The Plane Story

This engaging autobiographical comic shows a young man assimilating his past while shaping his future. As American art student Kevin is flying to England, his father drops a large chunk of family history on him, describing how his immigrant parents suffered through dreadful labor conditions early in the 20th century, how he himself experienced creative excitement and censorship as a writer in the advertising industry while groping through personal relationships, and so on. The young man must apply this story to his own life. He is able to reconnect, for example, with his recovering alcoholic mother and to build on his father's lessons as he begins a career in advertising art. Sacco's design and art are marvelously inventive, altering color and form to fit the story: sepia sketchwork for earlier periods, black & white wash for later decades, full color for immediate past, even faux airmail pages as Kevin tours Europe. Polished as it is, though, the most appealing thing about the book is Sacco's evident affection for his characters and his belief that they can learn from their experience and change in healthy ways. (Mar.)