A. Heathen

There you are JS, Christian gets a No Prize for most plausible reason for return of "Kit" !

No, that's C-Men

I mostly got the speech patterns right I think but yes there will be some Americanism and slight mis-use...I'll try to get it even closer in Subterranean...

 

If you ever want to try some of the lingo out on us, you can ask here - we're proper discreet pieces of work, we are. Or email ;-)

Thanks for the excellent sample passages John, I am beginning to like that internal monologue which can be a lot more expressive in a novel - and I know some of my esteemed colleagues here LOVE it in the comicbook, but it always veers towards lyrical rather than realistic. Yours is much truer.

Hope I'll be able to pick up a copy this week.

Here's something to consider.

A chart of average monthly sales in 2005 for comics available every month.

(open your browsers as wide as they go !)

If you consider my comments before about there being a finite pot of money, every time one of them cash in crossover series comes out, it's the middle range of these that loses out.

ONGOING SERIES

not including follow-on sales

title average

1 NEW AVENGERS 145769

2 UNCANNY X-MEN 86070

3 WOLVERINE 82640

4 ULTIMATE X-MEN 81302

5 X-MEN 79197

6 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 78823

7 JLA 78242

8 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 76578.

9 SUPERMAN 76191

10 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR 72921

11 BATMAN 64495

12 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN 58343

13 JSA 49505

14 CAPTAIN AMERICA 47653

15 DAREDEVIL 47134

16 FANTASTIC FOUR 46942

17 JLA CLASSIFIED 46691

18 ACTION COMICS 46540

19 FLASH 46301

20 INCREDIBLE HULK 46218

21 OUTSIDERS 43995

22 Adventures of SUPERMAN 43530

23 DETECTIVE COMICS 40422

24 BLACK PANTHER 38395

25 NEW X-MEN 37658

26 WONDER WOMAN 37621

27 NIGHTWING 37295

28 CONAN 36337

29 EXILES 36296

30 GREEN ARROW 32753

31 BIRDS of PREY 31298

32 BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS 31042

33 ROBIN 30707

34 NEW THUNDERBOLTS 28489

35 BATGIRL 27692

36 MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 27509

37 CABLE DEADPOOL 25634

38 BATMAN LEGENDS of the DARK KNIGHT 25605

39 FABLES 24677

40 MARVEL TEAM-UP 23826

41 CATWOMAN 21788

42 HAWKMAN 21689

43 FIRESTORM 20289

44 AQUAMAN 19043

45 SPIDER-GIRL 18988

46 GOTHAM CENTRAL 17577

47 ARANA HEART of the SPIDER 16431

48 MAJESTIC 15489

49 HELLBLAZER 14932

50 MANHUNTER 13881

51 TEEN TITANS GO 13488

52 LUCIFER 11687

53 SIMPSONS COMICS 11653

54 SWAMP THING 11125

55 BATMAN STRIKES 9945

56 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 8141

57 METAL GEAR SOLID 7633

58 SHONEN JUMP 5023

59 UNCLE SCROOGE 4899

60 SCOOBY DOO 4747

61 POWERPUFF GIRLS 4645

62 DONALD DUCK & FRIENDS 4579

63 BLADE of the IMMORTAL 4325

64 MICKEY MOUSE & FRIENDS 4182

65 WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES 3983

66 GOLD DIGGER 3361

67 LOONEY TUNES 2797

68 TALES of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2730

What's an X-Men ?

Well as Tony Clifton would say, you'll surveeve.

DO IT MIKE !

(You wouldn't want to make Bruce Banner angry !)

Why do Americans pronounce it as 'teen' then ? Are they stupid ?

 

 

Yes.

 

Actually, I've always heard Emperor Constantine's name pronounced "teen". Se also: serpentine

Serpentine ? Really ? That's up there with Ly-ses-ter Square.

It should be in a SFAQ somewhere this one.

THE CORRECT PRONUNCIATION OF "CONSTANTINE" AND SIMILAR WORDS

(ie the British way)

"-TINE"

LATIN OR GREEK ORIGIN: Constantine, Serpentine, Turpentine, Clementine, Byzantine, Adamantine, Elephantine, Philistine, Vespertine, Clandestine*1

"-TEEN"

AMERICAN OR FRENCH: Tangerine, Libertine, Quarantine, Guillotine, Langoustine, Brigantine*2

SCIENTIFIC: Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Fluorine, Fluoxetine.

