JENNIFER BLOOD Vol. 1

WARNING: Jennifer Blood is a Mature Readers Only series. 

Garth Ennis as far as I am concerned is possibly one of the most underrated graphic novelist. I know he is well known and has written some classic fiction in the past but as the final issue of The Boys reaches the stands I for one am looking forward to what he decides to do next. When The Boys was published under the Wild Storm (DC Comics owns it now) imprint Ennis and his artist, Darick Robertson were told by DC that they didn't want a mature series about superheroes as it would more then likely be against what DC wanted in their stable of titles. This left Ennis with the choice of taking the series, which had at that time only 6 issues. else where. Which as far am I am concerned it was good move. Both artist and writer then took the series to Dynamite Entertainment. Where the series has flourished over the past 7yrs.

By then there were talks about a The Boys feature film. Lots of interviews and discussion about a movie. which at the moment is still in the air. I have written a review on the first volume of The Boys. Which should be out soon. It is with Dynamite Entertainment that Ennis created his Jennifer Blood series.

Jennifer Blood, a pseudonym of the lead character, is a well crafted action thriller about a house wife who at night goes out to dish out her own justice on a family of Mob related criminals. The story is told through her own narration written in her journal. We follow this mother of 2 young children and a loving husband, Andrew, who are none the wiser as Jennifer. Every night Jennifer drugs her kids and Andrew, so that she can go about carrying out her vendetta on the local crime family. And like any other vigilante she leaves her calling card.

No matter what, Ennis writes, there is always a very strong first issue. And so in the first issue we follow Jennifer as she puts her family to bed and goes downstairs to the hidden enclave which houses weapons and spy equipment that might put James Bond to shame. Weapons from a simple glock pistol to a RPG (rocket propelled gun) and semi-automatic machine gun. Here in her hidden cupboard space she changes from a house wife to a black leather clad female Punisher. (NB: Ennis wrote several volumes of The Punisher through Marvel Comics Max imprint. The Punisher film starring Tom Jane was based on some of that series).
With a black wig to cover her blonde hair she takes off into the night in her Black SUV wearing dark sunglasses. And it is here that we start to see the very different character than the one while she was with her family. With her chosen weapon hidden away in the SUV, she drives to her first victims of her vigilante.

At first glance the first issue looks like a rip-off of a Punisher story. Jennifer Blood being the female Punisher. But its nothing like the Punisher. Jennifer Blood in her own right is a complex story about family, and the criminal under ground. Jennifer Blood is a strong female character. Which I like seeing in comics. Often to sell a comic book a first issue that is mature in content ends up having the female protagonist is over sexualised, but not so in Jennifer Blood. There is a good balance of mature content along with some of the crazy humor stuff Ennis is known for. But that does not take away from the story. I, for one really enjoyed the story.

This story like any many others that Ennis has written before or since Jennifer Blood, is worth the cover price. When you read through the first arc, Ennis only wrote the first volume on the on-going series, you will come to realise that Jennifer Blood is another original story that could easily be made into a movie, and I hope they do, because the whole first series can easily be adapted to a film script.
The artwork by Adriano Batista gives life to the series which the colorist, Romulo Frajardo Jr. clearly set out to show us to show the difference between Jennifer's day life and her night life, using light tones and colors for the Jennifer's day life and dark hues for the night activities. I found the art and color tones to be well planned out.
The first issue includes a two and a half pages of interview with Ennis about the series as well as  five pages of sketches showing the character designs. After Garth's 6 issue run the writing and art chores are picked up by Al Ewing and Kewber Baal. I had only bought the first 6 issues, all Tim Bradstreet 'Virgin Art' Retailer Incentive covers through my comic dealer. Having read all the issues this week, I hadn't even read the series until this week, I wish I had continued with collecting the rest of the series in print form.
If you are a fan of good crime action stories, then may I suggest that you read at least read Ennis' run. Al Ewing continues on with the series with the spirit of what Ennis began.

