated and just plain cute. Really, there's a bunch of them in Volume 2 that are winners; check out previews on the website.
Both volumes, though, are a great introduction to some up-and-coming comics artists, many of whom have comics online.
Fed to jonathan's brain | August 10, 2006
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