Product Description: Hot writer Brian Michael Bendis pens this graphic crime novel about a bounty hunter, two grifters, and a treasure hunt that propels this character driven crime comic book classic. This extra large edition carries with it the entire epic story, behind the scenes/making of, script excerpts, and an art gallery to complement this daunting work of comic crime fiction.
Charming (if dated) early work from Bendis Jinx is very early Bendis (anyone remember 1997?), both illustrated and written by Marvel's latest flagship writer. Jinx tells the parallel stories of a down-on-his-luck con man and a female bounty hunter (the title character). Their paths coincide in a few places, and, at the close of this first volume, it looks like they'll go on to many merry adventures. Jinx is a nice little indy - the protagonists (even the foul 'friend') are all entertaining and surprisingly engaging characters.
It feels more than a little dated - like a combination of Swingers and Out of Sight - but pulls it off with great charm. I'm not sad that Bendis decided to concentrate on his writing - Jinx has great visual style, but isn't groundbreaking as much as 'aggressively independent'. Nice for a break, but hard for a series.
Graphic SF Reader Jinx is one of those crime caper stories. Dodgy characters abound. In fact, the three main characters are dodgy. A con artist dodgy type, a bounty hounter dodgy type, and an annoying dodgy type are what we are presented with.
when the possibility of obtaining a whole lot of loot brings some of them together, violence and the usual follow.
Not the Definitive Bendis This is not Bendis' best work (that would be his work on "Daredevil"), but it is an interesting crime tale that has an ending as abrupt and as unlikely as they come.
Jinx may be the title character, but she's not the most interesting person in the book. That would be Goldfish, her new partner in a quest for a few million dollars. He comes across as a man you could hang out with but never truly trust. Jinx just seems like a lady you wouldn't to deal with after ten minutes or so.
Of course, there is Bendis' trademark dialogue (he writes some of the best dialogue in comics, which is no easy feat), and his art, which is sometimes a little hard to follow. I always thought he worked best when working with another artist (though is "Fortune and Glory," which is illustrated by him, is fantastic).
There are better crime tradepaperbacks out there. (Any of the "100 Bullets" series comes to mind.) But this is the one you should give people who aren't into comics, because it will when the art medium some new fans.
One of the Greatest Black and White Comics Ever Published There is a scene in JINX (and this gives nothing away) in which writer/artist Brian Michael Bendis deviates from the plot to show us people in an arcade talking. These aren't central characters - a few of them are walk-ons to The Story, and some of them are extras who are hardly seen again. Very little of what they say has anything to do - even tangentially - with the plot. So for 19 pages, background actors are given the chance to tell their stories, their thoughts, their dreams.
Brian Michael Bendis is certainly not the first writer to have an idea for the back story for every one-line character who appears - almost every hack sci-fi writer is at least that obsessive, if not more so. The difference is, Bendis' background tangent isn't merely fanboyish wankery. When Bendis' background characters talk, their stories are INTERESTING. They are funny, they are layered, they are compelling, and there is far more to them than the characters say. After 19 pages, you find yourself wishing not that Bendis had avoided delaying the story, but that you could spend another 19 pages with these extras.
In fact, what Bendis DOESN'T give you is the real genius of JINX. It is a masterpiece, a five-star treasure, a genuine thrill from beginning to end. It is one of those books you finish and wish it had gone on for another 100 pages or more. (Perhaps Bendis feels the same, which is why THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION contains almost two comics' worth of appendices and additional material.) Bendis' characters don't just ACT. They BREATHE. They pop off the pages and sing and dance and move. One of the reasons the book feels like it should be longer is because - for all their flaws - you find yourself not wanting to say good-bye to Goldfish and Jinx and, yes, even Columbia. Bendis may also be the only writer other than Quentin Tarantino who can give characters pages of dialogue about the comparitive merits of letterboxing in films without sounding like a bad rip-off of Quentin Tarantino.
