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Graphic Novel Review: Jenny Finn by Mike Mignola and Troy Nixey, art by Troy Nixey and Farel Dalrymple

Jenny Finn by Mike Mignola and Troy Nixey, art by Troy Nixey and Farel Dalrymple

Dark Horse, 2018

ISBN: 9781427606754

Available: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, comiXology edition

A mysterious girl, Jenny Finn, arrives in Victorian England and leaves death, destruction, and a strange curse in her wake. There is a plague causing gruesome lesions in the crooked streets of London. Joe, a slaughterhouse worker, aims to find out what’s going on in his city. When the pursuit of his investigation leads him to Jenny, Joe is attacked by a religious zealot named Hornsbee who attempts to kill her, and has a number of strange and disturbing encounters: a serial murderer bent on wiping out the “ladies of the night” is loose, the ghosts of the murdered women roam the streets, and mutated half-human, half-fish people devote themselves to Jenny Finn. Pippa Platt, who clearly loves the oblivious Joe, takes him to a séance to see if a group of spiritualists can help him track down Jenny and what is happening in the town.

I liked this story for several reasons. The Lovecraftian tone and the Victorian setting were essential elements for this kind of tale. The griminess of old London and themes of punishment, forgiveness, and doom are exactly what I like in my horror. The art for this volume fits with the story well. Sequential art that includes body horror has always been a draw for me. The hybrid humans in particular are interesting in these pages.

While Jenny Finn does not compare to the Hellboy mythos, it is an interesting tale with great artwork. If you enjoy Lovecraftian tones, Victorian settings, and body horror, this would make a nice addition to your collection.

Recommended

Contains: body horror, nudity, implied rape, sex

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on April 10, 2019 by , Reply

Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli, Vanesa Del Rey, Leonardo Manco, Mateus Santolouco, Sebastian Cabrol, Paul Pope, Irene Koh, and Francesco Francavilla


Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose; illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli, Vanesa Del Rey, Leonardo Manco, Mateus Santoloucuo, Sebastian Cabrol, Paul Pope, Irene Koh, and Francesco Francavilla

Dark Horse Comics, 2018

ISBN-13: 9781506706696

Available: Hardcover, Kindle, comiXology

Hungry Ghosts, by the late Anthony Bourdain with Joel Rose, brings us the stories of a group of international chefs who are challenged to play 100 Candles by a Russian crime lord. The game is based on the Japanese Edo period game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai where samurai were challenged to tell ghost stories, each more terrifying than the last. After each tale, the storyteller then blew out a candle, making the atmosphere darker with each story. They also had to gaze into a mirror to ensure their fellow storytellers did not become possessed by the entities they could summon while telling their stories. The chefs participating in this game each tell a different cautionary tale all with the same theme: food.

I loved all of the stories in this graphic novel, but a few stood out over the others. In “The Starving Skeleton,” a cautionary tale about ignoring those in need, a homeless man enters a small restaurant in search of a meal. The chef turns him away, refusing to serve him, but soon discovers what happens when the spirits of those who starved to death are refused alms. In “The Pirates”, a voluptuous red-haired woman is rescued from drowning at sea by a ship of lusty pirates. What ensues is a feast of a different kind.

An apprentice chef who finds himself alone after his master dies unexpectedly is taken in by a group of chefs who each have a sad story to tell in “The Heads”. The masterless apprentice decides to stay with them, but discovers a disturbing scene in the middle of the night when he sees the bodies of his new friends in the kitchen missing their heads. It’s a far more disturbing sight when he sees what has happened to their heads.

A father and son are trapped in a blizzard in “The Snow Woman”. They find shelter, but in the middle of the night the son wakes up to find a mysterious woman over his father. She spares the son’s life, but tells him he must never tell anyone of what happened that night. Later, he finds the woman of his dreams. They wed, and have children. His fortune changes when he tells his wife the story of what happened that night in the snowstorm. The artwork for this story is particularly beautiful.

Included in the book are an afterword by Joel Rose, recipes, descriptions and artwork of the ghosts, demons, and entities in the stories, a cover gallery, and author biographies.

Rose and Bourdain, as well as the illustrators, did not pull any punches with content in some of these stories. They deal with disturbing content and imagery. If you are not a fan of body horror, gore, and/or disturbing themes, you should probably avoid this book. However, if you appreciate these horror elements like I do, consider picking up this title. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some new recipes to try. Highly recommended.

Contains: body horror, disturbing imagery, nudity, sexual assault

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on March 7, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

Journalstone. 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1947654440

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

If there’s someone out there who is unfamiliar with Gwendolyn Kiste’s gorgeous prose of the macabre, The Rust Maidens would be a great place to start. After last year’s stellar collection, And Her Smile Will Untether The Universe, Kiste steps out with her debut novel, which rattles the soul in a disturbing, yet beautiful read.

Set in Cleveland in 1980,  this tale unwinds in a muted, depressive state that feels utterly claustrophobic, brought to life by Kiste’s exquisite, yet unobtrusive, prose. A group of girls in the neighborhood has contracted an illness that defies logic and science. What begins as something relatively innocuous, dripping water from their bodies, becomes much more dangerous and frightening: skin breaking open, revealing glass-like shards and rusted metal where bones should be. The horror is quiet here, like the best of Shirley Jackson and Charles Grant, as Kiste dissects the rotting body of the area which mirrors the internal strife of the people who live within the crumbling town.

The dual narrative of our protagonist, Phoebe, past and present, is a haunting one, as she returns home to revisit the bones of what she escaped long ago. The mystery of what happened to her best friend and cousin Jacqueline looms large over both timelines. The true antagonists of this novel are vague, and should be: the women who strive to hold power of the lives on Denton Street, the government agents who appear to investigate, the Rust Maidens themselves, the self-destruction of the town.

To give away more would strip away the power of this beautifully written novel by one of the best new writers out there today, a tale both unsettling and gut-wrenching. Kiste wraps her story in a veneer that feels like a mix of rust with the dust that has settled over the dying town, and the emotional heft between the covers weighs down on the reader like the crush of a rust-riddled steel beam, suffocating in mood but resulting in a story that begs to be read and savored. Kiste is a star, and The Rust Maidens is a slam dunk as a finalist for this year’s Stoker Award.

Highly recommended for lovers of any any genre.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on February 17, 2019 by , Reply
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