Jinx: A Cursed Life #1

Bought from cover artist Jay Kennedy, who had a table at Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Jinx: A Cursed Life
Issue: 1
Date: July, 2023
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: Magdalene Visaggio
Artist: Craig Cermak
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Colorist: Ellie Wright
Cover: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante, Vincent Lovallo, Stephen Oswald

This is from Archie's horror line, putting the familiar Riverdale gang into horror scenarios. Jinx, rumored to be the daughter of the Devil, just wants to be a punk rock musician and for everyone to leave her alone. But when Archie shows up seeking help for a demonically possessed Jughead, Jinx and her friend Danni spring into action. After a sufficient bribe, that is.

This felt a bit more like dark comedy than horror, and it was having some trouble figuring out if it would rather lean into the comedy side of things or the dark. Demonic Jughead was presented as a serious threat, even if rotting-meat hamburgers was a big part of his gimmick, but he ended up getting defeated relatively easily once Jinx started using her not-all-that-well-defined superpowers.

The best parts of this were the characterization of Jinx and Danni, who were both great and full of snarky dialogue. Archie was fun too in his supporting role. This provided a good introduction to this version of Jinx, but didn't lay the groundwork for much ongoing story.

Rating: 5.5/10

Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special

Bought from cover artist Jay Kennedy, who had a table at Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special
Issue: 1
Date: 2024
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: Kelly Thompson, Danielle Page
Artist: Veronica Fish, Veronica Johnson
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Colorist: Matt Herms
Cover: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante, Vincent Lovallo, Stephen Oswald

Two stories here. The first one has Sabrina and a crew of girls at the Academy of Unseen Arts pulling off a bold plan to rescue a fellow student who was abducted by a batlike demon. Sabrina ventures into the demon's dimension while her classmates keep the portal open and prepare a reception for the demon. This was fun, tightly written and delightfully girl-powered. It was nice to see a serious-but-fun side of Sabrina.

The second story is a flashback to Hilda and Zelda as teenagers, and involves a less-confident Hilda calling up a trickster spirit that threatens to cause all sorts of mayhem on the Solstice. I didn't really have the background knowledge to fully appreciate this, and the level of the threat the characters faced seemed to be a bit ill-defined. I did appreciate the exploration of the themes of family and tradition.

It was also nice to see a holiday-themed comic that kept its focus fully on Solstice.

Rating: 7/10

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Annual Spectacular

Bought from cover artist Jay Kennedy, who had a table at Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Annual Spectacular
Issue: 1
Date: 2023
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: James L. Rotante, George Gladir, Al Hartley, Dick Malmgren, Ian Flynn
Penciler: Holly G, Dan Decarlo, Al Hartley, Harry Lucey, Chad Thomas
Inker: Jim Amash, Rudy Lapick, Joe Sinnott, Marty Epp
Letterer: Jack Morelli, Bill Yoshida, Vincent Decarlo
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Cover: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante, Vincent Lovallo, Stephen Oswald

Two new stories and three classic reprints.

The main feature has Sabrina battling the Wicked Trinity of Amber Nightstone and her two new henchgirls Jade and Sapphire. They've kidnapped Sabrina's aunts as well as Salem and Enchantra. Sabrina is determined to rescue the captives (using the term "captives" a little loosely here as the Unholy Trinity have done a pretty inept job of securing their supposed prisoners). Sabrina ends up in Riverdale and gets a bit of reluctant help from Josie of the Pussycats.

From there we get a Sabrina origin story from 1962 that does into fairly interesting detail about Sabrinas powers and weaknesses. A story from the 1970s brings some definite Saturday morning cartoon vibes as Sabrina explores a haunted house with Archie and Jughead. The last reprint, also from the early 70s, involves Sabrina trying to teach Reggie a lesson in humility by enhancing rival Archie's basketball skill. Unfortunately, Archie as the star player proves to have an ego just as insufferable as Reggie's.

The book ends with a solo story featuring Salem when he was a human boy, and it's another haunted house adventure that brings the same Saturday-morning-cartoon-spooky vibe as the haunted house reprint.

I enjoyed the look at Sabrina's origins here, and the character profiles at the end of the book provide some interesting depth to Jade and Sapphire, who seem poised to be important recurring characters. The rest of this was the usual harmless fun that we expect from the Archie titles.

