Jennifer Blood #001

Jennifer Blood #001

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Fred Van Lente

Illustrated by Vincenzo Federici

Coloured by Dearbhla Kelly

Lettered by Simon Bowland

So…once upon a time, a suburban housewife spent her nights as a mobster-murdering assassin, named JENNIFER BLOOD. Then she died…or did she? Because in the cozy cul-de-sacs of Bountiful, Utah, a noticeable number of normal people have gone missing. And by “normal,” I mean “mobsters under witness protection.” And by “missing,” I mean killed by someone that looks, sounds, and murders a lot like JENNIFER BLOOD…

There are a number of things about this issue to absolutely like and adore. That the inmates are running the asylum here is the most apropos slant to it, and if there is something like this then I kind of want to move there and see for myself all these types of folks running around together and basically being left in charge although cut off from the rest of the world. I wouldn’t think it worked this way but by George what Fred does with this is get the reader involved, invested and engaged in this book rather quickly. The way that we are introduced to the characters is pretty genius and the whole misdirection of it all is really something amazing to see play itself out.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really brings their personalities out beautifully. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing the cast of characters as well as pulling the reader in exceptionally well.

I am like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. These layers do a wonderful job of opening avenues to be explored and some that won’t be but they all add this amazing depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are fabulous! Now I’ll take that purple and orange dress please and thank you, with the pink waist tie and the kerchief. I really like how we see the linework and how its varying weights and techniques that are being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see is utterly marvellous. We don’t see as many backgrounds as I’d like but they still manage to enhance and expand the moments. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows an amazing eye for how colour works. The tone on tone really looks good when it’s a solid colour panel and I'm really impressed with how they’ve turned out.

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I have to say I was impressed with this issue a whole lot more than I was expecting to be and with Fred, Vincenzo, Dearbhla and Simon I already had high expectations. I love how much intrigue we see here and the whole concept of this town and how we see some of its citizens is something that just really blew me away. This has such smart, intelligent writing and strong, solid characterisation alongside these really impressive interiors to bring us this amazing debut issue to this arc.