There is something else that Bendis can do that no other comics creator can. (Or, at the very least, no other writer has tried.) Bendis can draw scenes in such a way that the LESS you see, the more involved into the scene you become. His shadows have weight, meaning, a life all their own. Like Spider-Man's black costume, they seem to move and ooze, following their own laws of physics. Within a few pages, the shadows have become not something to HIDE the action, but rather, the audience's eyes into the scene. If I re-read JINX a thousand times, I doubt I would ever determine how it is that he somehow makes the audience feel more intimately involved in a scene when it is drenched in shadow than when it is flooded with light.
This is a conscious decision on Bendis' part. He is capable of the clean line drawings of Sal Buscema - and he proves it in one scene - or the moody pseudo-realism of Bernie Wrightson or the abstract solidness of Dave Gibbons. He CHOOSES not to draw JINX this way. When he uses xerography to depict an object, he objectifies and isolates that object, sets us apart from it. Thus, when an entire flashback scene is done through xerography, it detaches us from the action and makes us feel as though the memory which is objectively "true" is somehow less real to us than a more subjective and fantastic one.
When other writers use tricks like these, they seem like show-offs. Even Alan Moore verges dangerously close to OCD with his obsession to detail and showmanship at times. Bendis never falls into this trap. JINX is a tour-de-force - a re-imagining of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and Tarantino movies and French New Wave and film noir into a wholly new and original art. Reading JINX is reading a comic book for the first time. Others have complained about the typographical and printing errors, but even those lend a certain grubby charm to the book - like secretly reading a 14-year-old girl's diary in the days before 14-year-old girls posted their diaries to the Internet for the whole world to read, or like seeing a dirty word written on the men's room wall at a Catholic middle school. Reading JINX is like sharing a taboo secret with a small group of strangers.
It is sexy, thrilling, dangerous and insanely cool. It is also utterly brilliant. If you like comics, or if you like crime fiction, or if you just like damn good stories period, JINX is a must-read.
Jinx: Pros/Cons I must admit I was disappointed with this story. Sorry to those who found Jinx to be an amazing independent effort from Bendis, but I just couldn't see what the hype was about. Interestingly enough, as if there aren't enough adaptations already, I read they will be turning this into a major motion picture starring Charlize Theron as none other than Jinx Alameda. But, aside from my initial statement, I want to express certain aspects of the story that appealed to me, and others that turned me away.
The Pros: Noir makes for some of the most intriguing story telling to date, so instantly I was drawn to the Jinx collection. Knowing Bendis' popular Powers series, I figured I couldn't go wrong with some of his earlier works. Photo referencing was genius. It added a thicker layer to Jinx's world that we don't see often in the comic universe. I'm all about presentation in comics and graphic novels, and I think this was done well (albeit one portion I'll explain in the cons.) Original story crafting was a plus. Typical crime drama setting -- i.e. casual noir -- with some real tragic characters. They carry their own individuality with precision. And finally, when you take it to the streets, this is some epic storytelling.
The Cons: Right off the bat, and again, sorry to those who disagree, I could not stand the dialogue. Trying to mimic realistic (real life) conversations just doesn't work on paper. In the movies, yes, because it obviously doesn't sound so scripted. But, your eyes don't accept the words so willingly when you just wanna get through a comic book. Especially a long one, it's frustrating to read someone stutter constantly or people interrupting each other and even finishing each others sentences. And, I really don't want to see "..." several times in a bubble. But, Jinx has it all. Which brings me to the other minute "presentation problem" I mentioned in the pros, the conversation bubbles seemed to be a mess, and the tails were too long; may sound petty yes, but in a black and white, they are more noticable and distracting. And finally, I just didn't really care for the story, it took me a while to read it because there are so many slow and boring parts, I was really ready to read a crime drama, but it's not what I got. This is not a spoiler review, so I won't reveal anything about the plot. Just, letting the readers know my opinion.
The wonderful thing about comics is that they've segregated themselves from any other art form and mediums on how to tell stories. And there's always something that gets lost in the translation when they are adapted into something else (such as a movie). There's such a unique-ness to it, that only fans can appreciate, and a respect that we can give to those involved in this comic universe. So, I applaud Brian Bendis' efforts, but I, unfortunately, can't carry much of Jinx with me.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
