Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry PrizeThe exploits you find in my comics
are no more probable
than snow in Sunnyvale.
Im not as black as you dream.
—from “Luke Cage Tells It Like It Is
Missing You, Metropolis
With humor and the serious collectors delight, Gary Jackson imagines the comic-book worlds of Superman, Batman, and the X-Men alongside the veritable worlds of Kansas, racial isolation, and the gravesides of a sister and a friend.
Review
“Gary Jacksons Missing You, Metropolis embodies a voice uniquely shaped and tuned for the twenty-first century. Playful, jaunty, rueful, and highly serious—sometimes within a singular poem—this persona has been forged in the caldron of popular iconography, especially in the culture of the comic book. Anything is possible in such created time and space; immediate tension exists in a climate where otherworldly figures are defined by earthly matters and concerns. The funny-book world is a perfect landscape for innuendo and signification, and Jackson uses these aptly. This first collection of poems is gauged by a sophisticated heart.” —YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA, from the Introduction
Review
"We indulge in the power to inhabit a world a page removed from our own" (p. 81), writes Gary Jackson in 'Reading Comic Books in the Rain,' the last poem of his first collection, Missing You, Metropolis. Selected by Yusef Komunyakaa as the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the book addresses life through the world of cartooned adventures and the stories of superheroes. The caped protagonists and villains are the main players in the impressive debut, and take on a new sort of humanity when mingled with and filtered through stories of growing up, the deaths of family members and friends, sexual encounters, and racial issues." Kate Welsh, Cerise Press (Read the entire Cerise Press review)
Synopsis
Winner of the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize
The exploits you find in my comics
are no more probable
than snow in Sunnyvale.
I'm not as black as you dream.
--from Luke Cage Tells It Like It Is
Missing You, Metropolis
With humor and the serious collector's delight, Gary Jackson imagines the comic-book worlds of Superman, Batman, and the X-Men alongside the veritable worlds of Kansas, racial isolation, and the gravesides of a sister and a friend.
About the Author
Gary Jackson was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas. He received his M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico and has taught in Albuquerque and in Anyang, South Korea.