Ivan Komlev entered Siberian literature immediately and firmly. His story “Feather Grass” - the story of a teenager Seryozhka Uzlov from a remote taiga village, sent to logging to help the front, and who went through such tests that even an adult could not endure - overnight put the author on a par with such famous Siberian writers as like Albert Gurulev, Alexander Vampilov, Stanislav Kitaisky. The story “At the Threshold” - about the dedication of ordinary peasants, even at the cost of their own lives, saving sowing grain from the military “surplus appropriation” for the sake of the future harvest, brought Ivan Komlev all-Russian fame. And for the story “When a Helicopter Falls,” which is based on the real tragic story of the crew of a forest aviation helicopter that crashed in the taiga wilderness, the author was awarded the “Golden Pen of Russia” award.