Uptight [Complete]

2009 Ignatz Award Winner: Outstanding Comic & Outstanding Series

A uniquely formatted series from the creator of the acclaimed 2005 graphic novel The Clouds Above. Split evenly among three stories, each issue of Uptight includes two self-contained short stories, plus a chapter from Crane's next graphic novel, "Keeping Two."

Comic books such as Jordan Crane’s Uptight tend to frustrate as well as entertain me. I have to pass over a certain page or panel a few times to get the full meaning of it, even though the format screams simplicity. However, frustration is a signal that I am feeling the emotions Crane is trying to portray in his work. Nothing is as simple as it looks in Uptight, as every panel causes you to think and examine many of your own beliefs and functions. Like similar avant-garde presentations, Crane utilizes the comic book medium to give added meaning to realistic portrayals of life. This is not DC or Marvel spoon-feeding you the significance of an overt action by Superman or Spider-Man. Rather, like a Robert Bresson film, we reach meaning through fine adjustments of the medium and the characters interacting within that medium. - Robert Murray

What makes me think that Uptight could take a place next to Fantagraphics' great series like Eightball and Love & Rockets, is not just Jordan Crane’s talent, but also his splendid execution of his stories. Crane’s stories are a careful delineation and depiction of both the interior and exterior lives of his characters, but he structures visual forms of individual stories in different ways depending on exactly what he wants to illustrate for the reader. - Leroy Douresseaux, Comic Book Bin