Meridian v. 1: Flying Solo

Rating:
Summary: One of the best comics on the market!
Review: CrossGen is a company that never ceases to amaze me. I currently collect more of their comics (thanks to their compendia, Forge and Edge) than any put out by other companies like Marvel and DC for several reasons. For one, they never seem to have problems releasing their comics on time. But the biggest reason is the quality of their stories and artwork. Meridian is one of their original flagship titles, and of those first few, definitely the best.

Meridian takes place on Demetria, a fantastic world where people live in floating island cities, traveling in airships. The story concerns a teenage girl named Sephie who, along with her treacherous Uncle Ilahn, is given a strange sigil by otherworldly beings. Her sigil was originally meant for her father, the minister of Meridian, but his immediate death and her immediate proximity cause the mark and its powers to pass to her. Ilahn offers to look after her in his home city of Cadador, but she soon discovers his plan to seize control of Meridian from her and enslave the rest of Demetria.

The look of this series is quite simply amazing. Josh Middleton's artwork looks more like stills from an animated feature than comics art. The series truly takes off, however, after Steve McNiven assumes the pencilling duties. McNiven and writer Barbara Kesel, bring the world and the characters who inhabit it to life. (If I had to compare the series to anything, it would be Hayao Miyazaki's brilliant manga Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.)

I read a review once that stated that teen girls' magazines should be ashamed for not devoting cover stories to Meridian and its main character Sephie. I must agree wholeheartedly. Sephie is a fantastically realized character who always feels like a real person. She is never written as a stereotype, never falling into the damsel in distress mode, and is truly a great role model for young girls.

Here's hoping more people catch on to this remarkable series. Meridian, Ruse and Sojourn are CrossGen's three best titles, and currently three of the best titles on the shelves.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best comics on the market!
Review: CrossGen is a company that never ceases to amaze me. I currently collect more of their comics (thanks to their compendia, Forge and Edge) than any put out by other companies like Marvel and DC for several reasons. For one, they never seem to have problems releasing their comics on time. But the biggest reason is the quality of their stories and artwork. Meridian is one of their original flagship titles, and of those first few, definitely the best.

Meridian takes place on Demetria, a fantastic world where people live in floating island cities, traveling in airships. The story concerns a teenage girl named Sephie who, along with her treacherous Uncle Ilahn, is given a strange sigil by otherworldly beings. Her sigil was originally meant for her father, the minister of Meridian, but his immediate death and her immediate proximity cause the mark and its powers to pass to her. Ilahn offers to look after her in his home city of Cadador, but she soon discovers his plan to seize control of Meridian from her and enslave the rest of Demetria.

The look of this series is quite simply amazing. Josh Middleton's artwork looks more like stills from an animated feature than comics art. The series truly takes off, however, after Steve McNiven assumes the pencilling duties. McNiven and writer Barbara Kesel, bring the world and the characters who inhabit it to life. (If I had to compare the series to anything, it would be Hayao Miyazaki's brilliant manga Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.)

I read a review once that stated that teen girls' magazines should be ashamed for not devoting cover stories to Meridian and its main character Sephie. I must agree wholeheartedly. Sephie is a fantastically realized character who always feels like a real person. She is never written as a stereotype, never falling into the damsel in distress mode, and is truly a great role model for young girls.

Here's hoping more people catch on to this remarkable series. Meridian, Ruse and Sojourn are CrossGen's three best titles, and currently three of the best titles on the shelves.

Rating:
Summary: CrossGen genius.
Review: I know this can only be considered a book by very thin circumstances (ie it has a front and back cover and several pages in between) but it had to get some mention. I myself am not really a comicbook kind of guy. Yeah, I do have ambitions to someday have my own online comic but that's more to fuel my lust for being able to draw. I love to draw and someday I hope to draw well.

Anyway, I found this book while stocking the anime shelves up at Waldenbooks. I opened it up and was instantly impressed with the quality of the artwork. I took a look at it and said "Someday I want to draw like this!" So I bought it. What I found after I bought the book was an original setting fired up by quite a compelling story.

Now what really appealed to me is this isn't an action comic like we associate comics with. Yes, there are a few scenes with fighting in them but in general it's a very politico book which is right up my alley. I'm a sucker for politics. Not our politics but I love to read books in which the characters are driven by politics. I hate black and white circumstances and politics are never as such. They're always grey and that's what appeals to me.

All and all I give then book 4 out of 5 stars. Fantastic artwork, intriguing story, likeable characters. I could've gotten a 5 except I think the rushed the beginning too much. I would've liked to have gotten a little more background on some of the main characters and their ties to the other characters.

Rating:
Summary: The first comic I suggest to a female non-comic fan
Review: I was lucky enough to meet Barbara Kesel at a comic book convention this summer and tell her how much I loved her work on CrossGen Comics' series "Meridian." She let me in on a little something -- out of all the trade paperbacks CrossGen sends to bookstores, "Meridian" is their best-seller, mostly to girls who have never seen the inside of a comic shop.

