A. Heathen

In case anyone has forgotten, Hollywood is shit and would rather waste the money they deservedly earn from Will Smith movies on Sandra Bullock action-comedies and shit cover versions of old films and comics.

That is the sole reason why no-one will fund Terry Gilliam films.

It wasn't at that editorial level that the decision was made.

I'd vote for Delano.

Sorry, I saw "Day of the Dead 2" aka Contagium yesterday, and all the Zombie Love that Land of the Dead gave me has evaporated in a haze of poor quality ham-fisted reanimation.

"Let science decide!"

c'mon Kris !

Eleven more for your millennial post

Saw the Exorcist prequel by Paul Schrader (ie not the crap one) and it's okay but loses its way once they get inside the Ancient Church That They Should Not Open !

However, Nightwatch is ace. Manages to have a tribute to Buffy and piss all over Underworld's Vampires/Werewolves/etc in realworld AND Constanteen's BATTLE of GOOD V EVIL. It's got some excellent moments and I'll spend more time telling you about it later, but worth commenting on is the use of animated subtitles that carry the story like captions in a comicbook.

The auctions are back.

Please spread the word and of course, good luck with your own bidding !

http://members.aol.com/just1page/J1P3auctions.htm

http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/just1page/

Having had the rights previously is not the same as "being involved in the abortion that was", Jambo.

Fuck I wish Craven (then) had made Constanteen instead of Swamp Rubberjohnny. And I hope Craven (now) makes the sequel to T.A.F. (as they call it in Cardiff.

There is a good chance Wes Craven will be attending Frightfest, as his film Red Eye is a late addition tomorrow. Today at FF, I saw a fairly slow Japanese revenge movie (last scene should have been two minutes, but lasted fifteen), a Constanteen long sleeve shirt on a man, a very good low budget scottish werewolf film called Wild Country.

Oh, and 2001 Maniacs which is insanely fun.

It's the been the most ambitious Hellblazer arc, and it may well have been a mistake to produce something over such a long period - what with comics fans being suckled upon monthly intake of story.

Mike Carey has taken existing plot background and woven it into one big story, which I may remind you has not yet finished and which will not lead to an end since the series is ongoing. And as I said from the start, there have been moments of significant story development for the larger Hellblazer series.

It is clear that John has grown old - matured if you will - even during the parts when he's lost his memory (am I the only person who sees that he has still not recovered from that episode ?).

Previously only Garth Ennis had bothered with this level of addition to Jamie Delano's establishing shots. Paul Jenkins tried to do it with the mundane side of John's life, but it's hard to do when your main character is such a loner. Ellis and Azzarello both took the fanboy cool John as the centrepiece for their stories - often writing stories that required no John at all.

Take a look at John's life since Carey took over (and remember the patented Ade Brown argument that this has all happened in a much shorter time than the 40 months of the Hellblazer release schedule *I'll find that post and add it here later).

Returns home to his folks who think he's dead.

Finds Gemma gone to be the new Constantine in that London.

Goes down to London to save her - she doesn't want saving.

His magical friends tell him that Fredericks & Josh Wright have rubbed up against them, but it seems from Fredericks' dreams there is someone else behind all this.

Apparently, someone wants to warn him of an impending Earth-shattering disaster and his part in that. Turns out that someone is behind that, and that someone is behind them too.

So he goes off to prepare saving the world. The same way he's always done, but when he was younger he was leading people around by their noses, now it's him who is never quite on the right footing.

For all that bragging that the Beast WNN does, someone has clearly set him up to target John. He has no previous record with the Constantines after all.

As we find out at the end of that arc, Gill is set after John & co to set up the whole Constanteenies scenario. And you know, when everyone can say they are disappointed with the scope of John's offsprings' victims but get upset by the death of Mange, it wasn't that far of the mark. The attack on John has been spiralling inward from issue 175, and was bound to end up near his closest family.

And then Hell, where most of his enemies have ended up.

Nergal has been Constantine's nemesis from day 0 - not that arrogant twat First of the Fallen. And if you ask me he's set this whole kettle of fish a-boiling right from the start. Either with Rosacarnis or FOTF or without them.

So we get to Hell. Which appears like the Hell of Lucifer.

As opposed to that of Neil Gaiman.

Recently Nergal seemed to have the upper hand, but John's just revealed he knew what was going on. He's got every reason to work with Nergal or Rosa or neither and none of us readers know which he's doing.

Now for the climax.

There have been a few sub-arcs that could have benefitted from the "Black Flowers" treatment (ie being curtailed by an issue) and I'd rather have had more of the single issue stories like Third Worlds, Gruinard and (of course) A Game of Cat and Mouse. But the over-all story of the last three years is more realistic as character development (ironically since the subject matter has been more fantastic than much of Hellblazer's history).

Gemma's grown up.

Nergal's been as much of an opponent as he was in the Delano stories.

And we still don't know where they are going to end up.

Besides stripmining the past history of Hellblazer, Mike brought us Ghant and the Nergalette.

And Angie of course.

Three damn fine additions if you ask me.

