My Uncle Jeff

    (Origin, 2003)
™ and © Origin Comics

Damon Hurd has crafted a personal story with My Uncle Jeff, the story of his favorite uncle. The message is that heroes come in all forms — like Hurd’s uncle Jeff, who lacks for money and teeth and whose breath always smells like alcohol.

What Hurd shows us beneath Jeff’s facade is a man who loves his family and would like to do all he can for his ailing father, even if that “all” is not much.

While the main story involves Hurd’s father’s side of the family, the comic book begins with a family tree of his mother’s side, which features a cast of sexual deviants, drug addicts, and a wife-beater. Hurd looks back on his relationship with this side of the family with regret, but refuses to not love them.

The one downside to My Uncle Jeff is the length. Weighing in at only 32 pages, the story could — and should — have been much longer. Considering that the story takes place in less than a 24-hour span, with the family getting together to decide what to do with the elderly father, it is acceptable.

The art is superb in capturing different members of the family. With this extremely personal story, Hurd has masterfully taken a man who looks as if he has nothing and shows us that he has everything he really needs.

— Nathan Melby
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#1


Cover Price: $3.95
1 copy available for $3.99 		Damon HurdPedro Camello
#1 - 2nd printing

February, 2003
Cover Price: $3.95
1 copy available for $3.98 		Damon HurdPedro Camello