UPTIGHT #3
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
CARTOONIST: Jordan Crane
20pp, B&W, $2.75 U.S.In his comic book series, Uptight, cartoonist Jordan Crane offers surprising variety. Each issue has a short story or two and in early issues, Crane serialized his imaginative, sprawling graphic novel, Keeping Two. In Uptight #3, Crane turns to other things.
First is Chapter One of Crane new serialized tale of infidelity, “Vicissitude,” which focuses on mechanic and night school student Leo. Leo’s wife Delores is cheating on him. The second half of the comic book features the return of the boy Simon and his large talking cat, Jack, the stars of Crane’s graphic novel, The Clouds Above. Along with Simon’s classmate, Rosalyn, Simon and Jack discover something big, hairy, and hungry in the school lunchroom freezer.
Crane’s work is highly emotionally charged, but in a quiet way. Illustrated in a lush, enveloping greytone, Vicissitude has a Film-Noir quality that adds an air of mystery to this story of melancholy and rotting love. It is so engaging and enthralling that its ending is jarring. “Freeze Out,” the Simon and Jack tale, is fantastic. It is all-ages comic book magic. Reading it made me feel like a kid again, reading stories of adventure, fantasy, and magic for the first time on my own.
Uptight #3 is a guarantee that you’ll want to read Uptight #4.
A+
No comments:
Post a Comment