In Review: Jennifer Wilde Issue 1

Set in 1921 Jennifer Wilde is the Eagle Award nominated lightly supernatural title from Atomic Diner, written by Maura McHugh, illustrated by Stephen Downey and based on a plot by Maura McHugh and Robert Curley.

Jennifer Chevalier is an artist based in Paris who is visited there by her father. As Jennifer walks to the restaurant the next day to meet him for lunch, she discovers that he has been knocked down by a car and killed. While the French police accept this as an accident, Jennifer believes that he may have been pushed. Visiting her father's hotel room she discovers more about her father than she ever knew before - secrets that her mother had kept from her - including his male lover.

Dublin's Atomic Diner Comics have been putting out a selection of US format comics that in the last year or so have included the WWII team title The League Of Volunteers and the Victorian horror title Roisin Dubh.

The supernatural part of the Jennifer Wilde plot is that Jennifer sees ghosts and this is presented in such a matter-of-fact way that it does not strain the reader's credulity. Jennifer's ghost partner is the Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde, who died in Paris in 1900, who joins her because her dead father's locket, as shown on the front cover, contains a picture of him as well as Jennifer. Stephen Downey uses a much more pencil-like style when drawing the spectral Wilde as opposed to the harder blacks that he uses for his living characters.

A letter to her father from London and written in Gaelic intrigues Jennifer and sets her and Wilde off to London to investigate. Quite where the story is leading plot wise I'm not sure, but that is a good thing as it makes me want to read on. Geographically the plot is heading from France to England and apparently onwards to Ireland at a time when the region that is now the Republic Of Ireland was separating itself from the rest of the United Kingdom and was about to descend into civil war.

To describe Jennifer Wilde as Adele Blanc-Sec meets Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is an apt, if somewhat brutal, description of what is a lovingly crafted comic. Maura McHugh's script mixes intrigue, scandal and the supernatural in fairly equal measures which, along with Stephen Downey's moody artwork, makes sure that I am already looking forward to future issues.

There are more details of Jennifer Wilde on the title's website

There are details of other Atomic Diner titles on their website.

There are more details of Maura McHugh's work on her website.

There are more details of Stephen Downey's work on his website.

Maura McHugh will be appearing as a guest at the Hi-Ex comics convention in Inverness on Saturday 31 March and Sunday 1 April 2012.

Wild about Jennifer Wilde

On sale now from Irish independent publisher Atomic Diner is the first issue of a three-part series Jennifer Wilde, written by Maura McHugh (from a story by Rob Curley & Maura McHugh) with art, lettering and covers from Stephen Downey.

Set in Paris in 1921, the tale is an engaging mystety story, centring on a young French artist, Jennifer Chevalier, who becomes embroiled in death, espionage and revolution taking her across the three nations of France, England and Ireland – ably assisted by the ghost of Oscar Wilde.

The story opens as Jennifer gets a visit from her estranged father, only for him to die in a street accident. His death raises many questions about her father, who has left behind items suggesting he was a very different man to that of his public persona as a war hero.

In a Randall & Hopkirk-style twist, Jennifer's talent for seeing ghosts brings her into contact with the spirit of Oscar Wilde, who offers to help the young artist solve the mystery of her father's untimely death.

The book is an intriguing tale with some deft charecterisation and gorgeous art from Stephen Downey, and the 1920s setting offers rich, largely untapped setting.

This is a great first issue and a title fully desrving wider reading. Check it out via the links below.

Atomic Diner, which also runs the 'Free Irish Comic Day' events in Dublin, was set up in 2004 by Robert Curley, primarily to produce and publish a line of cross genre titles from horror to detective and of course good time super hero's. The company is 100 per cent independent and prides itself on good story telling from Ireland's top creators.

Over the past seven years it has helped launch the careers of artists such as Stephen Mooney, Declan Shalvey, Will Sliney, Stephen Thompson and Bob Byrne and the publishers say they're proud to continue this tradition by working with people such as Terry Kenny, Maura McHugh, Stephen Daly and Gareth Gowran.

To date they have released titles such as Freak Show, Atomic Rocket Group 66 and Gerry Hunt's In Dublin City, all to positive sales and reviews. Other projects include Roisin Dubh, Glimmer Man and The Wyndham Twins, with many more in the pipeline.

- Jennifer Wilde Issue 1 is on sale now in SubCity Comics, Dublin or online via the comic's official web site: http://jenniferwildecomic.com

- Read a review of Jennifer Wilde #1 on Irish Comic News by Hilary Lawler