A. Heathen

CXF: You’ve worked on HellBlazer for quite some time. With the Constantine movie just coming out, any thoughts on the movie?

 

MC: I haven’t seen it yet. Somebody just burned a copy of the trailer for me which I keep meaning to look at. I am quite looking forward to it.

 

Somebody = Adrian Brown

 

a copy of the trailer = bootleg copy of the film

 

quite looking forward to = running out of excuses not to do

 

at least that's how i choose to interpret it :p

Yes.

No.

(politically correct answer)

One of the problems of LOTDK was that they kept opening the doors to anyone with what sounded like a mildly interesting take on the character.

To say that we want rotating writers on the title doing small arcs is not the same thing at all. ie instead of Mike Carey on 40 issues over four years, we might get a "team" of a couple or three writers on four-issue arcs - say Denise Mina and Peter Hogan or someone - and the occasional Delano/Carey/Ennis/Jenkins cameo in between. It gives those writers less concerns over deadlines and sausage factory writing.

So, Father Jack, what would you say to a nice pint of Guinness ?

FECK OFF, PINT !

If you want to resort to Victoria, try Airways Hotel. http://www.airways-hotel.com/

but Kings Cross will be cheaper.

It is not inevitable that standards will drop.

That would be an editorial matter.

And the American market is the only one that does not like "anthologies".

And if writers of the quality we've had on Hellblazer are given arcs of six to twelve issues, that will give them more time to come up with decent stories rather than the pressure of the monthly title.

Sadly it is not real Guinness, but then everyone knows my views on that nasty noxious substance.

Mike's last issue is definitely 215.

Hopefully he'll be persuaded back for some occasional tales.

A reminder that in one week's time, Thomas H Willecome will come to London to see off the demon Constanteen.

James and Joe will be joining us for the screening of Robots, erm I mean Constanteen, the film you may have heard about with Keanu Reeves as a mopey occult defective and Gabriel Byrne as Tilda Swinton.

That will be in the afternoon when the tickets are cheapest - probably in London's swanky Camden and followed by BEER* in the Worlds End, because that is what John would want us to do. THEN there shall be music c/o The Broken Family Band.

If you don't want to give Tears In Rain the smug satisfaction, then join us for the beer and/or music.

(*Tom don't drink so he has NO ESCAPE !)

Gosh comic shop have a nice display in their window: the movie poster (ie the crap gun toting one) surrounded by some TPBS and comics, but with a pint of Guinness (fuckers!) some Silk Cut packets and a lighter (and a copy of Apocalypse Now).

In the first panel of the story, the second balloon reads"Oh yeah.  This is it, all right."

 

That was Saul talking, but at that moment he doesn't sound like the British demon I know him to be.  "Oh yeah, this is it all right" reads like that little bit of Midwestern farmboy that exists in the speech patterns of most Americans.

 

Sounds fine to me.

 

Yeah its all right.

Is it a matter of intonation, Josh ?

He is not saying "Oh Yeah. This is *it*, all *RIGHT*!"

but "Oh *yeah*. This is it all right."

ie "all right" not as in the rock expression "AWL RIGHD !"

And remember, the word "YEAH" has legally belonged to Liverpool since 1963.

I have very positive expectations of that arc too.

And I have said MANY times that Hellblazer should have various writers on shorter arcs rather than someone getting it until they "get bored" or run out of stories.

The Spice of Life.

Meanwhile, THAT is not Alan Grant, this is.

Gawds yes.

From the heady days of The Teardrop Explodes (ob. comic reference) via Turtle-backed madcap to the Archdrude himself, sat two seats away from me at the Hammersmith Lyric at his own gig !

His books on British and European megaliths are unbeatably enjoyable and educational.

And if you get chance to hear him lecture on the subject then grasp it.

If you can find it, in a Hellblazer vein: "Nobody" (AiT/Planet Lar) artwork by Charlie Adlard. Other AiT/Planet Lar products are all good, but especially "Astronauts in Trouble" (action/adventure/Moon-base) "AIT: Space 1959" (retro space spy thriller - contains my favourite comics panel of all time), "Channel Zero" (anti-establishment 24 hours into the future type thriller),

Sky Ape (absurdist superhero hilarity).

The money donated is for charity.

Tom's paying his own transport to London, and his own B&B costs.

We're all paying for our own cinema tickets

(such Karmic action being the only way we'd pay to see it).

If it makes you feel better, I don't think the size of the screen will be that different in one of London's smaller cinemas (this is not America). We'll probably end up in Camden.

However, if you want more rationale: Warner Bros could not be arsed to spend anything much on the film in the UK, why should we ?

I live in the medway area (backwaters of london! /o\ ), and there is a american comic book store near me that i've never ventured into, so i would assume they would stock or be able to get hold of the issues i would need.  I think i would look down this avenue as soon as i have been properly introduced to the series, but i might pop in at some point just to have a look around and see what kind of stock they have...

 

Thanks again fellas, most helpful indeed

If you get into London, you can get most of the issues in question, at one of the monthly marts (Sundays) or the many comic shops. Check out Comics International for all the addresses. Your local shop should stock it.

In fact I'll have a look in Notting Hill tomorrow and see what their recent issues stock is like.

I'd recommend trying to get the issues from #194 onwards to bring you up to speed with the current issues. If you have a comic mart nearby that should not be too expensive (except issue 200 has extra pages). Whereabouts in "the UK" are you?

Then you can read the back issues, pretending that you are John Constantine, trying to find out about his past.

(If you listen to the other guys and wait for a "jumping on point" you might be waiting for ten months !)

It is, of course, most fitting that in several galaxies adjacent to this solar system, evidence that the whole reply was not expressed without extraction of bodily fluids.

Does the Babel Fish do "humor" yet ?

Besides the fact that it's one of the worst "On the Ledge"s EVER, there are a couple of guffaws in there:

1) Is he calling John a poof ? In reference to this arc ? How droll.

2) "This dude's wasting your time, and the deadline doom approacheth". Snigger.

S'pose Zeephod Beeblebrox (as they will no doubt have to change his name to for American audiences) would have been the obvious role for a wacky black guy.

So I am glad they did not go for the obvious.

I think that listening to the radio show as it is (or reading the books that were based on the radio show) gives a false impression of middle-class englishness (or american-ness in the case of Sandra Dickinson's Trillian). EVERYONE was middle class and English on the radio in those days. Updating the story, it makes perfect sense to have a more streetwise Ford Prefect - although his name would really have to be Ford Ka or Austin Metro or something.

He belongs in the Jesus army.

It's that famous insouciant dry wit.

Not seen the film yet, have you.

It was last tuesday.

Tickets given away by Radio One.

200 or so people.

No celebs. Except me.

Running scared, anyone ?

Freezes Over is one of my fave Hellblazer stories ever.

Lapdogs is a very decent "continuity" arc.

Other ones are good, but really fail to deliver the punchline.

He really did not understand Constantine, although he may have understood Hellblazer stories.

I recommend the Adrian Brown version of watching the shite boat film.

Rule 1: Whenever Dion starts wailing turn off sound.

Rule 2: Don't bother paying attention until the boat hits the iceberg.

Rule 3: Watch them all drown in the icy depths.

(Rule 4: When old lady Winslet goes back to THE VERY SPOT where her boy drowned, imagine frozen, seaweed-encrusted, reanimated corpse of Dicrapio surging forth from the depths and grabbing Old Kate and dragging her down into the sea with him.)

Rule 5: Billy Zane wins.