Rating: 6.5/10

Inbound #2

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Inbound
Issue: 2
Date: 2008
Publisher: Boston Comics Roundtable
Writer: Matthew Reidsma, Jason W. Salzarulo, Charles Schneeflock Snow, Kevin Kilgore, Rachel Maguire, Ron LeBrasseur, Jay Kennedy, Cathy Leamy, Justin Clibun
Artist: Matthew Reidsma, Shelli Paroline, Eric Haines, Kevin Kilgore, Rachel Maguire, Ron LeBrasseur, Jay Kennedy, Cathy Leamy
Editor: Dave Kender, Dan Mazur, Ron LeBrasseur, Shelli Paroline
Cover: Braden Lamb

Anthology from the Boston Comic Roundtable. Very nice collection with a good variety of stories, including a comic adaptation of Justin Clibun's true account of US soldiers in Iraq. There is a humorous science fiction story by Charles Schneeflock Snow and Eric Haines, as well as a silly tale of mad science called Too Many Robots by Ron LeBrasseur. Jay Kennedy and Matthew Reidsma each provide a different and unique examination of the superhero genre. There is also a very creepy dark fairy tale by Jason W. Salzarulo and Shelli Paroline, and one of Cathy Leamy's wonderfully quirky slice-of-life story, this one dealing with her sister living an alter-ego life. A wordless and surreal tale by Rachel Maguire rounds things out, along with a humorous fictional history of comics creators in Boston.

All of this was good, and I enjoyed the variety of styles represented here.

Rating: 8/10

The Sleeplessness: 2015 Special

Picked this one up at New England Comics in Quincy MA over the summer.

Title: The Sleeplessness: 2015 Special
Date: 2015
Publisher: Fat Cat Funnies
Writer:Jay Kennedy
Artist: Jay Kennedy

A father and son are new in town, trying to get back on track after a run of bad luck. The teenaged son has the psychic ability to see how anyone he touches will die. The father might just be the man who causes the end of the world. And a girl who wants to know her fate is about to set everything into motion.

I liked this story. The characters felt natural, and the dialogue had a good flow to it. The scope of the story was simple, but effective, and the ending was bittersweet.

Solid backup story too, involving a cursed arcade game.

Aside for some minor issues with the editing, this was a really enjoyable bit of horror with some interesting twists and turns.

Rating: 8.5/10

The Sleeplessness

Picked this one up from the writer/artist last summer at MASSive Comic Con in Worcester MA USA.

Title: The Sleeplessness
Date: 2016
Publisher: Fat Cat Funnies
Writer:Jay Kennedy
Artist: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Lindsay Moore

Full-color standard format 36-page horror comic. This is a classic horror tale set in a cursed and abandoned amusement park on an island off the coast of Maine.

Teenager Lukas Lein faces the impending death of the grandfather who raised him, the same man who was once part of a work crew constructing a private amusement park on an island for an eccentric and very wealthy recluse. The opening of the park ended in horrifying circumstances, and now Lucas makes the decision to go to the island to find one of the few remaining mementos of the parents who he never knew. With his grandfather dying of cancer, Lukas has only a short time before he will be leaving the country to live with his only other remaining relative.

Recruiting his two best friends for the expedition, Lucas finds himself confronting an ancient and demonic evil.

If you're a fan of scary clowns and mascots and creepy old theme parks, you will love the look of this book. The villain has a great vibe that is menacing and disturbing.

The interaction between the three friends is handled really well, and all three are likeable characters.

I did find the writing to be wordy, overly so in places, although part of that is an old-school goth ghost story flavor that the author is going for. It still could have done with a bit of trimming on the narration. The dialogue was quite good and did its job.

The ending is a nice bit of tragedy that packs an emotional punch without relying on the expected tropes for this type of story.

Rating: 8/10

The Million Year Picnic's Jam Comics From Free Comic Book Day 2011

Title: The Million Year Picnic's Jam Comics From Free Comic Book Day 2011
Date: 2011
Publisher: Million Year Picnic
Editor: Aya Rothwell
Contributors: EJ Barnes, Alex Firer, Jay Kennedy, Nathan Kitler, Laurel Leake, Dan Mazur, Aya Rothwell, Kristen Toohill, Andy Wong

This half-sized color minicomic is a collection of jam comics done at Million Year Picnic in Cambridge MA on Free Comic Book Day 2011. The comic are done in color markers, and are standard jams with each artist taking a panel as the page is passed around. Coherence is not necessarily an objective.

The group presents a lot of bizarre and surreal material while touching on themes that include fancy ballerinas, caterpillars in space, Superman renouncing his US citizenship, rogue teeth, berries, and a conqueror named Nern.

High-quality paper and production values make this a nicer package than the typical jam minicomic.

Rating: 6.5/10