Creation
Jeannie “Bug” Day was created by writer/artist Peter Gross in The Books of Magic issue 65 in 1999.
Major Story Arcs
Tim Hunter, in his guise of Mary Hunter, and a band of companions that include Julie the Dancing Bear, Rosehip, Brother Hugh, and Joh, are all refugees of the great magic storm that has thrown all the realms into disarray. They are wandering the realms that border the lands of the dead.
They find a woman’s corpse in a coffin in the woods. A young black girl comes up, named Jeannie Day. She says her mother needs help. As they walk to her home, we see many other coffins in the woods.
Her mother is trying to put an adult man’s body back in a coffin as they arrive. She says his name is Jimmy, which is also the name of a young boy nearby. The people are clearly spirits of the dead in the coffins.
“Mary” and her friends are invited to eat, but decide to leave. However, they find themselves back at the cabin anyway. Inside, they find the whole family. Mam Day explains that she has hidden the cabin and her children from Death herself. The kids say that no one can leave or find them until they say they love her–but even the children’s ghosts want to leave. They are all the age they were when they stopped loving her.
The travelers decide they need to persuade the kids to find some love for her. Tim talks with the boy, Jimmy, and even takes off his glamour stone to reveal that he is really a boy too, but Jimmy says he can’t love her when everything is always about her for her.
The monk, Hugh, talks with Jeannie. He says he can find his way out, and wants to help her do the same. Hugh smashes her coffin, and says she can now go to heaven–and he can use her as a ride. The flitling, Rosehip, flies along after her and into her mouth, transforming her into her pure self. With all the gates smashed by the strom, she can now go wherever she wants, not just heaven. She leaves in happiness.
Hugh freaks out, and Julie the bear claws him, revealing that he was just maggots in a skin shell. They all turn on Mama Day again for keeping them there, and she explains that she wasn’t waiting for the kids to love her, but for her to love them. Now she knows she does, and they all leave.
Julie and Rosehip decide to stay with Mama Day until her time comes, but Joh and “Mary” leave.