- Uncle Sam (Vertigo)
"Uncle Sam" is a two-part
prestige format comic book series published byDC Comics in 1997, later published in 1998 as a trade paperback. It was written bySteve Darnall with art by esteemed artist,Alex Ross . The collected volume also includes an essay on the history ofUncle Sam as well as several pages of art by Ross.Story
The story centers around Sam, an obviously distressed homeless man, wandering the streets of an unnamed city, at first speaking mostly in odd quotes and sound bites. As he wanders, he has disturbing visions of events in American history (dealing with
Indian Wars ,slavery , the Civil Rights Movement, and others). Throughout his wanderings, he occasionally encounters a woman named Bea, and has conversations withBritannia .Eventually he comes to the remains of the 1893
Columbian Exposition , where he sees Bea once more, now recognizing her as Columbia. He has further encounters with Britannia,Marianne and theRussian Bear , before he confronts a dark, corrupt, overtly capitalist shadow version of himself. He eventually defeats this figure, by accepting all its blows, recognizing that he's made mistakes, and learning from them.Towards the end of the tale he thinks to himself: "It's a strange and frightening thing — to see yourself at your worst."
In the end we see him again as a homeless man, but instead of wildly hallucinating, he's now chipper and optimistic, ready to face the future.
Themes
The book was heavily influenced by
Howard Zinn 's work, "A People's History of the United States ". Fact|date=March 2008 The central theme of the story indicates that the people of theUnited States must advance by reaffirming essential principles of liberty and justice, by honestly confronting the mistakes of their country's past, and by working to prevent similar mistakes in the future.Critical Reception
The series was very well received by critics, earning praise from
The New York Times ,The San Francisco Chronicle andAlan Moore , among others.Awards
The comics were nominated for an
Eisner Award .External links
* [http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1728 Official Vertigo Comics page (with dowloadable sample of the first pages)]
* [http://www.alexrossart.com/artforsale.asp?sc=ARUS1 "Uncle Sam" Gallery at the official site of Alex Ross] - [http://www.alexrossart.com/artforsale.asp?sc=ARUS1&page=1 Gallery 2]
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