Much like the swallows that return each year to Capistrano, Flight has returned to lovers of [web]comics with its latest edition (that would be #4 for those of you playing along at home). Each year Flight bumps up its page count, giving the creators within ever more room to stretch their creative legs and giving the readers ever more fabulous work to read.

In a marked departure from earlier volumes (especially the first), F4 has largely abandoned its eponymous theme, and seems to be focusing less on slipping the surly bonds of gravity in favor of a more dream-like approach to the stories. Sometimes the connections to dreaming are fairly literal:

• Clio Chang tells a charming story of what happens to fairy tales backstage, waiting for bedtime
• Ryan Estrada has a whimsical exploration of what happens to a novice meditator whose spirit guide is a jerk
• Dave Roman brings an autobiographical tale of his life-long insomnia

More frequently, the dreams are metaphorical:

• Vera Brosgol’s hilarious falling-in-love story, where a dream girl’s one tragic flaw restores the peace between battling brothers
• Ovi Nedelcu‘s piece — with character designs occupying the precise midpoint in my brain between The Dover Boys, Ralph Phillips and Edward Gorey — in a loopy, funny, carefree story about a boy and his dream ride
• Bannister and Joel Carroll (with Corentin Jaffré on colors) contribute a story where a boy’s medium-grade hair-raising adventure takes a sudden turn into bad dream territory
• Kazu Kibuishi‘s rather melancholy story about deferring your dreams to stay in the place where you belong; this has been a recurring theme in his Flight contributions, and it underscores an interesting tension between finding yourself and doing what’s expected of you

Other standout stories include Scott Campbell‘s tale of Igloo Head and his (?) friend Tree Head, in a land of odd personages with odd heads (which includes the single funniest line of the book — Dude! You’re losing all of your guys!), and Lark Pien‘s story of a lonely girl and a selfish son of a bitch (with colors so soft and unlike the bold statements she made in American Born Chinese).

For me, though, the best story was Fábio Moon‘s Cortina, which takes a perfect moment captures it — holding tight and refusing to let go through — deft narration and stunningly beautiful art. Moon’s contribution is one of the briefest in the book, but in six short pages he demonstrates why he (and twin brother Gabriel Bá) have rapidly become Brazil’s greatest cultural exports, having neatly displaced cachaça, international football stars, and supermodels.

The only down notes in the collection for me were the absence of personal favorites Johane Matte and Kean Soo, but judging from the endpaper that may be resolved in Spring 2008 with the debut of Flight Explorer.

Bottom line: Flight 4 is, typically for the series, one of the best [web]comics releases of the year. Get it.

In other news today, Wes Molebash has a righteous amount of excitement built up, seein’ as how the You’ll Have That one-shot is featured in this month’s Wizard Magazine (#191) in the Indie Buzz section of the Secret Stash:

It’s not often that webcomics make a successful transition from online to the printed page, so it speaks volumes that this heavenly little bastard has become one of the favored comics around the Wizard offices. Spotlighting the hilarious life of newlyweds Andy and Katie, this one-shot collects the best of 2006’s online strips by Wes Molebash, with a brand-new cover from Scott Kurtz (PvP) so easily accessible for new readers it may as well be the first issue. With a precise vision of male geek life and the hotties who love us, YHT will have you cracking up and wondering how Molebash snuck a camera into your life.

Could it be that our friends at the online version of Wizard (who are fond of webcomics) are spreading the gospel to their dead-tree brethren? The YHT one-shot goes on sale tomorrow at comics shops everywhere, or now-ish at the Viper online store.

And Fleen Fave Dave Kellett can be seen in today’s blog post cavorting with college hotties. Tough job you got there, Dave-o.