Flight Volume One: Where are they now?
I'm not sure why, but I feel like I've been talking a lot about Flight this past week. Maybe it's simply because production on Volume 7 is starting to kick into gear (omg deadlines!), but for whatever reason, it got me thinking back to the very first Flight and how successful everyone has become. I know I've commented casually about this to people before (the most surreal realization for me was mentioning this at a lunch at Dreamworks Animation a year ago, pretty much surrounded by Flight folk -- the me in my early 20s would never have guessed such a thing would've been even possible), but it's something else to see this written down in front of you.
So here it is. Out of nineteen artists (right or wrong, I've excluded Bill and Hope from this list, as they were colourists for their respective stories):
7 out of 19 have worked on completed films, either as production designers or story artists:
- Enrico (Ratatouille, Up)
- Jake (Horton Hears a Who!)
- Vera (Coraline)
- Khang (Monster House)
- Appelhans (Monster House, City of Ember, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
- Phil (Kung Fu Panda, the forthcoming Kung Fu Panda 2)
- Clio (the forthcoming Princess and the Frog)
11 out of 19 have published one or more graphic novels (or will have a graphic novel published in 2010):
- Enrico (The Venice Chronicles)
- Kazu (Daisy Kutter, Amulet, the forthcoming Copper collection)
- Jake (Missile Mouse, forthcoming Scholastic GNs)
- Vera (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Jen (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Neil (Hamlet)
- Bengal (Meka, Naja)
- Dylan (Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love, Bite Me!)
- Derek (Good as Lily, The Eternal Smile)
- Rad (Tom Sawyer)
- Kean (Jellaby)
Catia has had two picture books published (Princess Alyss of Wonderland, The Sea Serpent and Me), and Jacob's gone on to have a successful career as a painter/illustrator, whose works have appeared in publications like the New York Times and McSweeney's.
Also of note is that out of the original 19, about a dozen of us had semi- to regularly running webcomics, and as of the present day, that number is down to 3 (Erika with DAR!, Dylan with Family Man, and Derek with TUNE).
Now let me say, I don't see Flight as being "that thing that MADE these people successful," but rather that it's interesting to me how all these ridiculously talented and lovely people came together for one brief moment to make this one thing, and then everyone pretty much shot off in their own direction again and went off to find their calling (granted, some people had already established their careers before Flight brought us together, but my general impression at the time was that many of us were still finding our footing, career-wise).
It's a rather notable marker in my own life, in that I'm thankful I got to be a part of it and managed to build some lasting friendships out of that (some more successful than others; being in Canada does make it a little bit harder to keep in touch with people).
And as silly and embarrassing as Scott McCloud's afterword from Volume One makes me feel (to me it reads like an embarrassingly awkward wedding speech by your crazy, drunk uncle), I can't help but wonder if he was (gasp!) right and really did know it better than any of us ever did.
So here it is. Out of nineteen artists (right or wrong, I've excluded Bill and Hope from this list, as they were colourists for their respective stories):
7 out of 19 have worked on completed films, either as production designers or story artists:
- Enrico (Ratatouille, Up)
- Jake (Horton Hears a Who!)
- Vera (Coraline)
- Khang (Monster House)
- Appelhans (Monster House, City of Ember, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
- Phil (Kung Fu Panda, the forthcoming Kung Fu Panda 2)
- Clio (the forthcoming Princess and the Frog)
11 out of 19 have published one or more graphic novels (or will have a graphic novel published in 2010):
- Enrico (The Venice Chronicles)
- Kazu (Daisy Kutter, Amulet, the forthcoming Copper collection)
- Jake (Missile Mouse, forthcoming Scholastic GNs)
- Vera (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Jen (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Neil (Hamlet)
- Bengal (Meka, Naja)
- Dylan (Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love, Bite Me!)
- Derek (Good as Lily, The Eternal Smile)
- Rad (Tom Sawyer)
- Kean (Jellaby)
Catia has had two picture books published (Princess Alyss of Wonderland, The Sea Serpent and Me), and Jacob's gone on to have a successful career as a painter/illustrator, whose works have appeared in publications like the New York Times and McSweeney's.
Also of note is that out of the original 19, about a dozen of us had semi- to regularly running webcomics, and as of the present day, that number is down to 3 (Erika with DAR!, Dylan with Family Man, and Derek with TUNE).
Now let me say, I don't see Flight as being "that thing that MADE these people successful," but rather that it's interesting to me how all these ridiculously talented and lovely people came together for one brief moment to make this one thing, and then everyone pretty much shot off in their own direction again and went off to find their calling (granted, some people had already established their careers before Flight brought us together, but my general impression at the time was that many of us were still finding our footing, career-wise).
It's a rather notable marker in my own life, in that I'm thankful I got to be a part of it and managed to build some lasting friendships out of that (some more successful than others; being in Canada does make it a little bit harder to keep in touch with people).
And as silly and embarrassing as Scott McCloud's afterword from Volume One makes me feel (to me it reads like an embarrassingly awkward wedding speech by your crazy, drunk uncle), I can't help but wonder if he was (gasp!) right and really did know it better than any of us ever did.