Uptight #5

Uptight #5

by Jordan Crane

In this 80-page volume, Jordan Crane draws us in with two gripping and wrenching stories, one of the mundane, and the other of the fantastic. First, there is "Keeping Two." William's girlfriend goes missing during a trip to the supermarket, and he must look down the long dark narrow tunnel that his life will become without her. He is reading a book, but the book doesn't help, and indeed feeds his anxieties, rendering his loss in starkly contrasting lines. The second story, "Discovering the Dark," is 26 pages and drawn with two colors. Akihiro Akaike is employed as a repairman aboard an asteroid mining ship in the year 2033. In his spare time, he is an amateur astrophysicist, and a discovery he makes drives him steal supplies and a company ship in order to make a clandestine 7-month voyage. However, when the mining operation discovers his plans, he is forced into a rapidly deteriorating set of probabilities.

Read installments of "Keeping Two" at Jordan's webcomics site what things do.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Short Stories, Science Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2016

About the author

Jordan Crane is a cartoonist living in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and kids. Crane first emerged in 1996 with the iconic comics anthology NON, which he edited, designed, printed, contributed to, and published.

He has four graphic novels, The Last Lonely Saturday, Col-Dee, and The Clouds Above, and Keeping Two.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best solo comics on the shelves for sure. This was fantastic, I wish I'd seen this for sale back in the day. I've read all this content elsewhere already, but its cool to see it in its original form.

[Javi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cómic muy interesante en el aspecto de narrativa visual. Creo que no ha hecho mucho ruido y por España está por editar aunque le nominaron a los Eisner del año pasado por mejor historia corta ( me vino en el bundle de los Eisner). Todas las historias tienen en común un punto melancólico, en algunas ocasiones llevado al más allá. Un poco el tono del primer Black Mirror. Muy interesante aunque duro de leer.

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan!
Pros: the art is great and really whimsical
Cons: these stories are trying to be edgy or dark but just end up being voyeuristic. There is extremely triggering stuff in here for seemingly no reason. If the author wanted to have scenes of sex, death, violence etc there should have been a story based justification for it. It seems that the author just wanted to make a wild comic for the fuck of it and it’s lacking a lot of substance to justify the immense grotesqueness of it all.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art combined with compelling storytelling. Walks the line between enjoyable and unpleasant, which is fine, but one story in particular is a little hard to follow and it seems like it would have landed with more impact if I had known what was going on.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sad and beautiful. I wanted to stop reading but I couldn't look away.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty brutal. I heard these books described as "melancholia," but these stories were pretty heartbreaking. Good stories. Good art. But hard to read.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

keeping two had me close to tears

[Daftfader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very weird and abstract

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird. Depressing. Gross. Lovely.

[François Vigneault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Elna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another inspiration. Crane’s slight booklet is full of varying art styles and ideas and concepts all well executed.

[Derek Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Crane's Uptight series. It's one of the few single-author anthology serials that's still out there. And this recent issue is much longer than the previous...and something I've been looking forward to for quite a while. I recently interviewed Jordan for The Comics Alternative podcast: http://comicsalternative.com/comics-a....

[Aris Kotsis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

First story was much stronger than the second.