Jaybird Review: All’s Well That Doesn’t End Well

Fear plays with the mind in strange ways that it can even drive one to madness. One of these fears is paranoia about the outside world so bad you board yourself up in your house. Lauri and Jaakko Ahonen explore this type of fear using birds in their debut comic “Jaybird.” This comic is surprisingly one of the best comics this year.

The story is about a young jaybird who is essentially imprisoned in his own home by his mom. His mom has boarded up all the windows and doors because she claims “bad birds” will come and get them. With this knowledge the jaybird slowly starts to get more and more paranoid.

The story itself is like a sheltered child story where he knows nothing about the outside world. Only difference here is the child never leaves the house. This gives the comic a heightened sense of danger and that maybe whatever bad thing will happen will have a much greater impact to the reader.

This is one of those comics that have very little text. One of the hardest things a comic writer can do is portray emotion and action with action alone. The Ahonen siblings managed to get this down perfectly. We can clearly see that this house has a foreboding aura around it. This also helps with how the jaybird’s feelings. We get the sense that he is lonely, sad and easily scared just by his facial expressions.

Of course, a comic like this won’t convey these things without solid art. The art thankfully is solid. The designs of the birds are spot on when it comes to anthropomorphic animals. Their beaks even act like how they should while at the same time spout out human speech. The house is also well drawn. The many portraits that adorn the halls all look different and like actual portraits found in a typical wealthy family house. The house also looks like a dark, scary place with the dark colors, boarded windows, peeling wallpaper and spider webs. The attention to detail is what brings this house, which arguably is also a character, to life.

The only downside is the ending. There’s nothing wrong with open ended endings with some type of symbolism to show what happened, but it’s only have clear what happened. This causes many questions as to what happened here. Not to mention some of the jaybird’s motives by the end make no sense.

Overall, a rare solid debut novel crafted by the Ahonen siblings. Terrific story, art and atmosphere highlight the tale and wash away a questionable ending.