Flight Explorer, Volume One

by Kean Soo, Kazu Kibuishi, Johane Matte

Book Overview

The first volume in a new series presents an anthology of comics and graphic short stories that revolve around the theme of flight, including works by noted comic book and graphic novel creators, top... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345503139
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Villard
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

comics anthology for kids

With the Harvey Award-winning anthology series Flight, editor Kazu Kibuishi has created a bit of a phenomenon. The short-story anthology had not been a popular format in comics for many years, but the critical acclaim and reader attention Flight achieved changed all that. Flight's introduction into the marketplace changed the way many publishing houses viewed comic anthologies, encouraging them to release material of their own in that vein. Because of the quality of work it contained as well, Flight became not only the flag-bearer but also the gold standard for all anthologies to live up to. Recently, Kibuishi and his co-contributors turned their attention towards stories geared for younger readers with Flight Explorer. As it stood, the series was already rather kid-friendly, but Kibuishi has said that, in creating this new Explorer anthology, he simply wanted to "[bring] into focus the all-ages comics we've always had." In fact, Explorer contains stories starring a few familiar faces of characters seen in previous volumes of Flight such as Kibuishi's own creation "Copper" and "Jellaby" by Kean Soo. It does leave readers to ponder whether this new series was really necessary or not, but perhaps this branching out will also lead to a tonal shift to more adult-oriented content in the next volume of Flight itself, which was just released earlier this week. This first volume of Flight Explorer contains ten stories in all which vary greatly in length, totaling a little more than a hundred pages. Most of the stories are very brief, measuring ten pages or less, but a few are longer (the "Missile Mouse" story by Jake Parker is longest at twenty pages). The tales are both serious and humorous, and they come in a variety of genres from science fiction ("Zita the Space Girl") to action/adventure ("Fish N Chips"), featuring locations as diverse as ancient Egypt ("Egyptian Cat") and the African jungle ("Delivery"). In short, there is a little bit of something for everyone in this anthology, giving it a very broad appeal. All the stories are of very high quality as well, featuring very outstanding art and brilliant coloring. Kean Soo's "Jellaby" story is one example, a heartwarming tale of a purple monster and his human best friend. In this volume's installment "First Snow," Jellaby is exposed to the stark landscape of a snowfall for the first time, his purple color standing out beautifully against all the white, and the detail the artist puts into drawing each snowflake is intricate. The first page of "Delivery" is another strong example of the attention to detail found in each story, as the artist Bannister skillfully conveys the way the streaks of sunlight pass through the thick green undergrowth of the jungle. Most of Flight Explorer's stories also have positive messages; the best such example can be found in the tale "Big Mouth" by Phil Craven. An overly large, overly loud creature has difficulty making friends at first due to his size and volume,

Get a feel for a varied group of artist/authors

This is a great short story collection for 2nd grade and up. As an adult the first story gave me a big chuckle. My kids 8 and 12 both got the humor in the story too. We love the Flight books because it gives us a taste for each artist\author and who to look for more material from. It also makes a great bathroom read for all ages. If you have struggling readers this format will give them something they can read that won't insult their intelligence. For this reason we have a pretty large collection of graphic novels for our dyslexic household. This has given them a love of reading that is usually not found in kids who struggle to learn to read. They are now reading novels but graphic novels still account for 25 to 35% of their reading material.

not only for the younger readers

Although the target audience for Flight Explorer is the youger reader, doesn't mean you need to be so young to enjoy the fun and energy that has been put into the vast array of short story collection that makes this graphic collection a great addition to anyones graphic novel library. I picked up this book because I have tasted of the goodness of previous flight collaborations, I would recommend this little tasty gem be inserted into most school libraries - they usually don't have the range of artists and styles to represent anyhow, and to have it all in one book is a treat. Thankyou Flight Team I look forward to your future publications.

Flight Explorer

Great book for all ages. I only gave it a four out of five because the stories were shorter than I had hoped for. But for only $10, it is well worth the money. I hope to see more of these in the future.

Kids offshoot to the Flight Series

"Flight Explorer" is a comic anthology edited by Kazu Kibuishi, an offspring of the main "Flight" series he has been editing for a while. "Explorer" is expressly targeted to children; like the other "Flight" books, the contributors come primarily from an art background. Each handles both the writing and art for their stories. Being a children's anthology, the stories are short and simple. The artwork is beautiful and varied. Some of the stories work on an all-ages (kids and adults) level - Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo in particular are great as always, and I actually prefer Johane Matte's piece here to her contributions to the main anthologies - but some are strictly kids stuff. Highly recommended for children; adults, if you liked the returning contributors from the main "Flight" series you'll like them here.