(which is ironic as the US say them wrong in the other direction!).

TRADE NAMES: Ovaltine, Margarine, Brilliantine.

And of course, Subroutine

(only joking)

*1 I've often heard clandesTIN

*2 I've heard both, although mostly in old pirate movies.

Ok, well done, you broke me - I've added "the" into the word filter.

 

Seriously, three times in one small post and you didn't get it right even once!

Are you putting " t' " in there to victimise Other James too ?

Not sure if it comes across as well as it could do, isnt that always the way with press.

 

BUT its a great bit of PR and fair play to Mina or whoever at the times got the artice off the ground.

 

there is surely a buzz about her taking over, I hope its infective

 

Jamesb

James, you really have to get over the misguided impression that all publicity is good publicity and that a positive review is always a good thing.

Sure, some people will pick up the book realise what it is and stick around.

But if mistakes are made, it means the reviewer is not to be trusted and that's more likely to put people off their reviews. If Saddam Hussein said that Hellblazer was great because of that one issue where Constantine went to Iraq (sic) would that be a good thing?

And anyone convinced to pick up the book by some of the inconsistencies in one of the reviews above is not going to be the discerning folks that we all are.

In the case of the mistakes in that Times article, enough of it is familiar from online interviews that I would say the "reporter" should be done for plagiarism.

And it's inaccurate.

Now, we know that one of your cause celebres is the need for more publicity for Hellblazer, and you're right that Denise Mina's run should have been given more of a plug, but consider how much publicity the book got when someone recently made a film with a lead character of almost the same name !

Result of all that publicity ? Not much.

Even more belatedly:

No I am just having a chat about a minor detail of the story.

Not the sort of thing we usually do here, of course.

The only thing that would have been better is that if, in the Ennis ones, everyone had the same face like Dillon's art!

 

(...same face like Dillon's arse!)

 

*The preceding post has been Rogan-Proofed*

Except he has three faces and Ellie and Kit are done identically as "Dillon Woman"

You're right about it not being DC who motivated the Beast, but

Nergal's plan (and Rosa's for that matter) was set in motion long before he started deteriorating and the chain of events that ended with John's trip to Hell were set in motion by the Beast so it was a fairly significant part of the plan.

I for one am simply glad Carey's off the book.  I really don't care for this "folks are out to get John for no good reason and he's supposed to feel bad when the folks who are out to get him snuff people he's close to" motif.

 

I don't think one bad guy who wants to get John for no reason (the Beast) counts as a motif.

Didn't you get the idea that it was Nergal or possibly The Demon Constantine who set the Beast With No Motivation after John ? That's my interpretation which I thought when Gary Lester was shown to be in league with DC.

It's probably not in black and white though. You know how some people over synthesise the white space in these matters.

I for one am simply glad Carey's off the book.  I really don't care for this "folks are out to get John for no good reason and he's supposed to feel bad when the folks who are out to get him snuff people he's close to" motif.  It just seems like nihilism for its own sake.  And there's far too much of that in the DCU these days as well as Vertigo.

 

It would be nihilism if he didn't care.

 

After Cheryl's death, John's been a right wanker in Carey's treatment and it seems with the last couple of issues...the estranging John and Chas...the torching of his Lockup Sanctorum...the further burning of bridges he might need to cross down the road...John's utter negative view...has the new writer with a worse clean up job than the Iraqi Police.  Mina seems to be trying to bring John back to humanity with her new story arc, with its emphasis on John's empathy for his fellow man.  Carey certainly wanted to stamp his name on this title before he left and I hope he hasn't stamped this book into the ground. 

 

I don't honestly know how you could read it that way. Constantine's behaviour read to me as a result of him actually displaying empathy for his "victims" and those victims of their own magical wannabe status. By cutting off the history, Carey's left Mina with a clean slate to tell self-contained stories. Something he chose not to do for the most part. But tying loose ends has been a facet of final issues of most Hellblazer writers surely.

 

I for one have never approved of this systematic touching off of John's friends.  It seems forced now, like a running joke.  You're looking for John to succeed, technically, but expect someone else to bite it.  Spatchcock didn't get rubbed out, cause she's a fair dinkum bit of tail, but Cheryl?  What has she ever been but wallpaper?  But how is John complicit in her death and damnation? 

 

Cheryl has always been John's anchor to the real world - even more than Chas, who always tended towards giving John a hand with his endeavours.

 

Nope, I don't buy it and I hope Mina doesn't buy it either.  John's grief over those who have died has always been something he himself has brought to the surface.  When he sees the ghosts, they are self-summoned, if subconsciously.  He knows he's a powerful magician and somewhere in his psyche feels he must pay a price for that.  But never has anyone offed it by John's own hand.  Gaz?  He let the demon loose, he was the only suitable trap.  In the Hard Time arc by Brian A., we saw where John chooses to go to prison and stay even when he has utter control.  Why?  Because he feels responsible for someone else shooting their head off.  Bollocks. 

 

It's not the first time, he has a couple bouts of excessive drinking and a spell in a psychiatric institution. How do you feel that relates to a man getting old in real time and changing with his experiences ?

 

The price for John Constantine using magic has always been exacted by John himself upon himself.  He's never needed any help from demon or angel and his behaviour in the last two issues of Carey's run show the depths of self-pity and immaturity that Carey sought to bring John down to and Mina has a ways to go to help us find something within Constantine that we can connect with.

 

When you say "us" and "we", that's a bit inclusive for my liking, but if it makes you better go for it.

I'm puzzled how you see the behaviour at the Tate and in Streatham as immature, when many folks have seen John's struggle with magic as an addiction from which he is merely severing his own entanglement. He did nothing more than scare the Tate members off their own similar paths - somewhat more generously than his previous "fuck them" attitude. Yes it's self pity in the usual manner, but he's trying something new here. Interestingly he has just embarked on a "folks are out to get John for no good reason" quest, which I tend to see as a continuation of what he did at the Tate - especially if Evans turns out to be a similar sort of "magician" to the Tate folks.

 

And that is his glaringly apparent empathy for his fellowman that he has shown time and time again, in his own singular way.  But empathy can be one's own worse enemy.  If only John had more empathy towards himself.

Can you explain that paragraph? As I read it, it seems to contradict your main criticism that Carey had changed the way John sees the world.

I'm keeping yours til last for that.

Inspired by this hilarious thread at The (Legendary) V Forum:

http://www.thevhive.com/forum/discussion.p...=THEV&msg=428.1

Bradstreet & Lauren

DELANO (tba)

ENNIS

JENKINS (almost done)

ELLIS

AZZARELLO

CAREY

WOAH! CONSTANTEEN THE MUSICAL

Heh. What's wrong with Tony Benn anyway? Who are the other two? I recognise them but their names escape me.

Nothing's wrong with Tony Benn, I was using him and Dennis Skinner and Denis Healey as illustrations of socialism with dignity.

I've got two Dr Strange ones, the first Tomb of Dracula one, Werewolf by Night, and YOU BETTER BELIEVE I've got the Howard the Duck one. I think there's a Frankenstein one in my future. And I know the woman who edits these who is cooler than any nerd who works in comics deserves to be.

And I have Jonah Hex from the DC Showcase editions.

Many of the 70s 80s and early 90s comics are improved by making them B&W.

I should remind anyone that John Shirley made a silk purse out of the Constanteen adaptation. I am looking forward to reading this (and probably gazing upon the full size print of the cover art print sent to me by that the nice chap who makes covers for the Hellblazer books.

That excerpt has definitely got me even more interested, with only a few comments about the slang:

"Must've gotten pissed, blacked out...must've been one fuck-all of a piss-up..."

fuck-all means nothing. That is to say "George Bush has fuck-all upstairs" means he has no brains.

Chas's first words are a bit stodgy, he's Sarf Landan not East End.

"Unless you gits are playing at a snub. What'd I do, mate, get on a piss-up and summon your mum back from Hell?"

Playing at a snub isn't right, and it'd be "go on a piss-up" I reckons.

On the other hand "frock boutique" works well as the sort of knowing retro speak that we all do down here in the Dickensian Smoke. And the ambience of the pub is conjured quite well.

I saw that screened at the British Crime Film festival last year followed by John Boorman meeting Don Westlake for the first time (!)

That was a great experience.

Some of that list of his supposed crimes have been discredited, but the implication *of his supporters* was that Oona King was a loose, black, jewish woman.

And he clearly won with a non-fundamentalist backing as the local businessmen that bankrolled him could hardly be called hard line Muslims.

Here is a simple pointer to what I think of George Galloway: