Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah [Paperback]

Mike Mignola (Author), Troy Nixon (Illustrator), Farel Dalrymple (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Jenny Finn | Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Finally collected in one volume for the first time! From the mind of Mike Mignola, creator of HELLBOY, comes this Lovecraftian tale of a mysterious girl who arrives in Victorian England with carnage in her wake. Is she evil incarnate or a misled child? Just in time for HELLBOY 2!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This spooky Victorian thriller by the creator of Hellboy isn't particularly complex, but has a winsomeness that carries the story. Clients of prostitutes are turning up with gruesome lesions from which emerge tentacles, barnacles and fins. The victims are tended by Jenny Finn, a gentle-but-dour character resembling Emily Dickinson who may be a whore herself. Suddenly, a woman is found dead, and the seaside town turns out to find the murderer. Enter Joseph, besotted with Jenny, who promptly sets the mob on the wrong man. Meanwhile, the prime minister, an odd fellow who wears a diving suit helmet on land, is looking for Jenny; she may be the cause of the lesions plague, or else a strange, oceanic messiah. The black and white art is a mix of baroque and gritty; even oozing sores are drawn with a certain flourish. Oddly, the story ends up being a take on the notion that a pure heart can save the day, except that the pure heart belongs to a man, not a woman. (Jenny, a mystically vengeful rape victim, is far from innocent.) Mignola's fantasy should appeal to lovers of Victoriana, especially nautical-minded goths and steampunks. (June)
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From Booklist

Years before Mignola’s most famous creation, Hellboy, made the leap from comic to screen, the writer/artist perfected his signature brand of Lovecraftian horror in various titles and miniseries. One such series was Jenny Finn, collected here nearly 10 years after its first appearance. The relatively simple story of nice-but-tough Joe, who tries to protect the mysterious little girl Jenny from her hideous destiny in a nameless Victorian-era English port city, is filled with its creator’s trademark spirit mediums, ghastly tentacles, and general all-around weirdness. Mignola provided the writing and covers for the titles in the original series, but Nixey and Dalrymple provide a suitably ominous tone here, which is certainly suggestive of Mignola’s sinister atmospherics. Although the choice of format is not ideal—the glossy pages make the presentation overly bright and the print is on the uncomfortably small side—the story is good, creepy stuff. Note that there’s some fairly overt sexuality at the beginning. Grades 10-12. --Jesse Karp

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: BOOM! Studios (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934506141
• ISBN-13: 978-1934506141
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,504,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars creepy good fun, far above average, October 6, 2009

By 

N. Huston (at large) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah (Paperback)

i've been a fan of troy nixey's art for years. nobody, but NOBODY draws tentacled and creepy-from-the-deep stuff like him, making him the perfect illustrator for most anything Lovecraftian. don't look to him for pretty things - everything that flows from his pen is going to be somehow warped or twisted, or supremely dark at the very least. pure genius!

this story's not perfect. it had a few "forced" moments, i thought: some shock for shock's sake that didn't really advance the storyline, and some of the humor didn't quite click for me (although, unlike another reviewer, i loved the little fish flopping around and saying "doom!"). plus, the slightly reduced size of this trade collection also reduces the size of the artwork, costing the reader a little in terms of detail.

on the plus side, though, the story is oozing with atmosphere. i could almost smell fish-tainted opium smoke while reading! great details in both narrative and art really flesh out the setting and the characters. and nixey's artwork is top notch.

overall, 85 out of 100, or about 4.5 stars. well worth picking up if you appreciate real atmospheric horror, if you can get beyond the trendy glut of zombies and tennybopper vampire pseudo-smut currently glutting the globe.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No, really. Doom., April 21, 2009

By 

Ross Williams (Columbia, MO, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah (Paperback)

First of all, I apologize for how confusing it's going to be having one 5- and one 1-star review so far. That being said...

I'm a big Mignola fan. Furthermore, I'm a fan of his influences, particularly H. P. Lovecraft. The story of "Jenny Finn" is astonishingly close to what you might imagine Lovecraft's first foray into graphic novels would be, and the art seems like it could have been pulled out of the man's tortured head. It not only takes Lovecraftian themes like so many other works, but it actually creates its own storyline without resorting to base imitation, and really does create a creepy and engrossing world of its own. I don't think that this is all Mignola, either. He certainly gives it a bit of his flair, but Troy Nixey and Farel Dalrymple make a very strong showing as well.

There's a lot here beyond Lovecraftian influence. There's a hint of steampunk, a touch of "City of Lost Children," and believe it or not, a definite "Moby Dick" feel to the thing.

It's well-written, beautiful, and above all, scary. I can't recommend it enough, and I hope that there's more coming from this vein.

(Fish laying in the street saying "doom." How awesome is that?)

5.0 out of 5 stars book review, December 1, 2011

By 

scott - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah (Paperback)

i've been a fan of troy nixey's art for years. nobody, but NOBODY draws tentacled and creepy-from-the-deep stuff like him, making him the perfect illustrator for most anything Lovecraftian.