Flight, Volume 1 »

Kazu Kibuishi was 24 years old and working full-time in the animation industry when he began developing the idea of doing Flight. He began contacting his friends in the animation, comics, and graphic novel world to see if they would want to join the project. Little did he know that it would draw him into comics full-time. He now works from his home studio in Pasadena, California, creating and promoting Flight and his popular young adult comic Daisy Kutter, which was nominated as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults — the only graphic novel on the list in 2005.

Originally published by Image Comics in 2004, Flight, Volume One launched this graphic novel series with a resounding bang. Since then the Flight series has steadily increased in popularity–and now all of the Flight backlist will be coming to Villard!

Flight, Volume One received a great boost when graphic novel hero Scott McCloud praised the quality and artistry of the book in an afterward entitled THE YEAR COMICS TOOK FLIGHT. Little could readers know at the time how prophetic McCloud’s words would prove to be.

“Regardless of where it’s shelved, this book belongs in every library.” — Library Journal on Flight, Volume One

Authors included in Flight, Volume One are: Bengal, Bill Mudron, Catia Chien, Chris Appelhans, Clio Chiang, Derek Kirk Kim, Dylan Meconis, Enrico Casarosa, Erika Moen, Hope Larson, Jacob Magraw-Mickelson, Jake Parker, Jen Wang, Joel Carroll, Kazu Kibuishi, Khang Le, Neil Babra, Philip Craven, Rad Sechrist, and Vera Brosgol.

Publishers Weekly

With truly stellar art from masters of the field, this fantasy anthology is a must for comics connoisseurs and a delight to readers who like pretty stories. Fanciful tales of children, monsters, fairy-filled forests and imagined worlds create an enchanted escape. Some of the stories are entirely wordless, while others are told from a child's point of view. Tony Cliff's "Old Oak Trees," recounts how the author's grandmother found a sort of "Wind in the Willows" gang of talking animals who live and love and play cricket in the local woods. Ben Hatke's "The Edge" follows two brothers who find out who really lives at the edge of the world. Kean Soo's almost heartbreakingly winning "Jellaby" is an account of a girl and a monster at a tea party. Multiple Academy Award-nominee Bill Plympton tells the story of "The Cloud," a little puff of vapor who just wants to float into representational shapes, but is squelched by its elders. Editor Kibuishi's contribution is also charmingly drawn but far from lighthearted; it details what happens when boys playing soldiers turn into men. Flight mixes the influences of comics, animation and classic children's illustration into a timeless fantasy. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.