Flight, Volume Two’s messages go beyond the conventions of pulp fiction comic books, writes Clearly, the word flight doesn’t merely refer to the deeds of an average passenger airline. For, Flight, Volume Two (2005) handles themes like migration, growth, death and discovery in its collection of 33 stories. Pain, innocence, fear and action are among the states of mind it profiles vividly.
The book kick-starts with Michael Gagne’s Inner Sanctum. Its focus on the worth of the inner self being revealed metaphorically through a planet might remind current cinegoers of the blockbuster movie Wall-E.
Jake Parker’s The Robot and the Sparrow, another noteworthy story, is about two friends, a machine and a bird, being separated by the needs of the latter to migrate. This pain induces the robot to think on new lines.
Monster Slayers, by Khang Le, has two young men dealing with a threat against a village, and in the process become wiser. There is also something for the Indian reader, with Neil Babra’s The Golden Temple showing a new perspective of the human soul.
Loss of innocence is the argument presented in Destiny Express (Jen Wang) in the form of a girl’s transition from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, Kazu Kibuishi has coloured Sam’s love for Tia in a very few yet powerful shades in The Orange Grove.
Objects like an orange, the props and costumes of a play, a rose and a feather, which appear in their original colours, give a Schindler’s List feel to it.
Hope Larson literally draws a parallel between the dynamics of a person’s life with the weather patterns in Weather Vain. Then, if one expects to find coherence in the avante-garde-like Heads Up (Becky Cloonan), Cellmates is a better option, as Phil Craven brings out a man from seclusion in a story obscurely similar to a cross between Cast Away and The Count of Monte Cristo. As one turns the pages further, one will reaffirm that seduction typically culminates in something frightening. Rodolphe Guenoden’s The Ride definitely takes the main character for a ride.
Laika is an odyssey where an experimental dog learns that its first step had paved the way for something grave for its masters. While Ghost Trolley, Wilford’s Stroll and Blip Pop deal with optimism, Impossible and Icarus demonstrate the necessity of sacrifice. Kness and Richard Pose illustrate the desires of the human mind in Sky Blue (for peace), Beisbol (ambition) and Clio Chiang’s This Time! (courage), respectively.
Manga fans have something to look out for. In Bannister’s Dust on the Shelves (English adaptation by Bannister), a boy and a girl with a common penchant for Manga comics will find something special in each other. A Test for Cenri, a fantasy by Amy Kim Ganter, may begin like an action epic, but it has more to do with the protagonist’s critical decisions. To conclude, Flight, Volume Two’s epilogue is a one-pager named Salmoning.
On the artwork front, it is interesting to see the influence of silent films on Guiseppe Ferrario’s The Flying Bride. Some of the drawings, such as in Dance of the Sugar Plums, are child-like, but that must have been purposely done to give a child’s view of a situation. Abstractness rules the pages, so those who are used to traditional comic book art, a la the super-hero style, remove the blindfold to embrace this graphic novel.
However, despite the analysis given in this review, the reader has the discretion to take home the interpretation that suits him or her, because the publisher has definitely undertaken this project to drive home a point. Rising from one’s existing circumstances, individual differences notwithstanding, seems a fine way of looking at it, but there is always the scope for finding out deeper and more intricate undertones.
To speak for all the stories, as if they were entities of a democracy, Flight, Volume Two is a lethal combination of 33 minds whose messages transcend the conventions of the pulp fiction comic books.
Nithin blogs at www.atlas.reborn.blogspot.com