James

Just got hold of a copy of the one volume Bone collection. Been meaning to read this one for a while.

 

 

You'll love it. Begins like classic Disney-with-a-twist, ends up like a talking-animal version of Lord of the Rings, without any noticeable change in tone along the way. Wonderful, wonderful book.

I think it does lost its way quite badly in the middle, though - around the time that those portals start appearing and swallowing people up - and thrashes around looking for a direction before eventually getting on with it.

And a bit petty, considering where you are. I think it's a legal thing, though - they're not allowed to give freebies to non-Brits, because it's effectively paid for by British taxpayers.

I don't think a start date has been announced yet, although it's usually around April/March each year.

I didn't hate the Shakespeare one, although the Harry Potter stuff was nonsense. For me, the only real clunkers in that series were the Dalek stories, which were dismal.

Nah, the first series was all right and the second series was mostly cack, but the third series was far, far better than either. I'm worried it might have a Star Trek-style "alternately good and shit" formula, mind you, and that means that the four-episode 2009 season will be set on both sides by two proper seasons of dreadfulness.

Reasons to be Cheerful.

Thanks, that takes care of it all.

 

Now, I've noticed in some of the cover artwork (as particularly shown in the Bloodlines and The Devil You Know TPB cover) John is holding some sort of arrow or stick and has blood all over himself. Whats' the story because I don't recall seeing anything about this in the comics. Thanks.

Those covers are taken from Ennis-era stories. The Bloodlines one is from a story contained in it, in which Constantine has to cut Ellie open with a scalpel and carve a sigil into her soul. The Devil You Know's cover is taken from Ennis's "Rake at the Gates of Hell" and has Constantine holding a paintbrush which he used to create protective sigils on the walls of the church.

Not sure why they used a Fabry cover for The Devil You Know (other than the McKean covers within not being too great), or if they plan to keep using Fabry covers for future Delano stories.

7) So, the FotF was in Hell first, and he just casually gave up the throne to Lucifer?

Lucifer is the most powerful creature in creation, save for the angel Michael and God himself. The First couldn't stand up to him.

8) Constantine seems like it goes through writers really fast. It’s the only comic series I read, is this all normal?

40-ish issues is the norm for long-term writers (see Delano, Ennis, Jenkins, Carey and hopefully Diggle). Ellis was going to go for 40 but left after his school-shooting issue was shelved. Azzarello left after a couple of years, but I don't know why. Mina's the only one who's gone into it with a short run planned (excepting fill-in issues from Morrison et al).

9) In which issue did JC meet his dad in Hell?

Issue 100, "Sins of the Father".

10) I noticed that all of the people are definitely in Hell don’t ever appear as ghost. The only exception I can think of is Rick the Vic, which is debatable. I’m assuming I’m wrong on this one, any thoughts?

Depends how much attention edtiorial are paying at any given point in time.

11) I was really hoping JC would figure out something clever to get his sister (and presumably her husband) back from the FotF. Any possibilities of this in the future, or is it pretty much a done deal?

Anything's possible. It all depends on whether the writers want to change it up.

12) Am I the only one who didn’t get the big dog thing in Staring at the Wall?

The big dog was there to protect humanity from The Beast. Because it always turns up when The Beast is around - and because The Beast has no earthly form - people incorrectly believed that the Shadow Dog was behing it all.

13) I’ve noticed that the Straight to Hell website has gone rather unmaintained as the monthly title synopsis are incomplete, the “enemies” portion isn’t even available, etc. If I was more informed and knowledgeable about these things I would off to help, otherwise, is there any intention of some maintenance and additional information?

Whenever John gets around to it.

1) In which issue did Emma die and what’s the story?

In Swamp Thing #something or other. See the Swamp Thing TPB "A Murder of Crows"; she was killed by the minion of a Brazilian cult that was trying to end the world.

2) At the beginning of Rake at the Gates of Hell Header dies, is there something I missed? What happened here?

He was shot in a raid on the Caligula Club trying to get the book that says how to kill the First.

3) The FotF figures out he can “kill” the 2nd and 3rd, and I guess he combines what’s left of them in a sword? So, then the little girl (I forget her name) is actually Ellie disguised and she gets her hands on the sword? Then she whacks the FotF just before he can kill JC with said sword and he “dies”.

