Looking For a Good Book

Collecting the first four issues of the comic book by the same name, Jumpscare is a new sort of superhero.

A young woman who happens to be a huge fan of horror/slasher/grindhouse films is bestowed with a unique power – she can call up (and use) any movie weapon from any horror film she’s ever seen and ‘jump’ to and from locations. This will come in handy as Empire City where she lives is being invaded by a collection of baddies the could be right out of any of the horror films she enjoys.

When her sister is taken captive by one of these monsters, Jumpscare goes into lethal action to rescue her her, even though her ultra conservative, Christian family has denounced her and seems to want nothing to do with her.

This was really a lot of fun and very clever. Jumpscare’s ‘power’ is a bit like Green Lantern (‘if you can think of it, it’ll be there’) but relies on an impressive knowledge of horror films. I definitely don’t have that background, but I suspect those who do will enjoy this even more.

The contrast with the darkness (horror movie powers and creatures) and light (Christian conservative values) is well played though the role reversals might be a little heavy-handed.  Might be.

The artwork is tremendous. This is complex without being overly busy. I really like the addition of Jumpscare’s red/blue eyes which take us to 1950’s era 3D movies – perfect for ‘B’ horror flicks.

The book is comprised of four comic book issues and suffers a little bit of telling four stories within the larger arc. It sometimes feels a bit padded to flesh out the necessary pages for a comic.

The ‘ending’ doesn’t work for me.  Especially with the last page, this feels more like a set-up to a much longer story or, at best, the half-way point. I understand it’s nice to leave the story open for continuation, but it was unnecessary.  She hasn’t lost her powers – this could easily be begun in another issue/volume. Now we have an incomplete story.

Looking for a good book? The graphic novel Jumpscare is very clever and well illustrated and worthy of continuation, but closing a volume with an obvious ‘cliffhanger’ doesn’t work – especially when the book is under 100 pages and graphic novels can easily go beyond that to present a complete story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Jumpscare

author: Cullen Bunn

artist: Danny Luckert

publisher: Dark Horse Books

ISBN: 9781506745381

paperback, 96 pages