Villard Books, July 2008
I don't read comics. I don't even read the ones that show up each week in the Sunday paper. That's why I speak with authority when I say that the Flight comic series, edited by Kazu Kubuishi, is the sort of collection that will not only thrill comics adherents, but will also ensnare the heretofore unensnared, like me.
Flight is an annually released series now in its fifth volume. It's heavy on artistic talent. I'm not sure where I first came across the work in volume five, but it immediately turned my head. Kibuishi, author and illustrator of the Copper web comic, not only edits the series but draws the covers for the books as well. Kibuishi's work is gorgeous - the synthesis of a skilled hand and an ethereal imagination. As the thing that grabs you when you first see the book on the shelf, it couldn't be more effective.
I don't read comics. I don't even read the ones that show up each week in the Sunday paper. That's why I speak with authority when I say that the Flight comic series, edited by Kazu Kubuishi, is the sort of collection that will not only thrill comics adherents, but will also ensnare the heretofore unensnared, like me.
Flight is an annually released series now in its fifth volume. It's heavy on artistic talent. I'm not sure where I first came across the work in volume five, but it immediately turned my head. Kibuishi, author and illustrator of the Copper web comic, not only edits the series but draws the covers for the books as well. Kibuishi's work is gorgeous - the synthesis of a skilled hand and an ethereal imagination. As the thing that grabs you when you first see the book on the shelf, it couldn't be more effective.
Within Flight is a wide range of work. Some of it is similar to Kibuishi's in its surreal quality, like Michael Gagne's "The Story of Rex," an evolutionary tale from another cosmos that has unfolded through multiple volumes of Flight, and "Voyage," Kness and Made's wonderfully illustrated and wordless story of a polar bear's journey through the rising seas of a ruined world.
My favorite in the collection is Scott Campbell's "Igloo Head and Tree Head," a ridiculously funny story which seems to interpret various facets of our world as large hats worn by monstrous, though funny and good natured, beings. Campbell was awarded a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators for "Igloo Head and Tree Head" in 2007.
My favorite in the collection is Scott Campbell's "Igloo Head and Tree Head," a ridiculously funny story which seems to interpret various facets of our world as large hats worn by monstrous, though funny and good natured, beings. Campbell was awarded a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators for "Igloo Head and Tree Head" in 2007.
There is much more to rave about in Flight - the work of both proven artists as well as previously unknown names - but you need to get a copy in your hands to fully appreciate the talent brought together in this beautiful book.
