Jook Joint #1 Review

Writer: Tee Franklin
Artist: Alitha E. Martinez
Colorist: Shari Chankhamma
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Image Comics

I read the first few pages of Jook Joint in the back of another comic book from a week or two ago. I don’t remember what issue had the preview but I very distinctly remember Jook Joint and knew that I had to get my hands on it when it was released. The first few pages of this debut issue pack a hard punch that will both blow you away and suck you in.

So this week, I get Jook Joint #1 and read those first few pages and they’re just as thrilling as I remember them from the preview. Then I get to move forward, which felt like the opening of an amusement park because of how much I’ve been anticipating seeing it. And wow, this amusement park definitely has some thrill rides.

One of the many things I loved about this first issue is unsurprisingly the gore which is illustrated and colored to look absolutely amazing and brutal by Alitha E. Martinez and Shari Chankhamma. The men who are physically in pain in this issue definitely look in pain and the writing is so good that I sat wondering how much I should be enjoying seeing them in those situations. The pain is so vivid that you can almost feel it and I don’t just mean the physical pain. The emotional pain that Heloise displays is incredibly heartbreaking and that realistic anguish is that palpable because this team is so talented.

Tee Franklin’s writing is so exceptional that even though Mahalia was the person that we saw the most and is obviously the main character, by the end of the issue I was enthralled by Heloise and her story. That is not to say the Mahalia is not a phenomenal character, because she absolutely is. I was immediately lured in by her powerfulness and her care as well as her potential to do harm.

The end of the issue contains a page where the writer talks about her experiences with abuse and how this story came to her. I loved every bit of the issue but after reading that page, the entire thing immediately became even more powerful. As entertaining as it is to sit down and read this issue, it’s also just as important.

This debut issue crams a whole lot of emotion, action, and blood in it’s 27 pages and every bit of it is well written and beautiful illustrated and colored. If the entire series is as good as this first issue, we will be talking about it for a very long time.