Doom

From the delightfully creepy and imaginative mind of Mike Mignola comes Jenny Finn: Doom. Set in London, the populace is gripped by the mysterious deaths of local whores. What no one seems to be addressing is a curious plague that is slowly overtaking the city. Down by the docks, country boy Joe sees a young girl amongst the throng of ne’er do well’s and takes it upon himself to escort her to safety. But who needs to be saved from whom?

As Joe dashes after the young girl, he sees things and people that are curiouser and curiouser. All around them are these fish and fish-like creatures who mutter “doom”, and the creep factor gets ratcheted up. Then a man yells out that he is the embodiment of the wrath of god and goes to attack Jenny. Joe tries to intervene and the mysterious man pulls a cutlass. Believing that this is the man that has been slashing the whores, he cries out to the crowd and soon an angry mob is in hot pursuit. When Joe realizes his mistake in accusing this man, he finds he is too late. The man has been hung to death. He is brought to a seance and the dead man tells the tale of Jenny Finn and how she came to London.

This book has it all; Lovecraftian beasties with tentacles, the threat of plague and mob mentality, secret societies, spiritualists, and one man trying to make sense of the inexplicable horror around him. The artwork by Troy Nixey is creepy and dark, with lots of dark shadows and intricate renderings of the plague creatures.