Jackknife Jenkins – 28 Days of Black Super Heroes – Day 27

Previous (Day 26) Super Hero – Kid Hype!

Day 27 of 28 Days of Black Super Heroes, today’s hero is another one of my own creations, a hero called Jackknife Jenkins.

Jackknife isn’t technically a super-hero, he’s more of an espionage type of character, similar to Jason Bourne of The Bourne Identity.

WHO IS HE?

Jackknife is the main character in an espionage/action comic I’ve been working on for years called The Bill Collectors: Someone Must Pay.

Even though I’m usually about super heroes, I’ve always liked this sort of story with action and intrigue. The aforementioned Bourne Identity, along with the Daniel Craig James Bond movies. Plus I can throw in some Shaft and Shame from the movie A Low Down Dirty Shame.

I wanted to create a worldly, cool super-spy that could pretty much handle anything and everyone coming his way.

THE BILL COLLECTORS

Jackknife doesn’t always work alone. He has a loose affiliation with a group of radical extremists that sometimes share his goals.

Wait…radical extremists? How does this make him a hero?

Well, hero might be a bit subjective. Jackknife and the Bill Collectors are big picture kind of people. They work towards the ends of helping people, but the means to those ends might actually hurt people in the doing.

Each one of the Bill Collectors has their own personal causes and goals they want to accomplish. Jackknife has earned his name because he’s the only one who isn’t more or less obsessed with one cause. He’s a multi-purpose extremist.

PAST TIMES

In the past, the (not yet) Bill Collectors weren’t always willing to work with one another. Many times they would find themselves at cross-purposes. You could expect fireworks, car chases and explosions when this would happen. Not to mention inevitable collateral damage. This sort of thing went on for years in different places all over the world.

Finally, inevitably, all of them ended up together -and not to talk. Before the confrontation went too far, the group was taken down by an even more dangerous individual (another character I’m developing who isn’t named in the series).

As it turns out, this character has been pissed for years at the actions of all these guys, so he lays down the law: work together, or die.

The group is smart enough to realize when they’re outmatched, so they reluctantly call a truce and indeed begin working together.

After this all hell breaks loose and they pretty much begin terrorizing the world, toppling dictators, causing economic upheaval, pulling massive Wikileaks-style information dumps. All in the name of freedom -but people are still hurt. More importantly, their organized assaults are causing trouble for the world’s powers.

The Bill Collectors are eventually lured into a trap set by an unprecedented joint-operation by most of the worlds governments. After this, none of the group are seen again, at least not for five years.

THE WOMAN WHO LOVES HIM

I don’t want to specifically describe each Bill Collector, but sometimes these guys are somewhat defined by the women who love them. You know, the ones who have their back.

Anyway, Marie is a fellow Bill Collector who has the misfortune to have feelings for Jackknife.

When I say misfortune, well, Marie is probably the most emotionally “human” of the whole group. These guys are hardened and emotionally disconnected most of the time.

This leaves Marie in a position where she can’t really expect much emotional return. Unfortunately this isn’t resolved before the Bill Collectors disappear.

HERE AND NOW

So where we pick up with Jackknife is when he comes back after five years missing.

Where has he been? Is he the only Bill Collector left? What happened to them? Most importantly, what is Jackknife’s plan? Why come back now?

Now we’ll see a man who perhaps regrets the methods he used in the past to accomplish his goals. It’s kind of like a super-spy “mid-life crisis”. In particular he’s come to regret his treatment of Marie, but is she alive or dead? Some times you might have to move on…

His arrival back on the scene will touch off a violent chain of events as governments around the world slowly become aware of his reappearance. Many governments and individuals have scores to settle with Jackknife and with the Bill Collectors, and will be looking to take it out on him.

Alone and virtually friendless, he’ll have to stay on the move if he’s going to realize his plan…whatever that is.

THE PREVIEW STORY

Similar to my Kid Hype! situation yesterday, I had drawn up an “intro” Bill Collectors comic years ago. Again, it’s one that I’m pretty embarrassed about now.

You can download it here: Bill Collectors preview comic.

First of all, the art makes me cringe. Yeah it was over three years ago but all I can see now are the many mistakes I made while drawing it up.

Secondly…wow, my writing was pretty awful. I’ll admit it. I’ve been talking about some of these stories all month long but it’s not as easy as it looks, people. Cut these writer’s a break! Lol.

I sure hope I’m better than that now, because I plan on starting over on this one. I’m setting up a new site specifically for this comic so look for that coming this year. Instead of drawing it I’ll be using 3D to create the comic -as I’ve done for most of the art on this page. I feel I can realize my vision more closely if I do it this way.

Anyone interested in some of the details of how I create these pieces in 3D you can check one of my previous Bill Collector posts.

THE WRAP UP

So Jackknife is another character I want to add to the many great Black heroes I’ve written about this month. I can only hope someday in the future someone somewhere will be writing about him in a roundup of great characters.

There’s no pencil art on this one since I did it in 3D, but I’ll just post the single shot of Jackknife here to close out the article. Thanks for reading and stop back tomorrow for the final day of 28 Days of Black Super Heroes!

Next: The Final 28 Days post!

Make sure to check out the comics page for more comics stuff here on Hypertransitory.com!