What's the book? Air Volume 2: Flying Machine by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker.

What's it about? I reviewed Volume 1 of Air a few months ago. It's an ongoing comics series about a stewardess named Blythe who's afraid of flying. She gets swept into a huge conspiracy that involves weird flying machines and countries that don't exist. In the second volume, Blythe gets a few answers and has her first proactive moment in the whole series.

What's the art look like?

Do you recommend it? Yes, with reservations. I'm intrigued with Air. I like that it's an ongoing conspiracy comic book with a literary vibe, written by a woman and starring a female protagonist. But this collection just feels like so much wheel-spinning. Nothing really happens, and it ends with an unsatisfying step outside of the narrative that may foreshadow some great things to come, but ultimately provides an unexciting climax to the book. And Perker's art is still noodly and flat. If the third volume isn't exceptional, I'm done with this book.

What's the second book? Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell.

What's it about? Follow me after the jump and I'll tell you.

Fine. We jumped. Now what's it about? It's Russell's adaptation of an earlier Sandman book of the same name that was produced in prose format with large illustrations. It's a retelling of an ancient Japanese fable about a fox who falls in love with a monk, except the Japanese fable was invented by Neil Gaiman in 1999.

What's the art look like?

Do you recommend it? Yes! In many ways, I like this more than the 1999 The Dream Hunters, because The Sandman has always been a comic book and the prose volume that effectively closed out the series just didn't feel true to everything that came before. It's not for people who have never read Sandman comics, but it definitely works as a part of the greater series.