Writer - J.T. Krul
Artist - V Ken Marion
- SPOILERS SPOILERS -
There are many series from Aspen Comics that I enjoy. At times I wish they would get more books out there as they generally have very good quality stuff. Aspen are known for there cheesecake style covers and get a bit of a bad rap. Many people think the cheesecake is all that Aspen titles have going for them and that just isn't true. Very much like Zenoscope, if you give Aspen Comics a try you may discover there is a little more substance than what you have been led to believe. Jirni just might be my personal favorite from Aspen. A couple of years ago there was a mini series of Jirni that JT Krul wrote and it was good. It is the story of Ara, a young princess that discovered her mother is a D'Jinn. Or a Jinn. Or a genie. Her mother was captured by an evil wizard and taken away. Ara then discovers that she also has powers as she was unaware of her hybrid Jinn background. Ara tried to rescue her mother but was not successful. That brings us to this second mini series of Ara's adventures where we are in book three of five, smack dab in the middle of the story.
Ara is still trying to find her mother and she has hooked up with a trader/pirate named Boro. She is currently a passenger on his ship and they are traveling across the waters and come to a huge port city named Montessa. Boro is there with the intention of trading the Ziar Ore that was acquired in an adventure in a previous issue in this series. Ara discovers Montessa has just about anything and everything. There is even a man that manufactures and sells flying ships, which Ara is greatly intrigued with as her mother was taken away in a similar ship by the wizard Torintal. Ara becomes greatly disturbed when Boro trades his Ore for a bunch of beautiful women that he means to trade at another place at a later time. She is disillusioned by seeing Boro a bit more as he really is, a slave trading pirate. Ara has an argument with Boro and says she can no longer travel with him. The issue comes to an end as we are shown the slave women being loaded onto Boro's ship and we see that Ara has taken up a disguise and is passing herself off as one of the slaves.
Jirni is a fun series. It is on the light side storywise. Light adventuring I guess. I have heard comparisons saying Jirni is along the lines of the old Pirates of Dark Water cartoon series from twenty of so years ago. That seems about right. V Ken Marion lays down some beautiful pencil work and he has a bright future if he continues to develop his craft. The colors are really good also. If there is a house style of art for Aspen it would be no surprise that it is reminiscent of Image artwork from back in the day. Specifically along the lines of the Top Cow side of things, which is no surprise since Aspen was founded by Michael Turner and that is where he cut his teeth. Very nice art style, but not yet fully developed to the point of being ready for a big time book. By no means is Jirni essential reading, but it is a fun light hearted adventure with an enjoyable story and art.
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