Meridian: Flying Solo, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Barbara Kesel (Author), Steve McNiven (Illustrator), Joshua Middleton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2002

MERIDIAN is the story of Sephie, a sheltered young girl whose life resembles nothing so much as a fairy tale. The beloved only child of the Minister of Meridian, she grows up with an entire floating city as her playground. Then her father dies, and she inherits a sigil imbued with the power to create. So does her wicked Uncle Ilahn, except that his powers are bent on destruction and domination. Suddenly Sephie finds herself at the center of a power struggle, and quickly she learns that there is more than love in the world. Kidnapped to the world of Calador, Sephie’s journey home to Meridian puts her in the path of many people good and bad that help her grow up and counter Ilahn’s plans to take over her world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A former drama major, Barbara Kesel has been in the comic book industry since 1981, when she wrote a Batgirl backup story for Detective Comics while sitting in a tech booth monitoring a college play. Since then she has written for every major comic company as well as served as an editor at DC Comics and worked on almost every DC title, including Watchmen, and developed the DC/TSR line. She then moved on to Dark Horse Comics where she served as editor, then managing editor, and finally as liaison to the Legends line. Somewhere in all this she found time to play with her dogs, do charity work, head fund-raisers, and co-publish her local community newspaper. Now she's just responsible for training new writers and maintaining continuity as well as writing the stories that appear in the titles Meridian, The First, and Crossgen Chronicles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: CrossGeneration Comics (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931484031
• ISBN-13: 978-1931484039
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first comic I suggest to a female non-comic fan, October 29, 2002

By 

Blake Petit "Novelist, columnist & reviewer" (Ama, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meridian: Flying Solo, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I was lucky enough to meet Barbara Kesel at a comic book convention this summer and tell her how much I loved her work on CrossGen Comics' series "Meridian." She let me in on a little something -- out of all the trade paperbacks CrossGen sends to bookstores, "Meridian" is their best-seller, mostly to girls who have never seen the inside of a comic shop.

It's no secret why.

"Meridian" is the story of a teenage girl named Sephie, daughter of the minister of the city of Meridian, which floats high above the ground of her homeworld. All of the major cities do on this planet. Her world changes one day when her father and uncle are both infused with a mysterious power marked by a Sigil that appears on their bodies. Her uncle allows Sephie's father to die in this exchange, but not before his power is passed to Sephie.

This first "Meridian" trade is a great story, but to really get a feel for how good this series is, you've got to read them all. The way Sephie grows over the course of this tale is nothing short of spectacular. She begins as little more than your [typical] fairy tale princess, carefree, wrapped up in events she was unready for, but as time progresses she matures into a strong, intelligent young woman, a fighter when need be, a healer when possible.

The things CrossGen has done for the comic book industry in the past few years are nothing short of phenomenal, and out of all of their spectacular titles, "Meridian" stands as my favorite. It is genuinely a story that can be shared with anyone from children to adults, male or female, without insulting their intelligence or demeaning them, and delivers a good, positive message to boot. When I'm trying to get a female to try comic books, this is now the one I suggest to them first.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a Read and not THAT cliched, March 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Meridian: Flying Solo, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This is the most hyped story of the entire CrossGen Universe.

I'll get the bad news out of the way first. At times, the pacing is a little slow, and the story is somewhat predictable. And there are other CrossGen titles that are a more enjoyable read than Meridian (Sojourn, Route 666, and Negation come to mind).

That being said, it's still a CrossGen book, and right now, very few companies are turning out such consistently great material. The artwork (which does have the feel of an animated Disney feature) is beautiful, and really brings the characters to life. And this story, like most all of the CrossGen stories, is character-driven, which is really what makes a story great. If you enjoy comics and you enjoy Disneyana, or if you just like plain old tales of Good Versus Evil, you will enjoy this series. The first volume is (obviously) a great jumping on point, so give it a read and see what you think.

And just to clarify the previous reviewer's point, there are definitely elements of this series that would remind one of the Disney movie Treasure Planet. However, we must keep in mind that this volume collects issues of a monthly comic that was realeased in 2000, well before Treasure Planet was released in theatres. So if anything, you could say Disney was "borrowing" from CrossGen in this case.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best comics on the market!, May 21, 2002

By 

Matt Martinez (Burbank, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meridian: Flying Solo, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

CrossGen is a company that never ceases to amaze me. I currently collect more of their comics (thanks to their compendia, Forge and Edge) than any put out by other companies like Marvel and DC for several reasons. For one, they never seem to have problems releasing their comics on time. But the biggest reason is the quality of their stories and artwork. Meridian is one of their original flagship titles, and of those first few, definitely the best.

Meridian takes place on Demetria, a fantastic world where people live in floating island cities, traveling in airships. The story concerns a teenage girl named Sephie who, along with her treacherous Uncle Ilahn, is given a strange sigil by otherworldly beings. Her sigil was originally meant for her father, the minister of Meridian, but his immediate death and her immediate proximity cause the mark and its powers to pass to her. Ilahn offers to look after her in his home city of Cadador, but she soon discovers his plan to seize control of Meridian from her and enslave the rest of Demetria.

The look of this series is quite simply amazing. Josh Middleton's artwork looks more like stills from an animated feature than comics art. The series truly takes off, however, after Steve McNiven assumes the pencilling duties. McNiven and writer Barbara Kesel, bring the world and the characters who inhabit it to life. (If I had to compare the series to anything, it would be Hayao Miyazaki's brilliant manga Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.)

I read a review once that stated that teen girls' magazines should be ashamed for not devoting cover stories to Meridian and its main character Sephie. I must agree wholeheartedly. Sephie is a fantastically realized character who always feels like a real person. She is never written as a stereotype, never falling into the damsel in distress mode, and is truly a great role model for young girls.

Here's hoping more people catch on to this remarkable series. Meridian, Ruse and Sojourn are CrossGen's three best titles, and currently three of the best titles on the shelves.