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Hurd, Damon & Camello, Pedro – A Sort of Homecoming #2
A Sort of Homecoming #2
In case anybody read the first issue of this series and had any doubts about it, this should put them all to rest. This issue is basically a collection of flashbacks to earlier times with David and Owen. It starts to show why they lost touch in the first place (although it leaves the future, potentially explosive confrontations for the next issue) and some of the great times they had when they were younger. I don’t think Owen actually talks to a single living human being in this issue. Look, the reason this book, and everything I’ve seen by these two, is so great is that everybody can relate to what they’re trying to say. Who out there doesn’t have a friend (or two, or ten) that they always thought they were going to hang out with but here they are, years later, and they haven’t seen that person in years? Still, at the back of your mind, there’s usually some piece of that friendship sitting there, coming back to the front of your brain when you see a reminder of times that you once had. It’s a great, true series so far and I can’t wait to see how it ends. $3.50, contact info is up there.
Hurd, Damon & Camello, Pedro – A Sort of Homecoming (advance preview)
A Sort of Homecoming (advance preview)
One pet peeve right off the bat: if you’re going to have a special preview edition, it helps me a whole bunch if you let me know when the actual book is coming out. I’ve scanned this book a few times and I just don’t see it. If I had to guess I’d say that it would be in the first few months of 2004, but that’s just because it’s apparently going to be a three-part graphic novel and he already has a lot of pages done here. Enough already, you might be thinking, what about the story? Well, it begins with a young man, Owen, learning that someone close to him, David, has died. We learn instantly that he has a complicated relationship with David, as he talks a bit of shit about the guy before he learns that he’s dead. The rest of the book is Owen’s reaction to the news intercut with flashbacks that show how they met when they were little kids and various things that have happened to them over the years. This serves perfectly as a preview, as all it really does it get you wondering just what the heck is going on. It’s $2, so you can probably get a copy of it off the Alternative Comics website. I’d recommend just getting the first book, frankly, as these two have completely won me over. His stuff might break through to the mainstream if he keeps this up, if that’s what he’s looking for. Other contact info is up there…
Hurd, Damon & Camello, Pedro – My Uncle Jeff
My Uncle Jeff
Wow, my scanner finally made a cover look better than it actually did. Not that it’s a bad cover, it’s just a plain grey background instead of the patchwork-like cover up there. You guys are used to me rambling aimlessly in these reviews by now, right? Good. This book has apparently gotten a mountain of good press, although I haven’t been around comic stores enough in the last year to have heard any of it. Not to ruin the surprise or anything, but let me go ahead and add my voice to that list. If you have any questions at all about this book after you read it (and I had a few), they are going to be answered in the lengthy afterward from Damon. This, despite its short size, really is a “novella”, as the cover suggests. It’s the story of Damon’s family, primarily dealing with his father’s side. He still gives a wonderfully descriptive family tree of the other side of the family and his reasoning for not dealing with them in so long. It doesn’t seem necessary at first glance, but it really does help in the big picture. It’s mostly, as he says in the afterward, a love letter to his favorite uncle, and the opportunity to tell the highlights of Jeff’s life through Damon’s eyes. The minutiae of family life are all on display here, good and bad, with no apologies given and none necessary. Jeff is Damon’s favorite uncle because he’s always managed to stay free. He may be broke, but Jeff understood at an early age that freedom was much more important than material goods, and it’s a lesson that Damon has taken to heart. This is a moving, honest story about a man who has to reconcile his freedom with the need to care for his ailing father, even though that’s only a tiny part of the story, if that makes any sense. It was also nominated for an Eisner, although I don’t know if it won. $3.95, check out the website or just send Damon an e-mail.
