Happy Wondercon! Be it in the exhibit hall of the Anaheim Convention Center or your own local comic book shop there’s brand spakin’ new books and series to be found.
As always check out The Beat for all the news and more coming out of Wondercon 2018.
JIRNI (vol 3) #1
Story: J.T Krul
Art: Michael Sta. Maria
Colors: John Starr
Letters: Micah Myers
Published by: Aspen Comics
By simply looking at the title character of Jirni, you might think it’s simply Aspen Comics’ analog of Wonder Woman or Red Sonja. A fierce warrior woman who isn’t afraid of a little bloodshed. What separates this character from those with longer history is Ara’s burning question, who is she?
Ara was a young girl of royalty whose life becomes about battle when her parent’s kingdom of Janna is ravaged by a sorcerer’s army. It’s in this moment of extreme panic she’s transformed into a half human half D’jnn warrior. Her mystical being from another realm half grants her uncanny strength and other powers she’s yet to uncover. Volume three of this series opens with Ara’s journey to find her captured mother taking a bit of a break to help local villagers under the thumb of a gang of warlords. She believes this gang is holding another D’jnn being and her detour will lead her to the discovery of a new character who may shed some light on her past.
Over the course of two volumes, writer J.T Krul has quickly turned Ara from naive royalty to unrelenting warrior. This new opening chapter shows Ara has accepted her life of blood and steel. As she helps the villagers being forced to surrender their food supply, we never believe that her actions are purely noble. The devastation she unleashed to liberate the village is merely the means to get to her objective of finding more D’Jnn. She’s a character in danger or losing her humanity to this one woman war she’s fighting. It’s a delicate balance that allows a good writer such as Krul to take chances with this character. A warrior who seems as though they won’t break usually has the bigger fall and that will be something fun to read.
As a first issue, Jirni #1 covers most of the bases. Readers get a feel for who Ara is and her motivations, much of the necessary backstory isn’t blatantly written in dialogue boxes but allowed to be told through the character’s memory. It even ends on an interesting hook with the introduction of a mysterious new character. While that ending comes as a bit of an abrupt stop, it is tantalizing enough to demand interest in issue two.
Jirni as a series has always been strange in the art department. The first series’ introduction was a bit of a turn off visually from Paolo Pantalena’s less than solid sequentials and too many boob shots. Jirni volume two got an upgrade from the art of V.Ken Marion who brought more focus on the action and allowed the character to stand out for the right reasons. This new volume builds even better visuals by artist, Michael Sta. Maria. Volume three looks more like a true comic book than the early series issues. Ara gets true superhero poses with proper camera placement. When you combine that with well continued design work, fitting emotion, and proper anatomy; it comes together to create one of Aspen Comics best-looking books of 2018.
Despite the stop short, Jirni #1 is a read worthy of your time.
Here’s the rest of this week’s #1 comics:
LUCY DREAMING #1 (BOOM! Studios) (W) Max Bemis (A/CA) Michael Dialynas In her dreams, Lucy is the hero of all her favorite stories, living each night as a grand adventure. These journeys will teach her more about herself and the real world around her than she ever expected!
USAGI YOJIMBO: THE HIDDEN #1 (DARK HORSE) (W) Stan Sakai (A/CA) Stan Sakai On his way to see Inspector Ishida, Usagi is confronted by Shogunate guards . . . a sign of the times. While unraveling a pair of murders in town later, Usagi and Ishida become wary as they find the corpses stripped of all identification-except for a talisman that leads to a startling discovery!
CAVE CARSON HAS AN INTERSTELLAR EYE #1 (DC COMICS/YOUNG ANIMAL) (W) Jonathan Rivera (A/CA) Michael Avon Oeming After a year of multiverse-hopping and fighting in the Milk Wars, returning to a normal life of digging and cave-diving just isn't the same for explorer Cave Carson.
PATHFINDER SPIRAL OF BONES #1 (IDW) (W) Crystal Frasier, Erik Mona (A) Tom Garcia, Diego Galindo (CA) Jonathan Lau As the Pathfinder plunge into the history and mysteries below Kaer Maga-the no-holds-barred 'City of Strangers'-Valeros plunges far deeper into the great beyond, defending his immortal soul in the courts of the dead!
IRON MAN HONG KONG HEROES #1 (MARVEL) (W) Howard Wong (A) Wong, Justice (CA) Crosby, Bill The Marvel Universe story of Disney's newest & coolest ATTRACTION!
WEAPON H #1 (MARVEL) (W) Greg Pak (A) Cory Smith (CA) Leinil Francis Yu AWOL Part 1 The Weapon X Program has done it again! At the cost of their own destruction, they've completed their biggest and possibly most dangerous experiment yet
GINGERDEAD MAN MEETS EVIL BONG #1 (ACTION LAB) (W) Brockton McKinney (A/CA) Sergio Rios The bad batch is back! The soul of a serial killer with the body of a cookie! It's the Gingerdead Man, and this time he's set his beady little candy eyes on a California headshop!
INFINITY 8 #1 (Lion Forge) (W) Lewis Trondheim, Zep (A/CA) Dominique Bertail A city sized space cruiser runs into a field of debris between galaxies, and it is up to the ship's top eight security agents to figure out how to circumnavigate it.
LAND TIME FORGOT SEE-TA SAVAGE #1 (W) Mike Wolfer (A/CA) Mike Wolfer In this incredible and gorgeous two-issue miniseries, Edgar Rice Burrough's Caspak comes to life in all of its prehistoric glory.
JIRNI PRIMER ONE SHOT (ASPEN) (W) J. T. Krul (A) V Kenneth Marion (CA) Matt Batt Banning New readers and fans alike can find everything they need to know about Jirni in this debut Jirni Primer issue!
