For all of its captivating elements, it is the setting of Jook Joint that is its most scrumptious. Taking place in the backwoods swampland of what is likely the Louisiana Bayou, we get to spend time with characters criminally underrepresented in fiction. Jook Joint is referring to a whore-house that doubles as a feeding ground for man-eating monsters. I say “man-eating” both literally and metaphorically. Jook Joint is also a brand new book by Image Comics that is about women taking gory revenge on their systematic abuse and oppression by terrible men. It is horror at its most poignant.

The issue opens with this trigger warning…

The message here rings clear. It is saying, while this book does contain graphic images of sexual violence, it has been written for you, the victims. This is a very powerful message and sets an honest tone. That being said, I could not have been less prepared for what was to come. The horrific ways in which some of these punishments are doled out to the men in this book are nightmarish.

TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS SENTENCE

One guy gets his eyes plucked out with magic, has his own balls fed to him, and then is eaten alive. And I don’t know exactly what this guy did to deserve that, but I am hoping it was something awful, because the outcome was grueling.

Jook Joint is written by Tee Franklin. This is her second comic book of note, and she is swinging with ferocity. The story revolves around a madame named Mahalia. She is like a neighborhood protector who takes in broken women and helps them, whether it be by giving them a remedy to cure their sick kids or brutally killing their abusive husbands. Franklin has fashioned a horror helmet of justice that leaves no bad man safe.

Alitha Martinez brings the story to life with the unsettling and sometimes beautiful depictions set forth by the story. Just look at this underwater scene…

Simply breathtaking.

I am wondering what’s in store for us in the future. This issue opens strong and lays the groundwork for a disturbing world of vigilante voodoo magic. My only hope is that Jook Joint gets into the hands of those whom it will affect the hardest and safely stay away from those who might be negatively triggered by its grizzly depictions.

Creative Team: Tee Franklin (writer), Alitha Martinez (art)
Publisher: Image Comics
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