The Clouds Aboveby Jordan Crane
Fantagraphics, $18.95
Young Simon and his cat (large, talking cat!) Jack are late for school, but when they try to sneak in without being noticed, they instead end up on the school's roof, where they find a wooden spiral staircase leading up into the clouds. Like all sensible kids would, they follow the stairs up and have encounters and adventures in the clouds, making friends with a likable pink rain cloud named Perch and avoiding the clutches of the angry storm clouds.
This OGN is not deep, but it is a good deal of fun. Crane would seem to be intentionally drawing on the children's book genre, both in story and art style; one could easily see Simon & Jack standing alongside Milo from The Phantom Tollbooth.
The book is over 200 pages long, but with just one panel per page it makes for a brisk, enjoyable read.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
