Rassmguy

ok im new to the hellblazer series and ive read the various descriptions of chars and stuff could somone tell me how acurate the film was to the charecter jhon constantine in the hellblazer comic  and the other chars fluff wise etc ...

 

(the  film has influanced me to start colecting the comics so i would just like to catch up)

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A very easy answer -- the film had no relation to the movie whatsoever. John's character in the film looks and acts and thinks and is motivated entirely differently than in the comics. Hell, his name isn't even pronounced right in the film. Plus, Chas is a third of the age he's supposed to be, the very premise of why John does what he does is wrong, Papa Midnite is WAY off, and there are just so many other things wrong that there's no way to reconcile the two media. In short, the film is best left ignored.

Okay, so let me get this straight...

Sales are down due to poor management and an inept film adaptation, so to fix the situation, they want to remove the best cover artist the series has ever had -- indeed, the only consistently good aspect of the book in recent years? Who's the dipsh*t middle-management type who made THAT decision? 'Cause it's that kind of dimwitted decision-making that is killing the book, not the covers. Christ, Vertigo -- can't you guys do ANYTHING right??

4.Brian Azzarello-Brought John to America and tried to write more "reality based" gritty stories. Took John away from the magic and demons, for the most part. He focused more on the events going on around John than on the character of John, himself, who Azzarello wrote as more of the mystery con-man that Alan Moore created him as.

Wow, I couldn't agree more -- go back and re-read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, then re-read Azzarello's run. It's not even remotely the same character. In fact, I'd say Azz got as far from Moore's creation as you can get. In short, he f*cked up royally, showing no understanding of the character or the title whatsoever.

But doesn't that rob the story of all of its power? The point of Moore's idea is that Swamp Thing has spent ten or fifteen years (comic time is sort of flexible like that) searching for a way to become human again, only to find out that he was never human in the first place. Remember that there were 20+ issues before Moore's story started, and that this kind of revelation pulled the rug out from underneath the readers.

44 issues, to be exact -- Swamp Thing v.1 1-24, Annual #1, and Swamp Thing v.2 #1-19. :)

Well, Alan Moore's run on "Swamp Thing" went on for quite a few issues before John first showed his face....so, I'd say "Yes".

 

Speaking of this, I saw that the Sci-Fi Channel has a made-for-TV Man-Thing movie coming out soon.

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It wasn't made-for-TV -- it was made for the theater, but it was so bad Marvel canned its theatrical release.

Brainy boffins of the boards: can you help me?

Hi, Denise,

While I don't know the answer to that particular question, I invite you to check out my website, Roots of the Swamp Thing, which contains a very detailed timeline of all Swamp Thing tales to date. Since Hellblazer is a spinoff of Swamp Thing, I am now adding the events of Hellblazer to the timeline as well, and would be happy to answer any questions you might have about timeline-related issues.

Sincerely,

Rich Handley

Hola,

I just wanted to let you all know, in case you hadn't read it yet, that Papa Midnite #4 establishes that this miniseries takes place before Hellblazer #189. Quite a surprise, actually, as I'd assumed it was more current than that, but Constantine tells Midnite he is assembling a team to take on the Shadow Dog, placing it squarely before #189, when Constantine meets with his assembled team. Cool, eh?

There are also a couple of classic lines in #4 that make fun of Midnite's first appearance in a grass skirt and top hat, and other conventions of the character. All in all, a fantastic issue. If you aren't reading the Papa Midnite miniseries, you're missing a VERY good Hellblazer-based story.

Rich Handley

Roots of the Swamp Thing

another Papa Midnite mini-series by Mat Johnson... (another writer, whose books I'm going to have to pick up at some point)...

another Lady Constantine mini-series by Andy Diggle (I heard he has been asked to do this by DC)...

maybe a one-shot from Mike Carey, who will also hopefully also do a 'Gemma (Masters) Constantine' mini-series...

maybe another 'Rare Cuts' tpb, with hopefully some more stories which will never be reprinted elsewhere (i.e. the Vertigo Winter Specials stories, + some of those one-offs done by Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, Paul Jenkins, etc)...

& (maybe) that 'covers' book...

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I hope you don't mind, V., but I posted this info on my website, Roots of the Swamp Thing (http://rhandley.0catch.com/swampthing/index.htm). I credited both you and this forum. If you hear anymore about these or any other Hellblazer or Swamp Thing projects, please feel free to let me know (handleyr@optonline.net) and I'll post them as well. Thanks!

Rich

Thanks for that info, James -- so, does that jibe with everything that's come before?  I ask because I've seen so much evidence posted online about New Jersey and Deleware, but not being a DC Comics reader outside of Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and Books of Magick, I don't know first-hand what the deal is.

It's me, by the way -- my nickname is Rassmguy (long story), and I just realized I didn't sign it so you might not know who wrote the above. :)

Rich

In the recent Seven Soldiers: Guardian of Manhattan #1, it was revealed that Gotham and Metropolis are on either side of New York. Because it lacks the infamy of Gotham's Bat-crowd or Metropolis' Superman, it's known as "The Cinderella City". Just so you know. :)

Thanks for that info, James -- so, does that jibe with everything that's come before? I ask because I've seen so much evidence posted online about New Jersey and Deleware, but not being a DC Comics reader outside of Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and Books of Magick, I don't know first-hand what the deal is.

Yes, she will. There's been a pretty strong hint that her first issue, #216, will be illustrated by Tim Bradstreet (it's still unconfirmed, but pretty likely by the look of things), but that Leonardo Manco will remain the main series artist.

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Thanks, Mark! I've added that info to my site... which, by the way, FINALLY reflects the big update I promised a few weeks back. I've added the events of Hellblazer 1-22 and annual 1, Swamp Thing 8-13, the Lady Constantine miniseries and Papa Midnite 1-2 to the timeline and I've re-designed the front page. Still a LOT of work to go before I'm through, as I'm now in the process of adding all of Hellblazer to the timeline and then I'm going to start on character bios, a cover gallery and a more graphic-driven look, but it's fun so I don't mind. (If I didn't have a wife, kids and a job, I'd have it all done pronto... but Real Life has a tendency to take precedence, somehow.)