[JohnMcMahon]

HELLBLAZER #260
Written by Peter Milligan
Art and cover by Simon Bisley



Because once is never enough, superstar cover painter Simon Bisley takes over another issue of interiors! Trouble with the law is nothing next to the wrath of a London crime boss bent on revenge – leaving John with two options: Get out of town by any means necessary or die trying.

[Lou K]

Loved Biz's artwork here. Loved the corpse bit too. Other than that maybe nothing special, but the previous two bits are enough to give it a pretty good grade.

[slinker]

I'm going to ramble on here so bear with me.

First, the story. It's a bit recycled (Cheryl in a coma comes to mind, Red Sepulchre does too), but it was still enjoyable. That corpse bit WAS real cool. I had a big problem with John making the decision to leave Chas to the dogs and all, but kharma must've stepped in on him. How about John with reading glasses, eh? Epiphany going to her childhood bedroom was interesting, and John finding her there was kind of dirty, or could have been.

I liked it, it was a page turner.

The art. I have a love-hate feeling about Bisley's art, which everybody knows love-hate means mostly love with specific things about it I hate. In the past, I hated muscular John. In this one I hated the weird perspective--not in all frames, but in certain ones. Like when Tel and Cuts are sitting at the table with the guns, or when they kick in John's door. But I love the rest: the bit with John's corpse; Chas' garage with the Sid Vicious poster, the engine pulled out of the cab spilling oil all over Chas, the auto manual flipchart next to John; John with his reading glasses, any of the scenes with John in a crowd, Epiphany's pre-teen room; and how about all the scars? The circular one on Cuts' face, Terry's missing cheekbone on the right side of his face, the weird tumor on the bum's wrist, John's demon eye/cheek scar. Greatness!

I have really enjoyed Milligan's run so far. I could have given this issue a 9, but I didn't feel like sucking its dick. It's a solid 8 for sure.

[Maritimus]

I love the little touches that don't need to be there, but give an extra flavor, in both story and art. Milligan's writing has a natural sarcasm to it, Terry referring to tortured Chas as "our guest" made me chuckle as well as "i'll be in touch" in the end. I also noticed the circular scar on guy's face, how excatly did that happen? :) Bisley's art makes characters come alive, even characters that appear in one panel have their own life and interactions, for example panel one on page 2 has it's own narrative: the little girl asking something her mother, the guy picking out apples..

The transitions between scenes work really well to, i liked the jump between beating the crap out of John in a dark basement and the serenity Epiphany's bedroom. John being a bastard doesn't want to admit the guilt and tries to convince her father it's his fault Epiphany is in a coma. He keeps building his bullshit up in hope that it will save him (astral aura :)) Also nice to have a self contained issue that resolves a plot point but also moves the story forward. Good stuff. I'd give an 8 for the story but the art notches it up again.

[Christian]

I've got to give Milligan credit for this issue. That was one dark Hellblazer story.
Milligan did a great job on the dark humour.
Milligan's characterization of John here was really good. He might be portrayed as too much of a bastard, but it's back to the human John Constantine that's been missing from the book in recent years. Touches such as John needing to rely on a forger to get through customs, and then failing.
While it was all the culmination of the really bad story-arcs that I don't want to think of....it didn't overwhelm with the continuity, so you can actually enjoy the story on its own merits.
Milligan's Hellblazer isn't bad at all when it avoids going overboard with the meta-narrative/melodrama.
I'll give this another 8.

[TimC]

7, knocked down for the art - fussy, awkward and ugly, and not in a good way. There are a few great panels, like "I'm good with animals", but overall it just seems like a bit of a bodge. Not the worst that's ever been in Hellblazer, but a long way off the best.
Actually, the story's not that great either, but there's enough of those Milligan lines to keep me happy. And I do like John's incognito glasses - straight from the Clark Kent school of disguise.

[A. Heathen]

Shelly Bond is editor?

That could be good.

Lovely art. Amusing, well-rendered, stylised/ish.
And Milligan's scripting is on the ball.

[Mr. Tom Willecome]

What he said.

[slinker]

8.17 so far...

[JasonT]

Yep, great stuff. For me, this is a contender for the best Milligan issue so far.

Re the preview of Luna Park at the end of this issue: I'd like to see Daniel Zezelj drawing future issues of Hellblazer. Also, Luna Park is "anul krap" spelled backwards.

[Balthazar]

Leaving Chas to go to India really irked the hell outta me. We know John's a bastard, but c'mon now!

Overall, I enjoyed the issue. Loved the corpse bit. The Sid Vicious poster got a nice chuckle too. Overall I dug it but that Chas scene really got to me.

[Lou K]

JasonT, on 24 October 2009 - 10:17 PM, said:

I'd like to see Daniel Zezelj drawing future issues of Hellblazer.

Me too!

[TimC]

Lou K, on 26 October 2009 - 02:18 PM, said:

JasonT, on 24 October 2009 - 10:17 PM, said:

I'd like to see Daniel Zezelj drawing future issues of Hellblazer.

Me too!

I'd also like to see him back, for a few issues at least - his work on #238 helped make it probably Diggle's best issue.

Meanwhile, I'm just looking forward to having Camuncoli back next month.

[JohnMcMahon]

Really enjoyed this one, though the pun at the end was just a little too much!

I do like that Milligan's Constantine really is a selfish prick - was shocked when he tried to do a runner and leave poor old Chas to face the music.

Gorgeous art as well, two thumbs up for Bisley's new style and I was a big fan of his old stuff too.

8/10, best Hellblazer's onsistently been for yonks.

[Red]

I really liked this one. Suitably dark, and doesn't really pull the punches. Also explains why Lily Allen is on the cover of a later issue.
8/10

[londonsurrealist]

JohnMcMahon, on 27 October 2009 - 01:35 PM, said:

Really enjoyed this one, though the pun at the end was just a little too much!

I do like that Milligan's Constantine really is a selfish prick - was shocked when he tried to do a runner and leave poor old Chas to face the music.

Gorgeous art as well, two thumbs up for Bisley's new style and I was a big fan of his old stuff too.

8/10, best Hellblazer's onsistently been for yonks.

Having finally got hold of it, yes, good story, good art. Didn't think JC was being that much of a bastard as he didn't leave Chas in the lurch even though he was tempted to. That seems a nice balance between selfish and cowardly bastard and heroic and concerned friend facing up to the consequences of his actions. If he was just the latter we'd all lose interest and if he were always the former we'd all lose sympathy. The pun was a sodding awful clunker. I'll give it 8/10 as well.

[Chief_Walks-With-IPod]

I liked this little episode.
John seems to have reached an upswing in bastardly pursuits during this part of the story, a side of him that it could be deadly to forget about. There's a reason he's such a miserable sod.
Also the corpse disguise was pretty awesome.

[dogpoet]

Another yes vote. I loved the fact that he's setting off to India to clean his soul out while acting like a total shit. Do you think he's going to find the purge he's after harder to achieve than he hopes?
(THis harks back to the pub full of unemployed former dockworkers in Milligan's first story a bit, doesn't it? That and the changing woman in Shade...)