My Uncle Jeff Preview
By Damon Hurd and Pedro Camello
Published by Origin Comics
Autobiographical comics are the most sophisticated and engaging manifestation of the comics artform -- in the right hands -- but virtually 100 percent of the time they're focused on the life and times of the creator. Writer Damon Hurd's story is a little different, because although it's a first-person narrative, the focus is, as you might have guessed from the title, on Hurd's Uncle Jeff.
My Uncle Jeff will be solicited in the December Previews and ship in February, 2003. The preview is extremely promising, and I look forward to seeing the full 32-page comic, which Hurd describes as a "graphic novella." Jeff's story is told over a canvas encompassing Hurd's entire family tree -- literally. There's a helpful chart of the family, an actual family tree, early in the story.
Hurd is extraordinarily frank with himself and his readers about Jeff's flawed humanity. This is not an apotheosis, but a simple character study of a man whose life and simple decency in the face of a family crisis and subsequent, unexpected, life-changing moment have had a powerful influence on the story's writer.
Artist Pedro Camello is a new name to me, but I expect we'll be seeing more of him in the future. His storytelling is clear and crisp, funny when the script calls for it and somber when needed. In a story about family, the expected resemblances are there, but everyone is uniquely themselves. Camello handles the various locations of the story with a strong sense of place. It's an impressive effort.
For a debut from unknown talents tackling a difficult genre, My Uncle Jeff looks to be a standout piece of humanistic autobiography, in the vein of American Splendor and Pedro and Me. Definitely pre-order it out of the December Previews or contact Hurd through the Origin Comics website and find out about My Uncle Jeff. Grade: 4/5