Customer Reviews

Air Vol. 1: Letters from Lost Countries

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

G. Willow Wilson is flying through Air with the greatest of ease. Okay, sorry about the cheap pun, but it's true. Wilson, a gifted and intriguing young writer, is turning into a talent to watch when it comes to offbeat, magical realism comics for the next generation.

That is to say, she does a bang-up job of combining Lost-style conspiracy theories with no shortage of cliffhangers (Amelia Earhart makes an appearance here, and she fits right in, delight that she is). Our guide to this otherworldly realm is Blythe, a flight attendant for a fictional airline. Blythe is deathly afraid of heights and falling, but don't worry, this is not some simple trope for a series about flying. The old joke goes that it's not falling that one should be afraid of; it's the sudden stop at the end. In Blythe's case, her fear is that she'll continue to fall, on an on, past the ground and deeper and deeper. She may have good reason for this fear. Absolutely nothing she knows or thinks she knows is exactly true in this book.

Blythe first gets drawn into the madness of the strange world when she meets Zayn aboard a flight. She suspects him of being a terrorist, but he's not. He's quite a bit more. From there, Blythe is drawn into an ever-weirder plot involving hyperpraxis and the Etesian Front, the quest to change human travel lines forever, and the use of deadly force to prevent magical forces from changing the world forever. The title comes from a letter Blythe receives from Narimar, a country that doesn't exist. Yet if it doesn't exist, how is she receiving mail from there?

As with their previous Vertigo book, Cairo, Wilson and the always dependable M.K. Perker have created a nice little pocket of eeriness and strange behaviour. How long they can keep the mystery fresh and entertaining is anybody's guess right now, but for the time being, Air is fresh and compelling, a genuine treat.

-- John Hogan

I just finished reading the first trade paperback and it's great. I had no knowledge of this comic beforehand, I just read a preview a long time ago. The cover art alone made me want to check this one out. The art is great, the story is fast-paced, full of action and quite strange, which is something that I love in a comic. I hope this one gets a long run because it deserves it.

I just stumbled over the first AIR. I liked the premise of it and wanted to check it out. After reading it through in one session, i bought the second one today. And i have to say I am actually surprised how much i like it. Is it perfect? No! Does it have flaws? Yes! I just finished the DMZ series (which i loved) and it was quite a jump from the dark story of Manhattan going down the drain to Blythe's adventures. The drawing is sometimes a little too cute for my taste and sometimes Wilson doesn't take enough time to build up the story properly.
For example the whole beginning of the love affair between Zayn and Blythe just went a little to fast to make the implied overwhelming feelings between the two protagonists fully believable and the rest of story also takes quite a speedy pace. AIR could need a stop here and there to catch its breath and build up the characters with a little more detail.

That being said, I wouldn't have bought the second issue "Flying Machine" if i wouldn't have liked "Letters From Lost Countries". AIR is truly charming, i couldn't stop reading and i love the direction the story is taking. I do like the mixture of politics, love story, fantasy and mystery. if Willow Wilson and M.K Perker put a little more love into the details and give some plots a bigger chance to build up and add some (believable, thought through) drama to make it easier for the reader to identify with the main characters, AIR can count me in for the journey!

Ms. Wilson is clearly an erudite writer who draws not only on popular culture, but conspiracy theories, Sufi thought, current affairs, literature, and a broad expanse of history. This knowledge is not thrown about casually and aimlessly, but is woven together to give depth to what superficially appears to be an anti-terrorist thriller.

I got this trade because it was part of the 4 for 3 deal and I kind of regret going with it. It was poorly executed. I liked a lot about this series but the dialogue was poor and the author was moving entirely too fast. Blythe (the main character) starts using her "Abilties" entirely too quickly without any idea how. The romance between Blythe and Zayn just happens without warning and the ensuing pillow talk seriously made me cringe.

There are a lot of neat ideas here but I just didn't like the way the author writes. There are some good reviews for this so I guess a lot of people liked it, but for my money I'd rather read Books of Magic, Sandman, or Hellblazer if I'm in the mood for a modern fantasy comic.

I found the art kind of poor at first but it did grow on me some... still it's below average in my opinion.

I am still debating whether I want to give it 2 stars or 3. I'd say that 2.5 would be a fair assessment because I didn't exactly think it was bad or good, it was right in the middle for me.

... I just thought about the pillow talk scene again and have decided to bring it down to 2.

Wilson's AIR is a breath of fresh air [pardon the pun]: A wonderfully surreal and endlessly inventive examination on relationships, identity, memory, paranoia, and geography in an ever shrinking, globalized world where boundaries transform and reform effortlessly and fantastically - as if shaped in a madwoman's dream. Fortunately for us, that madwoman is the skilled Willow Wilson whose gifted pen brings the dream to fruition with the help of artist MK Perker.

This trade paperback collects the first five issues of the DC/Vertigo series "Air" from writer G. Willow Wilson and artist M. K. Perker. These issues were originally published in late 2008. The protagonist is Blythe Cameron, a flight attendant for Clearfield Airlines whose life changes after encountering an aggressive group of anti-terrorism vigilantes. Further description risks spoiling the elaborate plot which blends elements of espionage, romance, history, international politics and fantasy/science fiction. Wilson and Perker have previously collaborated on the graphic novel "Cairo". The story's momentum slows after the crackling 32 page first issue, but I was still interested enough to pick up the second and third TPBs. Unfortunately, sales for "Air" eventually slipped below 5,000 copies per issue and the series was cancelled after issue #24.

This is the start of a great series, well-written and making use of several interesting concepts (mayan mythology, 'lost countries'). One drawback to this comic in particular is that it saves a lot of secrets for the last few pages; one feels a little stunned by the final page, and a little incredulous.

Blythe didn't pick the best job to go with her fear of heights. Why would someone become a flight attendant when they suffered from a sever fear of heights? But that is what Blythe does and after an unusual run in with a passenger, her life starts to spiral out of control.

I loved this graphic novel. The story was was intriguing with fun twists. I liked how lighthearted some of it felt and how other parts were had the needed seriousness to them. Blythe is surrounded by a cast of fun characters that I have a feeling are only going to get better. I think part of why I liked this is that it wasn't as dark as I find a great many graphic novels to be. This just grabbed me right away you're not sure where the story is going but it seems like it is going somewhere good.

This was a wonderful change from so many of the other graphic novels I've read. It was light and fun. I found it be excellent and would highly recommend it to someone who has never read a graphic novel before or to someone who doesn't want all the gore that can be found it so many.