Plus the possibility of Maria and (either of) her brothers being future cast members. Which does remind me of the Buffy scenario - something that Vertigo's business minds must have looked favourably on, since it's successful in the demographic they seem to be appealing at these days with their main titles.

Furthermore, they've got a nice series of tradepaperback collections from Mike that set the scene for Denise Mina's story and beyond, and retell some of the older stories without having to repackage the entire run. To the person who compared it with the Rare Cuts tpb, well those are higher quality single issues, so perhaps it is fairer to compare each story with "Cat and Mouse" or #200 rather than a whole arc.

It's fairly clear Mr Carey's planned a long arc because there is stuff from his earlier issues that's becoming relevant now. I'm sure that some people will want every loose end tied up before the story ends, but not me. I'm quite happy with loose ends lying around, because that's what real life is like.

One thing I'll say, since the last few issues have been steeped in Hellblazer continuity and Carey-Hellblazer continuity, I have had less of an urge to do the annotations. I might do a mega-annotation all in one for the current sixparter.

But I am looking forward to:

Part 1 of the 2-part "R.S.V.P." John Constantine's back in London to see some old friends, only to realize all his friends are dead (or worse). After a less-than-memorable encounter with one of his last living mates, Constantine realizes he has an addiction to the black arts, and sets out to kick his habit. But what does a mysterious "magic convention" have to do with his decision?

was that Demon Constantine walking in in the background? I certainly hope so....

That was a longshot of John walking into the ceremony - alongside the same footmen, erm demons.

I liked this very much and it continues a nice snowballing of momentum towards the end. FOTF is exactly as snooty as he's always been as far as I can see, and more like the perfect foil for John that he should be without appearing very often.

The Nergal-plan reveal was ace, I seem to remember we noted Stercorax's significant role, but not quite what folks had in mind, is it?

Oh and Stercorax and That (Hitchcockian) Knife have a lot in common if you ask me ... Constantinian blood ?! on a knife ?!

Manco's art was mostly nice, but the page with Maria and Rosa was disappointing.

Except the Knife-kissing. Lovely.

art designer on Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, etc etc, apparently.

 

well, it was news to me.

You new kids !

Incidentally, though he designed the covers I think someone else did the art.

Brian's stylised work has been very influential around the place.

I looked at that latest Losers cover and thought ... "Tim Bradstreet and Brian Wood".

:-)

Neither.

I prefer to leave side stories untarnished (agreeing with James on Map) but didn't Clarice sleep with king Mob out of th Invisibles?

Happy birthday to Hugh,

Happy birthday to Hugh,

Happy birthday dear Atticus,

Happy birthday to Hugh.

If you fancy a pint in Farringdon on Tuesday 6th let me know.

Further to Mark's point, they are people that knew him and when you are talking to such people, you don't say "fuck off because i had to kill you to save the world", you just say "FUCK OFF" and the rest is understood.

If you choose to have John being contrite etc, just consider that he even sees the ghosts is his "regret". Explaining or justifying anything ain't his way.

Welcome to the monkey house, Edward.

Make yourself at home.

Except for rhetorical irony.

Okay kids, I make the list:

Lost_Johnny

Mr.E.D.Meaner

Mark

Christian

Lou K & Charlie in an attempt to save me money.

Sethos

James

John McMahon

Rogan

Pooka

(Sethos and Pooka I'll need a postal address via PM. I think I have everyone else's)

Now, which of you needs a proper Audio CD and cannot cope with an MP3 CD?

NB MP3 means you get more tracks !

So. Does anyone know when the Premier League season starts ?

Can you let Birmingham City know?

But while I am at it, a word to referees everywhere:

Strikers are NOT over two times more likely than defenders to make a foul.

That is you being fucking chickens when it comes to giving penalties and free kicks in goal-scoring areas.

Three definite penalties not given to Birmingham so far this season.

But, you know, they didn't deserve the two today.

I dug up this old thread, because Swampy deserves a thread outside of the Vertigo one, even if the current arc does not.

What a shame they can't get this guy on interiors:

Newsarama story

And read that thread for some hilarious "praise" for Thing Swamp.

Paddy's Day!

 

Here's a link that confirms it.

From one terrorist group to another,

(whistling innocently)

bet it comes out on 11th September here.

That's just the RedPal that we met with your hair draped over his pate.

You can't fool us.

Why not buy a small one and have a girl stitch the Bedford Falls part onto a man-sized T shirt for you?

"PS - Hold off on money talk until we figure out the best possible solution. I do have a paypal account but we're going to have to include a little on top for Ade to ship them to you folks and we may be sending all the money to Ade - then he can just write me a personal check . . . or something. We'll keep you posted."

That's a good point.

Incidentally, here's a picky bugger question.

You know how http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/gallery/hb134.html and http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/gallery/hb162.html are a pair? would there be any chance of putting them on the same landscape page at half size ?

I'll be ordering some for myself but I have to decide which ones.

because they are artless fuckers ?

Oh, and I am happy to act as the UK address since it's probably cheaper to send them out from here (John? Is that right?)

For this purpose, Mark Red & Sethos & co, Europe is part of the UK ;-)

And these proofs are LOVELY.

That is all you need to know.