It's no secret why.

"Meridian" is the story of a teenage girl named Sephie, daughter of the minister of the city of Meridian, which floats high above the ground of her homeworld. All of the major cities do on this planet. Her world changes one day when her father and uncle are both infused with a mysterious power marked by a Sigil that appears on their bodies. Her uncle allows Sephie's father to die in this exchange, but not before his power is passed to Sephie.

This first "Meridian" trade is a great story, but to really get a feel for how good this series is, you've got to read them all. The way Sephie grows over the course of this tale is nothing short of spectacular. She begins as little more than your [typical] fairy tale princess, carefree, wrapped up in events she was unready for, but as time progresses she matures into a strong, intelligent young woman, a fighter when need be, a healer when possible.

The things CrossGen has done for the comic book industry in the past few years are nothing short of phenomenal, and out of all of their spectacular titles, "Meridian" stands as my favorite. It is genuinely a story that can be shared with anyone from children to adults, male or female, without insulting their intelligence or demeaning them, and delivers a good, positive message to boot. When I'm trying to get a female to try comic books, this is now the one I suggest to them first.

Rating:
Summary: First book in a wonderful series
Review: I would acualy rate this book 41\2 stars because of the ending. It is very frustuating but there are 3 so far so dont be alarmed. Meridian is about a normal girl named Sephie who gets the power to restore almost anything but dosn't get any instructions on how to use them.(the power comes with a mark, by the way, a sigil, which you alredy know if you have read Crossgen before) I liked it because the head charekter was a girl and she wasnt a "lets go to the mall" type or a super woman. the art style chages a bit but it only gets better. All in all, this is THE BEST COMIC BOOK I HAVE EVER READ and you should definetly READ IT.

Rating:
Summary: Adventure
Review: My friend has read it and she said it was really good. I have skimmed through it and look forward to reading it.When I first looked at the book I thought it was amazing. The illustrations are wonderful with their vibrant colors and their sharp details. It is really interesting because it is part comic book and part chapter book. I was excited because here you can get all four of them and in other places you can't. The cahracters are really cool because they each have their own style and personality. I like the names too like Sephie. The names of the places in the book are really cool too like Meridian and Carador. This book is enjoyed by a lot of people.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful artwork, but still full of Disney-type cliches.
Review: The art is just so amazing to look at, especially those floating fairy islands suspended over a mystic world and all those colorful glowing lights that flow from the strangest sources, but the characters...well. They have already appeared MILLIONS of times before, especially in Disney movies and fairy tales like an evil uncle with one bad eye and a young swashbuckling Prince Charming whose shirt is loose enough to show off well-toned pecs. And young Sephie herself is the perfect prototype of any stereotyped fairy princess despite the fact her father is called a "minister" instead of a "king" in this story: she's pubescent, she's blonde, she's nubile, she's naive, and she's full of such wide-eyed innocence and tomboyish stubbornness. Not to mention the fact she doesn't have a mother (how typical.) Yet she goes out to save the entire world and turn it into a perfect upotia nearly overnight with magical powers that she has inadvertantly received from a mysterious source. And what's more...the flying boats greatly reminds me of Disney's most recent movie, "The Treasure Planet". How original. But other than that, the story is pretty decent and the art still pleasing to the eye in spite of the heavy use of computer to produce bright but artificial-looking colors.

Rating:
Summary: Great little read
Review: This book is a great little read! Crossgen is doing wonders trying to bring new and old readers back to comics. The artwork and storytelling are both done fabulously. I've been looking for a comic that doesn't fit the traditional superhero mould but also has great artwork and story, it's arrived with Meridian.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a Read and not THAT cliched
Review: This is the most hyped story of the entire CrossGen Universe.

I'll get the bad news out of the way first. At times, the pacing is a little slow, and the story is somewhat predictable. And there are other CrossGen titles that are a more enjoyable read than Meridian (Sojourn, Route 666, and Negation come to mind).

That being said, it's still a CrossGen book, and right now, very few companies are turning out such consistently great material. The artwork (which does have the feel of an animated Disney feature) is beautiful, and really brings the characters to life. And this story, like most all of the CrossGen stories, is character-driven, which is really what makes a story great. If you enjoy comics and you enjoy Disneyana, or if you just like plain old tales of Good Versus Evil, you will enjoy this series. The first volume is (obviously) a great jumping on point, so give it a read and see what you think.

And just to clarify the previous reviewer's point, there are definitely elements of this series that would remind one of the Disney movie Treasure Planet. However, we must keep in mind that this volume collects issues of a monthly comic that was realeased in 2000, well before Treasure Planet was released in theatres. So if anything, you could say Disney was "borrowing" from CrossGen in this case.