I've been a fan of Jordan Crane's for a while now. I think his book, The Last Lonely Saturday, is a masterpiece, beautifully drawn and designed. And that's the other thing you get with Jordan: A book that's designed and presented as well as it's drawn.
Crane's latest, The Clouds Above, is from Fantagraphics and is a beautiful little full-color hardcover. It is, in essence, a children's book, detailing the tale of Simon and his cat, Jack, as they try and sneak into school (Simon is consistently late). They end up finding a staircase to the clouds, where they meet one cloud who takes them on an adventure.
Crane's style in this book is wonderfully cartoony and fluid-like. Maybe because I'm simultaneously reading Walt and Skeezix, Clouds somehow reminded me of being by a newspaper cartoonist of yore. The subject matter is Windsor McKay/Little Nemo-ish to a certain degree, or at least was reminiscent of it to me.
The great thing about Clouds is that it could be a story told by a little kid. It's one flight of fancy after another, and one can almost hear a child tell it, in a breathless voice, almost stream of consciousness-like, making it up as he or she goes along: "And then, there was this staircase, that led to the clouds, and then there was this one cloud, and it was raining, and then..." It's nice to see Crane hasn't lost touch with that childlike storyteller within.
Crane, who is profiled in the August issue of Interview Magazine (it's a 1-page profile, with a picture bigger than the text), is one of the best cartoonists out there right now. Always interesting, incredibly inventive and different, he's an artist I always look forward to seeing new work from. I can't wait to see what's next. Clouds is an incredibly quick read, but worth the price. Charming, beautiful and well-designed.
I really like your thoughtful, informed reviews ... making a list of the titles you have liked from SDCCI to take a look at next time I'm in Heroes and Villains or ComicKaze
Posted by: Maryelizabeth | 07/30/2005 at 08:58 AM