Flight, Volume Seven

Summary: Flight is a series of comics anthologies that feature short pieces, on a variety of subjects but mostly all in the fantasy / sci-fi realm, from a variety of young graphic novel creators. Stories in Volume 7 include the last/first part of Michael Gagne's The Story of Rex, another of JP Ahonen's "Kenneth Shuri, Modern Ninja" stories, a Kazu Kibuishi story featuring the courier, as well as a number of one-off stories featuring everything from monsters to motorbike races, soldiers to sandwiches, fairy markets to forest spirits.

Review: This volume was solidly enjoyable, with lots of good-to-very-good stories, but nothing that really blew me out of the water. My favorites in Volume 7 were "Premium Cargo" by Kostas Kiriakakis, about an airship captain who has been tasked to deliver a very special child, and "Sentinels" by Jason Caffoe, a short piece that manages to effectively capture the terrors and the wonders of the power that dwells in the woods. There was also some lovely artwork in some of the stories in this volume, particularly Justin Gerard's "Live Bait", a story of some rodents and a horrible creature that has taken up residence deep in the swamp, and Cory Godbey's "Onere and Piccola", an Orpheus-like creation myth.

Recommendation: The Flight collections are an amazing outpouring of creativity, and well worth picking up whether you're just getting into graphic novels, or if you're an established comics reader who wants a sampling of what's out there. ( )

Reason for Reading: This book was nominated for a Cybils '10 Graphic Novel, category and we judges didn't receive review copies and I wasn't able to find a copy in time for the judging. I have just now been able to obtain a copy.

I don't have an awful lot to say about this book. A graphic novel anthology of short stories by mostly people who as a collective haven't published many books but are in the industry on a freelance basis with much experience in animation work. I had previously heard of (and read two) of the author/illustrators presented here: Kibuishi obviously and Dave Roman. Then I came across a Jellaby story which I didn't know the author's name but have been wanting to read the books and very much enjoyed the short story. Some stories are very short, others quite long. There is no theme, rhyme or reason to the collection, just a presentation of beautiful art. That is where this book excels. The graphic presentation is beautiful. the artwork is stunning and it is pure joy to read through. The stories are hit and miss with me I really enjoyed a couple "Jellaby" by Kean Soo, "Live Bait" by Justin Gerard and Premium Cargo by Kostas Kiriakakis. The majority of the other stories were okay and a handful I just plain didn't get. I can't see myself reading another one of these books in the future, unless I had to. ( )