All PostsThe Clouds Above by Jordan Crane. Fantagraphics, 2005. Color, hardcover, approx. 6″ x 6″, $18.95.
The Clouds Above is a beautifully ilustrated children’s comic. Each page contains one square image. Text is found in word balloons; there is no narration. The story belongs to Simon, a young boy, and his cat, Jack. Escaping from school, they climb a mysterious stairway and end up in the sky among the clouds. The clouds are anthropomorphic and there are nice ones and mean ones (storm clouds) and lots of yellow birds that don’t act very nice after Jack tries to eat one. Oh yeah, and Simon doesn’t like his teacher or school to which he is quite late.
It’s a children’s book and I don’t find it so interesting. The art is wonderful, Crane can really draw: composition, line quality, colors, all worth spending some time looking at and enjoying. It can be hard to compose square panels well, but he nicely fills the panels and composes them so one’s gaze moves easily through the picture and off to the next one.
The story is rather predictable. Maybe kids would like it, but I didn’t care much for it. Between this and the beautiful but uninteresting story in Kramer’s Ergot 5, I’m hoping Crane decides to find a writer collaborator for his next work. All that great drawing shouldn’t go to such a waste with lesser storytelling.