This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2009) |
Uncle Sam | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
Format | Mini-series |
Publication date | 1997 |
No. of issues | 2 |
Main character(s) | Uncle Sam |
Creative team | |
Created by | Steve Darnall Alex Ross |
Written by | Steve Darnall Alex Ross |
Artist(s) | Alex Ross |
Letterer(s) | Todd Klein |
Colorist(s) | Alex Ross |
Collected editions | |
Deluxe Edition | ISBN 1-4012-2348-6 |
Uncle Sam is a two-part prestige format comic book mini-series published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint in 1997 and featuring the character of the same name. It was written by Steve Darnall with art by Alex Ross.
The story centers around Sam, an obviously distressed homeless man, who wanders the streets of an unnamed city speaking mostly in odd quotes and sound bites. As he wanders, he has flashes into the lives of poor and struggling Americans, and injustices as they happen all across the United States. He searches his memory trying to pinpoint the moment where the dream he once had for the country went wrong. His mind flits through the darkest moments in American history, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the Indian Wars, to slavery, lynchings, the Civil Rights Movement, the Dust Bowl and the Andersonville death camp during the Civil War. Throughout his wanderings, he occasionally encounters a woman named Bea, whose relationship to himself he cannot quite remember. It is implied that he was once an ordinary man who left his home to fight in the American Revolutionary War.
He stumbles across an election parade where a corrupt governor is giving a victory speech after defaming his honest opponent. Unlike the audience Sam is able to hear beyond his platitudes and hear the man's true thoughts, and as protestors are dragged off to prison, Sam tries to confront the governor, when he is stopped by a doppelgänger who resembles the cleaner, more traditional Uncle Sam. His double warns him not to interfere, and claims that he is the true Uncle Sam - the embodiment of the United States. Sam tries to strike out at his double but is dragged off to prison with the protestors. He is released after a mysterious woman intercedes for him.
Wandering alone again, Sam meets and has a conversation with Britannia. She reminisces about the fall of the British Empire and about America's forays into imperialism. After a gang of teenagers try to set him on fire, Sam finally recalls the memory he has been searching for, which was of himself participating in the bloody crushing of Shays' Rebellion. He begins to wonder if America's ideals didn't die, but were never seriously respected from the beginning.
Eventually, after hearing cryptic words from another homeless man, he comes to the remains of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where he sees Bea once more, now recognizing her as Columbia. She helps Sam gain a more nuanced perspective of his visions of America's negative moments of its history, such as how Shays' Rebellion prompted the writing of the Constitution of the United States to help create a more stable government. She tells him that the double he encountered is his own darker side, explaining that after World War I Americans were faced with the dark realities of their country and chose to deny it, creating the other Uncle Sam. Bea tells Sam he has to confront this darker side alone. He has further encounters with Britannia, Marianne and a scarred Russian Bear, who offer him advice and encouragement before he confronts the dark, corrupt, overtly capitalist shadow version of himself sitting on a throne made of televisions with his feet propped on the dome of the United States Capitol. The two exchange blows, but Sam forces his dark side to see the brutal reality of modern-day America, and eventually defeats this figure by accepting all its blows, recognizing and accepting his 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 he is seen again as a homeless man, but instead of wildly hallucinating, he is now chipper and optimistic with his traditional hat. He walks off ready to face the future, as Bea watches him go, unseen.
In 1998 the series was collected as a trade paperback (Vertigo ISBN 1-56389-482-3, [1] Titan Books ISBN 1-84023-083-5). In late 2009 it was collected into a Deluxe Edition hardcover (Vertigo ISBN 1-4012-2348-6, Titan Books ISBN 1-84856-284-5).
The collected volume also includes an essay on the history of Uncle Sam as well as several pages of art by Ross.
The series was very well received by critics, earning praise from Kirkus Reviews, [2] The San Francisco Chronicle [3] and Alan Moore, [4] among others.
The comics were nominated for an Eisner Award. [5]
John Constantine, Hellblazer is an American contemporary horror comic-book series published by DC Comics since January 1988, and subsequently by its Vertigo imprint since March 1993, when the imprint was introduced. Its central character is the streetwise English sorcerer and con man John Constantine, who was created by Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette, and first appeared as a supporting character in Swamp Thing #37, during that creative team's run on that title. Hellblazer had been published continuously since January 1988, and was Vertigo's longest-running title, the only remaining publication from the imprint's launch. In 2013, the series concluded with issue 300, and was replaced by Constantine, which returned the character to the mainstream DC Universe. The original series was revived in November 2019 for twelve issues as part of The Sandman Universe line of comics, under the DC Black Label brand. Well known for its extremely pessimistic tone and social/political commentary, the series has spawned a film adaptation, television show, novels, and multiple spin-offs and crossovers.
