Review by Christopher Butcher.
JINX: Essential Collection
Written and Illustrated by Brian Michael Bendis
Published by Image Comics, 1998
What profession other than your own would you most like to have?
A
bounty hunter? A grifter? A shifty, small-time thug? Or maybe just a writer/artist
that weaves all three of these people into a compelling and expansive
story named JINX, as told in JINX: ESSENTIAL COLLECTION
trade paperback. JINX is so named for its lead character, a female
bounty hunter named Jinx Almeda. She is a smart girl, an introspective
girl, and a girl that deserves a better life than bounty hunting. Goldfish
is a grifter, a bit of a hack running small-time scams because he's too
pathetic to get a real job. He wants to get out of his life too, but he
can't imagine doing anything else. Columbia is a thug, too stupid to live
but just slimy enough that he hasn't been offed - yet. His only good fortune
in life has been hooking up with Goldfish, being the front man for his
next scam. He wants out too.
When these three damaged people become embroiled in a scam that will net them a cool $3 million, trust and treachery take on new meanings. JINX: ESSENTIAL COLLECTION is 440 pages of fantastic storytelling, a wonderful mix of art and writing. In it's original printing, JINX was serialized over 14 different single comics, and printed by two different companies (Caliber Comics and Image Comics), over the space of several years. As such, you might assume that the art or story would shift in direction or ability in the way that some other longer comic works have. However, the story is remarkedly consistent from start to finish on both fronts. The writing is, well, fantastic. Bendis has an incredibly good ear for dialogue, and is attentive to the rhythm and vocabulary with which people actually speak. As such, there is a lot of text to get through in the book. The word balloons at points overpower the artwork, but it's sort of necessary for that to happen, to capture the feeling and intimacy of the conversations that take place in JINX.
The first-time or casual comic reader might find this a little difficult to follow as the artwork and word balloons travel some very non-traditional paths. I'm reminded of one instance in particular, where the dialogue travels clockwise around the entire page. It's a shame too, because the genre and prevailing themes of the work are as such that even a beginner to comics would become instantly enthralled, were it easier to read. I think that Bendis has realized this as well, and his more current work on SAM & TWITCH for Image Comics has similar amounts of text, but no word balloons to distract the eye and overpower the page. The unique storytelling is partly responsible for the way the text operates. Bendis' approach is very cinematic, showing all of the moments that make a scene memorable, as well as the silent moments in between that punctuate. This would make for a successful book on it's own merits, but JINX goes one step further by using live models set against photo-copied backgrounds to give a disturbingly real feel to the events transpiring.
What's most interesting is that, despite the use of these models, Bendis doesn't opt for photo-realism with his illustration; you'll find no excessive crosshatching here. Instead, he uses a clean black and white noir style to his line art that gives it more of an impression of realism, a slightly iconic edge, than say an Alex Ross painted piece. The downside to this is that it can be slightly off-putting at times watching the characters descend at points into near cartoon versions of themselves, especially considering how vicious several of the scenes are. But that uneasy feeling can be attributed to the success of Bendis' style, as you can feel an iconic (symbolic) impact much more implicitly than something that is a completely realistic interpretation of events. It's sort of like the Hollywood version of scummy crime versus the independent cinema version; they can both portray the same events, but do it in different enough ways that one will make you cheer for the good guys while the other makes you puke into your bucket of popcorn.
One thing that the casual reader might find off-putting is its resemblance to another guns and hitmen, trash-talking story that ended up being told in the cinema, and had everyone saying "Royale with Cheese" a few years back. No matter how supportive of Bendis' work I am, I couldn't help hearing "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones running through the back of my mind for a good chunk of the story. A small caveat for the readers that are a little Pulped-out.
Despite my reservations with the book, I'd like to re-iterate that it is very good. It's a purchase I'm glad I made, as I am whenever I purchase a piece of work with strong writing, storytelling and artwork. While it can at times be a little bit confusing for new readers of the comic book medium, it is one of the few titles I can say is worth working through to read, because it's a rewarding work in and of itself. That and thanks to Bendis' deal with Miramax, you can be the only hipster on your block that can say "I read JINX before they made it into a movie and everyone liked it." Because they will like it. You will too.
Recommended with reservations.
JINX: ESSENTIAL COLLECTION is available in trade paperback.
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