(ARU), Aruneshwar has a Bachelors Degree in Digital Media -Digital Film-making. Aru is writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the 30yrs of Institutionalised Slavery ofIndians in Fiji from 1885 -1915. He is a prolific script writer and writes in all comicbook genres which include several graphic novels for his own company,Rising Sun Comics. Aru also uploads a digital comic series on Facebook called, Zero as well as finishing off the lettering to his crime-noir graphic novel, The Circle. He is also trying to finish off coloring and lettering a superhero comic book mini-series he co-created with Mike Burbeck called, Incredi-Girl.

Week In Review: B.P.R.D. : The Pickens County Horror #1 / Bloodstrike #26 / Daredevil #10 / Justice League Dark #7 / The New Deadwardians #1 / Voodoo #7

Welcome fellow ComicAddicts, to another new week of releases - and do we have a load of amazing titles for you guys this week! In fact we had so many great releases that we have more than the usual number today AS WELL AS TOMORROW! So dive in and enjoy!

B.P.R.D. – Hell On Earth : The Pickens County Horror #1 (of 2) (Dark Horse)

Story : Scott Allie

Art : Jason Latour

(Reviewed by Anubhav DasGupta)

None of our usual BPRD players turn up in Pickens County Horror. There’s no Liz Sherman, Abe Sapien or Johann Krauss. Instead, we are treated to two field agents who land up in South Carolina to investigate something about a fog that, well, “moans”. There are Vampires in this issue.

Firstly, this comic is not groundbreaking or mindblowing, but it gets the work done. What really stands out in this issue is the art. I love this Latour guy. This is the only comicbook of his that I’ve read, but he’s impressed me, and I’m totally going to fish around for more of this guy’s work. The amount of character he brings out in each and every panel is amazing. And the nighttime scenes are just brilliant. It also helps that Dave Stewart is handling the colors. I bet his colors would make a page drawn by even Rob-goddamn-Liefeld look good, and with Latour’s art, it not only looks amazing, but also adds to the story.

The pace is just right. This comic takes its time, letting us know the characters before heaping the good stuff on us and ending with our heroes in a questionable situation. This is textbook horror storytelling.

Stewart's Slate : Review of Authority vol 4

The Authority Book 4: Transfer Of Power

Writers: Mark Millar, Tom Peyer
Art: Frank Quitely, Arthur Adams, Gary Erskine, Dustin Nguyen


The fourth and final Authority book that Mark Millar had a hand in writing is undoubtedly the best so far!

After the Authority spent the previous 3 books saving the world in the manner they thought best for the Earths population, whether they liked it or not, the worlds most powerful corporate elite strike back at them for endangering their interests. In keeping with the traditions of the series so far the resulting story is gripping, gritty, ultra violent and occasionally very, very funny. I've come to like the characters of The Authority a lot and I've never been more shocked and upset by things going badly for a team of super heroes than I was when I read this. And believe me it gets bad! Some of it really has to be seen to be believed. The twists and turns in the plot kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and the second story of the book written by Tom Peyer is every bit as fantastic as Mark Miller and Warren Ellis' work on the series.

Despite so many different artists being involved, the artwork remains at a high standard throughout the book with crisp, clear characters and environments and fast, brutal looking action scenes.

although I've not read any further than this I understand that after this book the standard of the stories slips a bit as Mark Miller and Warren Ellis left the title but I've enjoyed the series and characters so much that I still intend to continue collecting the graphic novels so you can be sure of seeing more Authority reviews on the site if anybody wonders what their like.
If you like super hero comics but get frustrated when the heroes refuse to kill their opponents no matter how much they deserve it or how many horrible things they've done and just send the bad guys to jail without dishing out any kind of serious punishment then this series is for you. The first 4 books have it all. Incredible stories, dark humour, apocalyptic battles, great artwork as well as some blindingly original and unforgettable characters.

What I would say though, is start at the beginning with book 1. As trouser tremblingly good as book 4 is, it won't mean much to you if you haven't been following the series and getting to know the characters.
SUPER HERO COMICS DON'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!

SCORE 10/10