Collins, Jed – Uh, Love Story

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Uh, Love Story

What a… charming story?  I’m not entirely sure how to respond to this one. It’s the story of a man who is in love with a retarded girl.  Yes, there are more politically correct ways to put that, and if this comic had the slightest interest in such things I’d reflect them here.  Things begin with our “hero” chatting with this retarded woman at her bedroom window.  She seems to only be able to respond with images inside word balloons,such as a cat, teddy bear, a monster truck, kermit the frog and a turtle.  No, these images did not seem to correspond in any way to what was happening around her.  Her father sees this man talking to her at her bedroom window and throws him off the property.  The sister of the retarded girl sees the guy laying in the gutter and lets him know about a dance her sister will be attending later that night, but there’s a catch: it’s a special dance only for retarded people.  Our “hero” decides that he can pretend with the best of them and gets into the dance, at which point the two of them (and the girl does seem to like the guy) happily get together.  The only problem is that the father sees this guy at the dance and things get a little hairy, but why spoil that heartwarming ending?  I varied between being mildly creeped out and somehow touched by this odd love story, and am still not sure exactly where I landed.  I did like the vast dark spaces in the comic, between being beaten unconscious and his very brief struggle with his conscience.  On a technical level I thought it was fantastic.  On another level there’s a point where things quickly go from laughing with something to laughing at it, and that line veers all over the place in this issue.  Still, if you don’t mind the occasional uncomfortable laugh, or if maybe you didn’t spend your formative years working at a home for special needs adults and might be a little overly sensitive because of that fact, this is worth a look.  No price, but with that color cover and all I’d say $3.

Posted on June 29, 2010, in Reviews and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off on Collins, Jed – Uh, Love Story.

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