Yep.

4) So, somewhere in all of this the FotF reappears in Carey’s run when Ghant is auctioning off JC. So, how did he manage to come back?

Ignore what Matt said - this was covered in Paul Jenkins' run. Basically The First was reincarnated as a mortal, a Greek fisherman, with the full memory of what he had been before. One of his minions eventually schemes to have him restored at the cost of Constantine's life - which he does. As for how Constantine gets out of it, you need to read the Paul Jenkins arc "Critical Mass". This story is uncollected.

5) Also, in Rake at the Gates of Hell, how does JC know the FotF is coming for him?

Because he's the one that sent Ellie down to Hell to tell The First that he can kill The Second and Third. Since they were the only things standing between him and death, he knows that once they're gone The First will go after him.

6) Then, in Empathy is the Enemy the three come back around again. How did the 2nd and 3rd get re-embodied from the sword or whatever? Besides that, wasn’t it kind of a cheap ending on Mina’s part specially if they’re supposed to be dead?

Explained in The Red Right Hand as being a psychic vision created by Constantine to fool The Master of the Third Place.

Jesus is cool, but some of his followers are [over-used word]s.

I love... lamp.

Maybe she just hates claymation rats.

He's pretty much a recurring character in the first, third and sixth seasons, and appears intermittently (though I forget how frequently) in the other seasons.

Having watched more Curb than Cheers in recent years, I'd still find it hard to get away from the feeling that Larry David should walk in and balls things up any second.

So that's 30 Rock and Married With Children on the list...

I'll grant Seinfeld (as is almost inevitable for such a long-running show, there were a lot more poor/mediocre episodes of Seinfeld than there were of Arrested Development, but the corollary of that is that there are more genuinely brilliant ones, too.

Just watching the start of series two and every scene involving Michael forgetting Anne has me in stitches. I'd forgotten how densely packed it is with jokes, and how well the plotlines in each episode weave together. Given the slightly lacking last two seasons of Curb, I think it might well be deserving of the whole of the third place.

Honourable mentions: Father Ted, Blackadder, Fawlty Towers,, Yes, Minister, Porridge, (Whatever Happened To) The Likely Lads.

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Rising Damp...

Also Frasier, Dad's Army and Married...With Children, all of which would be contenders if they'd been more consistent, but ran for too long, with too many poor episodes along the way, to really count.

Contenders for what? As good as the first two are, I don't think even their best moments came close to The Simpsons, Seinfeld, AD or Curb's.

Also, I've only recently found out that Married With Children isn't the bog-standard sitcom I'd always thought it was, but actually had lots of bizarre stuff like Al getting killed every so often. What would be a good season to pick up on DVD?

Breaking news from Castle Ellis....

 

I just deleted my entire Facebook friendslist.

Shurely "Doktor Friendless"?

That pop documentary is indeed brilliant, and I'd recommend that anyone not living in Britain try to track it down on BitTorrent or something. Wasn't that impressed by Simon Armitage's analysis of This Charming Man, however.

On considered reflection, I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that the word "third" in James' first post is actually unnecessary. It was remembering Buster's hook-hand ("I'M A MONSTER!!!") that really did it for me.

1- The Simpsons

2- Seinfeld

3- Arrested Development/Curb Your Enthusiasm (joint)

Although I can't bring myself to watch The Simpsons any more, and there are already more medicore/bad episodes than there are brilliant ones, so it almost feels unfair to put it ahead of something that's uniformly brilliant, like Arrested Development.

Original thread here.

Got 2008 off to an excellent start by re-watching the second season of Arrested Development, the third best sitcom ever. With guest appearance by Tom Jane!

Bit of a lame way to start this thread, I know, but sod it.

On the one hand that's impressive.

On the other, why the hell did you do that?

Gah! Cheers.

Is Shoot-em-up out on DVD yet? We spent half of last night trawling around trying to find it to rent before giving up and getting For Your Consideration (funny and worth watching, but not the best Christopher Guest film by a long shot).

I think Ade is being Rimmer and Mr Flibble from Red Dwarf.