Djinn Hunter #2

Djinn Hunter #2

Blackbox Comics 2021

Written by Jay Sandlin

Illustrated & Lettered by Fabrizio Cosentino

Zara and Bennu cross blades with a feudal daimyo. Wielding the necro-sword, he's carved lands under his protection into fields of blood. Will the Djinn Hunter trap the spider-demon responsible for turning the Samurai into a killing machine? Or become more flies caught in his web?

I really am very much enjoying this book. Zara is a great character and she totally shatters our expectations of what Djinn really are. They’ve never been the Disney version; they've always fed off wishes often turning their desires into nightmares, which coincidentally is where “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”, comes from. I mean all the myths & legends we know today all come from dark origins or roots that were meant to scare children into behaving. I for one appreciate Jay’s vision in taking this back to its darker places and then expanding upon that with a system of checks & balances that stop any one of them from becoming too powerful for their own good. It is most assuredly a unique and different take on the mythology and it really gives us a chance to get to see the darker side of something we’ve known as more light these days.

The way that this is being told is utterly fantastic. 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 they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job in bringing the characters to life. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we’re drawn into this even further still.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificently rendered. How we see the avenues opening up and different directions to be explored, many will and many won’t be but that’s okay, and all of these layers add such wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the storytelling. The backstory and the current Djinn we see have such a history that’s touched upon and it expands this whole idea behind the story incredibly well. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably rendered.

I love the interiors here. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail in the work we see throughout the book is phenomenal. The creativity and imagination we see within these pages is bloody brilliant, i mean this spider we see can actually be terrifying in a western manga kind of way. I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised however because they really do wonders in enhancing and expanding the moments. We do see some nice work within the composition of the panels that brings 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 a splendid eye for storytelling.

​

I really like this story so far. It really has this gorgonising effect on the reader. That this doesn’t fit into what we consider the norm or mainstream is something to be celebrated because it really engages the readers’ mind, creativity and imagination. This is sharply written with intelligent characterisation and striking interiors and makes us long for shows like Grimm to come back on air.