Colleen Doran is an American writer-artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee, which became a New York Times bestseller. She adapted and did the art for the short story "Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman, which also became a New York Times bestseller. Her books have received Eisner, Harvey, Bram Stoker, Locus, and International Horror Guild Awards.
Brian Bolland is a British comics artist. Best known in the United Kingdom as one of the Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in 1982 produced the artwork alongside author Mike W. Barr on Camelot 3000, which was DC Comics' first 12-issue comicbook maxiseries created for the direct market.
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer. His work includes the Marvels limited series, his own series titled Astro City, a four-year run on The Avengers, Thunderbolts, and Superman.
Ed Brubaker is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre. He began his career with the semi-autobiographical series Lowlife and a number of serials in the Dark Horse Presents anthology, before achieving industry-wide acclaim with the Vertigo series Scene of the Crime and moving to the superhero comics such as Batman, Catwoman, The Authority, Captain America, Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men. Brubaker is best known for his long-standing collaboration with British artist Sean Phillips, starting with their Elseworlds one-shot Batman: Gotham Noir in 2001 and continuing with a number of creator-owned series such as Criminal, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out and Kill or Be Killed.
Vincent Patrick Deighan, better known by the pen name Frank Quitely, is a Scottish comic book artist. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with Grant Morrison on titles such as New X-Men, We3, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin, as well as his work with Mark Millar on The Authority and Jupiter's Legacy.
Nelson Alexander Ross is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries Marvels, on which he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek for Marvel Comics. He has since done a variety of projects for both Marvel and DC Comics, such as the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, which he also cowrote. Since then he has done covers and character designs for Busiek's series Astro City, and various projects for Dynamite Entertainment. His feature film work includes concept and narrative art for Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004), and DVD packaging art for the M. Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable (2000). He has done covers for TV Guide, promotional artwork for the Academy Awards, posters and packaging design for video games, and his renditions of superheroes have been merchandised as action figures.
Guy Davis is an American creature designer, concept artist, illustrator and storyboard artist who has worked on film, television, comic book and video game projects. He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, including the television series The Strain (2014–17) and the films Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017). Beforehand, Davis was the regular artist for the Hellboy spinoff comic B.P.R.D. (2003–2010), as well as the artist behind his own creator-owned comic The Marquis (2009).
Fables is an American comic book series created and written by Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Willingham served as sole writer for its entirety, with Mark Buckingham penciling more than 110 issues. The series featured various other pencillers over the years, most notably Lan Medina and Steve Leialoha. Fables was launched in July 2002 and concluded in July 2015. It was revived in 2022 with a 12-issue continuation to the main series, as well as a 6-issue spin-off miniseries Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham, both published under DC Black Label.
Paul Pope is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's two protagonist types are the silent, lanky outsider male of The One Trick Rip-Off, Escapo, and Heavy Liquid; or the resourceful, aggressive, humorous young teenage girls of THB. He has self-published some of his work, most notably THB, through his own Horse Press, with other work for such publishers as DC Comics/Vertigo and First Second Books.
Michael Zulli was an American artist known for his work as an animal and wildlife illustrator and as a comic book illustrator. Best known for his work on the Sandman.
"The Hard Goodbye" is the first story in the American Sin City Comics series. It was serialized, as "Sin City", in the comics anthology Dark Horse Presents by Dark Horse Comics and named "The Hard Goodbye" in the trade paperbacks. It was created by Frank Miller, and led to a metaseries that has been adapted into a movie.
We3 is a three-issue American comic book mini-series by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, who describe its kinetic style as "Western Manga". It was published in 2004 by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, with a trade paperback released in 2005.
Tony Moore is an American comic-book artist whose work consists mainly of genre pieces, most notably in horror and science fiction, with titles such as Fear Agent, The Exterminators, and the first six issues of The Walking Dead. He also co-created the Invincible Universe character Brit.
Uncle Sam is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Based on the national personification of the United States, Uncle Sam, the character first appeared in National Comics #1 and was created by Will Eisner.
Outlaw Nation is an American comic book series originally published by Vertigo Comics from 2000 to 2002. The nineteen issues series was created by Jamie Delano and Goran Sudzuka, about a family with extremely long lifespans.
Joshua Dysart is an American comic book writer. He has done work for DC Comics, Vertigo Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, Valiant Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Penny-Farthing Press, Virgin Comics and Random House Books.
Fábio Moon is a Brazilian comic book artist best known for his work on Casanova. He is the twin brother of fellow comic book artist Gabriel Bá.
"Absolute Carnage" is a 2019 comic book crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics, by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman.