Uncle Sam (Vertigo)

"Uncle Sam" is a two-part prestige format comic book series published by DC Comics in 1997, later published in 1998 as a trade paperback. It was written by Steve Darnall with art by esteemed artist, Alex Ross. The collected volume also includes an essay on the history of Uncle Sam as well as several pages of art by Ross.

Story

The story centers around Sam, an obviously distressed homeless man, wandering the streets of an unnamed city, at first speaking mostly in odd quotes and sound bites. As he wanders, he has disturbing visions of events in American history (dealing with Indian Wars, slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and others). Throughout his wanderings, he occasionally encounters a woman named Bea, and has conversations with Britannia.

Eventually he comes to the remains of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, where he sees Bea once more, now recognizing her as Columbia. He has further encounters with Britannia, Marianne and the Russian Bear, before he confronts a dark, corrupt, overtly capitalist shadow version of himself. He eventually defeats this figure, by accepting all its blows, recognizing that he's made 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 we see him again as a homeless man, but instead of wildly hallucinating, he's now chipper and optimistic, ready to face the future.

Themes

The book was heavily influenced by Howard Zinn's work, "A People's History of the United States". Fact|date=March 2008 The central theme of the story indicates that the people of the United States must advance by reaffirming essential principles of liberty and justice, by honestly confronting the mistakes of their country's past, and by working to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

Critical Reception

The series was very well received by critics, earning praise from The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and Alan Moore, among others.

Awards

The comics were nominated for an Eisner Award.

External links

* [http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1728 Official Vertigo Comics page (with dowloadable sample of the first pages)]
* [http://www.alexrossart.com/artforsale.asp?sc=ARUS1 "Uncle Sam" Gallery at the official site of Alex Ross] - [http://www.alexrossart.com/artforsale.asp?sc=ARUS1&page=1 Gallery 2]