The Death of Jenny Everywhere (comic story)
The Death of Jenny Everywhere was a standalone Jenny Everywhere comic story written by David Barnett and drawn by Catherine Wright (signing “Sax” and “Kit-Cat” respectively). It was the eleventh in the official reading order of the thirteen original Barbelith Jenny Everywhere stories.
The story introduced the notion of multiple incarnations of Jenny meeting in dreams, as well as the idea that some Jennies didn't realise their true nature until early adulthood. It was also the debut of Johnny Everywhere.
Contents
Plot
Jenny Everywhere is an ordinary young woman. Although she has noticed that she has some strange abilities, she doesn't know how to interpret her confusing intuition that there are other people “like her” impossibly far away — that is, until, alone and sleepy one afternoon in her flat, she finds herself in a graveyard dreamscape where other versions of herself are laying yet another one to rest!
Worldbuilding
Jenny
- Multiple incarnations of Jenny Everywhere can physically meet in dreams whenever one of them dies.
- A number of incarnations of Jenny Everywhere are seen, including:
- The story's main Jenny, a young Asian woman with short hair who wears a striped sweater;
- “Ms Everywhere”, a mature Jenny wearing a trenchcoat, who serves as the aforementioned Jenny's guide;
- A grinning blonde Jenny wearing a black leather jacket;
- A sterner-looking version of Jenny with black skin, short curly hair, square glasses instead of goggles, and earrings;
- A Jenny Everywhere who appears to be an ordinary cat wearing a scarf and goggles;
- Johnny Everywhere, a transmasculine incarnation with light brown hair, who smokes a pipe:
- A short-haired Jenny who believes she knows how the Jenny who died met her fate.
Universes
- This story takes place all in one material universe, but Jenny finds herself in a graveyard dreamscape.
Continuity
- One of the rumours about the identity of the Jenny who died is that she was killed while trying to steal a big diamond. This is a reference to the master-thief Jenny glimpsed in David Barnett's own earlier Jenny tale, COMIC: My Bloody Valentine. Another is that she died in a plane crash, which David Barnett confirmed was meant as a reference to COMIC: The Late Shift, although the Jenny seen piloting a crashing plane in the latter comic was shown to have parachuted safely to the ground.[3]
- The Graveyard, introduced in this story, is later mentioned, albeit unnamed, in PROSE: Jenny Everywhere's Twitter.
Behind the scenes
Notes
Although the portrayal of Johnny Everywhere is largely positive, and should be understood to be of its time, the depiction of him as a transgender man contains two outdated features. Firstly, he is referred to as “transsexual”, a term which has fallen out of use since 2003 and is now considered to border on offensive. Secondly, Ms Everywhere suggests that she considers that it continues to be proper to refer to Johnny with a female name and pronouns until he undergoes gender confirmation surgery (whereas it is now well understood that social transition needn't be dependent on physical alterations).
Discussion of this topic took place on the Barbelith thread in which the story was originally linked, in which Barnett clarified some of his thoughts:
| Ms Everywhere was, in my mind, intended to be a bit brusque, combined with moments of gentleness - witness her "come along, you'll be late!" tempered with "oh, you don't really know [what you are] yet, do you?" Her reaction to Johnny Everywhere was kind of meant to be an illustration of the fact that she's "a woman of her generation" - Ms Everywhere is what - late 60s? Early 70s? She might accept that Johnny is an F-to-M Everywhere, but perhaps until all the downstairs stuff is sorted out by a surgeon, in her book he'll be a Jenny [...] Maybe my granny wouldn't think like that at all, but I suspect she would. [...] Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Perhaps the segment needed more thought... perhaps there's no need for it at all. Perhaps it's actually quite offensive... [...] Maybe someone would like to do a Johnny Everywhere story. Maybe I should to set the record straight. |
| —David Barnett |
Read online
The Death of Jenny Everywhere was originally available on the original Jenny Everywhere website. As it is no longer online, reproduce the six pages of The Death of Jenny Everywhere here.
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