Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah (Paperback)

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

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 (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934506141
• ISBN-13: 978-1934506141
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #570,107 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 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)

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?)

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DOOOOOM!, March 8, 2009

By	Martha Toebbe (KY, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There were no product reviews so I just went ahead and bought it. Traded it in for $1 the next day at a used book shop. Wasted a little life reading this. I don't really see Mignola's influence in it at all. The story doesn't really go anywhere and doesn't have an intellectual feel like Hellboy can. The artwork is b&w and "busy", quite ugly overall. There are random fish in lots of panels with speech bubbles saying "Doom!". Corny.
If you're a Hellboy/BPRD fan like me, you should not waste your money on this. Get Zombieworld instead. At least it makes for fun reading.