Comic Book Review: Uptown Girl – All This Time by Brian Bastian & Bob Lipski
Uptown Girl was a Minneapolis-produced minicomic first published in 2003 and running for 75 monthly issues. This is a “best hits” collection with the creators’ favorite single issue stories.
Uptown Girl is a reporter for a Minneapolis newspaper who has wacky adventures with her friends, artist Ruby Tuesday and laid-back office worker/slacker Rocketman. (There are a lot of music reference names in the series.) In the framing story, Rocketman is moving, and ropes his buddies into helping him pack. The various items they find cause flashbacks to earlier stories.
The first and final stories of the series are included, and it’s easy to see how much the art improved while still remaining simple. (Uptown Girl’s head is a circle!) There are werewolves from London, the first appearance of Sulky Girl, and my personal favorite, the introduction of Ana Ng, a photographer from Hibbing. The collection leans more to the slice of life stories, rather than some of the more actiony plots.
Admittedly, this book is mostly of local interest, but some of the stories are funny and touching even without getting the Minneapolis jokes. I’d recommend this volume to any fan of small-press comics.
