Leroy Douresseaux on UPTIGHT #4

UPTIGHT #4

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

CARTOONIST: Jordan Crane
36pp, B&W, $3.95

If the author of Uptight was named Neil Gaiman, this comic book series would be a multiple Eisner Award-winner. Indeed, the Eisner committee might even come up with new categories specifically to give Gaiman and Uptight more trophies.

After the first issue was released, Uptight would have been optioned by Hollywood, to be butchered into a stop-motion animated film or poorly conceived 3D animated film. If Vertigo were Uptight’s publisher, the Eisner-winning, comics “news” site, Comic Book Resources, would cover every issue’s release as if that were a big event.

Neil Gaiman is not the author of Uptight; cartoonist Jordan Crane is. Uptight has not received any Eisner Awards. Hollywood has not called on it. Fantagraphics Books and not Vertigo is the publisher, so the Eisner committee and CBR ignore it on principle.

Still, the comic book series Uptight is a showcase for creator, cartoonist Jordan Crane. With each issue, Crane displays his mastery of both edgy adult drama and imaginative all-ages adventure.

Uptight #4 opens with “Chapter 2: Trash Night,” the ongoing saga of Leonard “Leo” and Delores “Dee’s” troubled relationship. Upsetting dreams and a suspicious mind have Leo trying to catch Dee cheating, and the situation reaches a boiling point thanks to a raccoon.

Also, the Simon & Jack (from Crane’s The Clouds Above) fun continues in “Dark Day.” Simon’s classmate, Rosalyn Devareaux and Jack (Simon’s talking cat) find themselves trapped in the office of Principal Pernicious Codswollop, who has diabolical plans for them. Meanwhile, school custodian, Mr. Cook, enters the bowels of the school to find Simon.

I like that Jordan Crane had decided not to play the victim of infidelity/villainous partner dynamic with the story of Leo and Dee. He has stripped them bare, which forces the reader to make his or her own decisions. Of course, the readers cannot do this through a passive reading experience. Being forced to engage isn’t a bad thing, because what we are engaging is a lush graphic narrative told in beautiful greytone art.

Believing that Crane is equally good with character drama and kids’ comics may be difficult to accept, but the rollicking Simon & Jack will not only make you a believer, but also an acolyte of Crane. This is an all-ages tale because its sense of wonder and imagination will captivate all ages, and it is not too early to declare Uptight #4 one of the year’s best comics.

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