The first Flight
anthology was one of those universally-beloved
comics, and the second volume is maybe a little
bit better, and certainly a lot bigger, adding
some familiar comic creator names to the list of
accomplished newbies and animators who made up
most of the cast of the first Flight. As
with any anthology, every story won't appeal to
every taste, but there's a surprisingly high basic
level of quality at work, and even the stories
that don't resonate are bound to gain some
acceptance on a visual level. Forget the theme of
flight, which doesn't even exist in some of the
stories in this second volume; the real unifying
element of Flight Volume 2 is amazing
full-color artwork that is bound to lead to a few
dropped jaws.
420 full-color pages of story. At $25,
Flight Volume 2 is a hell of a value, and
it's a dense enough read that most readers won't
be able to work through it all at once.
Fortunately, that works out just fine, because
Flight is 420 pages, but it is also home to
over 30 stories, giving a nice balance between
enough bang for your buck and stories that are
light enough to read without a major time
investment. Some of the stories are a little
slight, some go too long, but in general, the
creators make use of the format to provide
perfectly paced bite-sized tales. And lots of
them.
The first Flight roster was made up
mostly of names that comic readers wouldn't know,
even though a lot of these creators had worked on
comic fan-friendly animated projects, or more
widely seen commercial art or webcomics. With the
reputation of Flight firmly established,
volume two sees some more established names
joining the roster. Michel Gagne, who has his own
comic Zed as well as having done backups in
Detective Comics, opens the book with the
visually stunning wordless tale of a
normal-looking fox enduring the dangers of his
homeworld with the help of a mysterious alien.
Doug TenNapel, of Tommysaurus Rex and
Creature Tech fame, enters the fray with a
bizarre and charming tale of two anthropomorphic
friends throwing a tea party that reads like a
cross between kids' cartoon Maisy and
TenNapel's own twisted Earthworm Jim.
Demo's Becky Cloonan delivers some visual
poetry with lyrics by Greek cartoonist Vasilis
Lolos that looks almost like a comic book version
of a music video. And Bone's Jeff Smith
delivers an all-too-brief but still fun four-pager
about two friends walking through space while one
suffers ultimately dangerous hunger pangs.
While it's always nice to see the big boys come
to play, though, they're hardly the only star
attractions here. Everyone will have their own
favorites in this kind of thing, but for me, the
standouts were mostly by creators who did work on
the first Flight anthology or who I was
seeing for the first time here. Surprisingly, only
a few of these stories really play with the flight
theme to any real extent. Jake Parker's "The Robot
and the Sparrow" is a wistful, uplifting little
modern fable that is also in Image's Free Comic
Book Day offering this year, a good choice given
that it's approachable, done in one offing, all
ages in content and exceptionally beautiful to
look at. Then there's Johane Matte's "Icarus," a
hilarious twist on the doomed flight of the Greek
mythmaker that recasts it as a father-son piece
about a hapless scientist and his even more
hapless son and guinea pig.
Many creators followed the flight theme in a
loose way, taking it as any kind of journey. Neil
Babra's "The Golden Temple" recalls the look and
feel of Craig Thompson's travelogue Carnet De
Voyage, a comparison I made last time when I
enjoyed the first chapter in Flight Volume
One, and though the connection to the theme is
nonexistent, it's undeniably a good story. Jen
Wang's "Destiny Express" is also a stretch as far
as the flight theme goes, being a tale of a
journey, but it's visually stimulating and a
fascinating insight into the nature of change and
the fear of change that we all have at one time or
another. Rodolphe Guenoden's "The Ride," colored
by Kazu Kibuishi, features a vivid recreation of
the French countryside, a beautiful Frenchwoman
and a terrific little twist at the end that makes
for one of the strongest stories in the book. Doug
Holgate's "Laika," a wordless story of play
between a normal dog and alien cats, is beautiful
and fun and light, given just enough weight by the
sad fate of Laika's homeworld.
Some of the really entertaining stories aren't
even remotely tied into a flight theme, but are
instead slice-of-life or strong character pieces.
Khang Le's "Monster Hunters" is a really great
look at a friendship that seems to exist beyond
the bounds of the story but doesn't feel any less
self-contained as a result, and the muted colors
and expressive faces of the artwork are gorgeous
as well. Bannister's "Dust on the Shelves" is an
honest tale of love found through comics that any
given comics fan can relate to as a tale of hope
and true love. Richard Pose also strikes
biographical gold with the tale of Francisco
Sanchez, an inspiring story of a young Cuban boy
who finds his calling in baseball with the help of
an old player of the game.
While there are a variety of art styles at play
in the pages of Flight, there's not a bad
art job in the bunch. There's a lot of vivid,
almost painted color work going on in these pages,
with standout performances from Sonny Liew, Phil
Craven, Clio Chiang, Giuseppe Ferrario, Joana
Carneiro and Paulo Visguerio. There are any number
of stories which feature work reminiscent of
animation, such as the work of Herval, Justin
Ridge and any number of other illustrators I've
also mentioned. There's also a fair amount of high
detail backdrops and anime-inspired visual
spectacle, with Rad Sechrist's "Ghost Trolley"
being perhaps the most exceptional example.
Basically, there's a wide range of art styles, but
the unifying factor is an amazing use of color and
a level of quality and beauty that is exceptional.
Flight Volume 2 is a treat, and with 420
pages of story from over thirty creators, many of
them new or relatively new names, it's a must-read
primer for the comics industry that is to come.
You'll be seeing most if not all of these names
again sooner rather than later at work in this
industry. 9/10
