Book 2 in the Flight series is excellent, however the best stories are found in Book 1. Although many of the stories still use the flight theme, others seemed to go in strange directions with bizarre results. ( )

The second, larger edition of Flight continues the tradition of telling short stories often with graphical design at the forefront. A lot of the same artists are back this time, and one of the stories gets continued. This time, the Flight crew gets help from the excellent Doug TenNapel and also Jeff Smith, bolstering the roster just a bit.

The general theme of flight is still there, though this time some chose to do a flight of fancy or a flight from prison, which is a nice touch. The experimental work is gone, too, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your opinion of such things. Given the size of this edition, I think it would have been okay to include some of them again, but I'm not part of the ground control.

Favorites this time include the opening story, Smith's very short and funny story about universal travellers, a nifty little story of death called "The Ride", and a great parody about Icarus. But the best one of all has to be the one that's told with stick figures and stickey notes. Now THAT is my kind of story!

This is not to say those were the only good stories--far from it. Despite the larger size, the quality of this edition is amazing. I could easily talk about the child pirate, TenNapel's funny and touching story of faith (that has a great sequence in a store that just got in a "special" shipment of ape dung), magic bubbles, bounty hunters, a boy who wishes only to act but stays loyal to his fishing father, the ghostly street car, etc. About the only argument one could make about this anthology is that the art is not spectacular--each artist draws/designs to fit their story, so we see a lot of "childish" art this time around, since the stories seem to skew younger. However, anyone doing so is definitely missing the bigger picture.

There seemed to be less of an adult theme to the anthology this time, which is not a problem, I just happened to notice it. We still get a few, such as the prisoner trapped with only a rat for a companion or the man who apparently sacrifices animals to his love) but even those would be suitable for an older child. Though it's been awhile since I read the first volume, I remember it being a little more of a mix of themes.

While some anthologies might sag under the weight of this many pages, the Flight team is just so good that no matter where you open this up to, you're going to find something good. Your favorites will no doubt be different from mine, but I cannot see any comics fan not liking this book. I'd even recommend it to non-comics fans who enjoy short stories with the theme of flights of imagination. I can't wait to read book three. (10/07)

Trebby's Take: This recommendation flies high! ( )

The second anthology in the Flight Comics collection is not a disappointment. Like the first, it is an eclectic mixture in both stories and styles. Some of the same contributors from the first volume return along with some new artists, several of them award-winning. With thirty-three stories, the second volume is 432 pages long, more than twice the length of the first volume. It is completely in color, with fantastic art to go along with the fantastic stories, most of which give a nod towards the title of the anthology.

Experiments in Reading

worth buying!

430 pages of joy! As good as I felt volume one was, I can easily say that I enjoyed volume two even more. While the theme of Flight seemed stretched a bit thin to non-existant with some sections, the originality and pure lovely eye candy erased my objections. I have paged over and over through some of these stories. I was about to list off my favorites but that's silly. I might as well just refer to the following contents list. Delicious! ( )

I love this series. I started out with volume four and was blown away by how it exceeded its "literary" counterparts that desperately try to straddle the more conventional world and achieve a distinctive visual aesthetic. The result, from two I read (Blankets and Fun Home), is a so-so effort on both levels.

On the other hand, the artists in the Flight series simply work hard at creating compelling visual narratives. The result is a fantastic, happy, amusing, thoughtful reading experience. Love it, love it, love it. ( )