vinusoma

Well... I did put a 'maybe' before all those spin-offs...

But, even so, I still think the Vertigo editors should be congratulated for bringing new writers to the world of Hellblazer...

Even if the spin-off's don't appear, they've still introduced John Shirley and Denise Mina and I'm sure I'll enjoy reading their (other) work in the coming months...

as for Papa Midnite... well, OK, it's not the best, but Mat Johnson is another writer who I assume has written very little in comics and, although it can't be described as ground-breaking, I'm enjoying his take on the Papa Midnite character... but, the mini-series has prompted me to at least think about reading his book, if I eventually do, well that's another story...

V.

Great, nice to read these old stories...

Have to agree with the comments concerning John Ridgway, it works looks great in B/W...

And talking of Ridgway, was his 2000AD 'Summer Magic' ever collected... I seem to recall it pre-dated both Tim Hunter and Harry Potter and featured a teenage boy (who wore glasses) and was learning about magic...

Well, now that all the hype from the movie is dying down... it's nice to know people can look forward to some changes to the regular title & JC...

Not only are two new writers (from the world of books) - John Shirley and Denise Mina - going to be writing new stories, but hopefully we'll be seeing some more one-shots/spin-offs...

I'm looking forward to the new John Shirley novels (I enjoyed his film adaptation more than the actual film or comic adaptation)... and at some point I will have to check out his other books... and here's hoping Tim Bradstreet gets to provide the covers (it would make a nice link to the regular title)...

Also, looking forward to Denise Mina's run on the title, having not read any of her books, which I will do at some point, and it will be nice to see a woman writer take on the character of JC...

I'm also looking forward to seeing how a Scot (do they still see themselves a Brits anymore?) views the UK... can't remember if Garth Ennis views himself as Irish, British or even North Irish, but his views on the British establishment seemed to be similar to Jamie Delano's in some aspects...

other things coming in the next year (well, maybe)...

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...

& that Peter Hogan/Pete Doherty/Clash story (well, OK, this will most likely never see print, but one can hope)...

So, overall, don't know if the Vertigo editors ever read this forum, but after all the 'flack' that they got over the movies, they should be congratulated for what they currently doing...

V.

I know this is slighty off-topic...

but, is Tim Bradstreet going to do some (officially or unofficially) artwork for the upcoming movie... like he did for the punisher movie...

and thought the cover for #206 is great aswell...

You may also want to check amazon (or some other similiar site) for that Books of Magic (text) book...

it's an adaption (for kids) of Gaiman's mini and it has an appearance from Constantine...

(I assume it was done to cash in on Harry Potter)...

Page 8

Gujarati is an Indian language, common among the emigrants in Africa, America and the United Kingdom.

 

According to Venusoma on the issue 201 thread:

 

The only thing that I found slightly wrong was the description of it being from North India... since Calcutta (Kolkata) is actually in East India... and if it did have Gujarati script on it, then Gujarat is actually in West India...

(it may not make much difference to most people, but its like saying something is from England, when it was originally from Scotland...)

 

From #179: Aloysius Quinn, from John’s mother’s side of the family, was in India during the nineteenth century. And here’s the reason for the subtitle of this issue. The infamous Black Hole of Calcutta was an incident where supposedly 146 members of the British garrison were imprisoned in a small, overcrowded room jail. Almost all were reported to have died according to one of the survivors, but no corroboration of his story was found. There’s a theory that a smaller number were imprisoned for being drunk and disorderly and panicked when the cells became overcrowded. The tale is thought to have been exaggerated as propaganda regarding the Indian people.

 

That's interesting. Presumably the only survivors were Indian, though? What where they supposed to have died of?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It'd be worth getting our Indian folks over to comment on these two.

 

Here's my take from the (british) history books.

 

Given that Calcutta jail was used as a centre of detention at the time of Aloysius Quinn, it would be perfectly reasonable for the Brahmin to have been from the West. (It'd be like the black scottish guy in Porridge ;-)

 

The Black Hole was allegedly a place where British soldiers were interred.

Originally around 150 Brits were said to have died by the one witness.

As I said in the notes, I am not sure if the jail remained known as the Black Hole, but the Brahmin would have been avenging the much later abuses visited on the Indian prisoners.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, my knowledge of Indian History is not great...

the only reason I bought it up was that my parents originally come from Gujarat state and so I knew that state is right on the other side of the country from Calcutta.

I would assumed the British would have detentions camps all over the country, but

I seem to recall Calcutta was once the capital of the British Raj, so maybe the more important prisoners would have been bought there...

Not too sure about what happened at the "Black Hole"... but, it may have been around this time that there was an Indian Mutiny across large parts of India... I aslo seem to recall there was a famine in Bengal aswell, blamed largely on the British... but, I don't know when it occurred...

Actually didn't Mike Carey mention he was going to have some sort of crossover with Lucifer at some point...

(I think it was one of his early interviews concerning Hellblazer)...

I don't read Lucifer, but is it possible that John's trip to Hell means that maybe some meeting with characters from Lucifer...

I enjoyed it aswell...

nice to see a few self-contained stories now and again... but, I suspect the 'stone' will be used in some future storyline...

The only thing that I found slightly wrong was the description of it being from North India... since Calcutta (Kolkata) is actually in East India... and if it did have Gujarati script on it, then Gujarat is actually in West India...

(it may not make much difference to most people, but its like saying something is from England, when it was originally from Scotland...)

other then that it's nice to see Manco's darker artwork...

and is he from Argentina? (or somewhere else in South America)...

from what I recall, it was a great story...

I think it was one of the few times when Will Simpson inked his own work and it gave it a more 'gritty'(?) look...

and I think it was from this story onwards that Glenn Fabry started providing the covers...

maybe they'll reprint it when the Preacher film comes out... with 'from the Creator of Preacher' sticker on it's cover...

I'm actually looking forward to Manco's work, it's looks a bit static sometimes, but compared to Frusin lately, it makes a refreshing change.

I wonder if Manco read this script before he got around drawing his OGN(?), since he made John's father look like him in the flashback in the OGN; Manco also seems to be making older John bald, since John's father was also bald.

OR maybe Carey just wrote it in script like that.

So, how do you think it compares to (extra-length) #50, #100 & #120...?

I'm not exactly sure how John got the demon blood back after 'doing' it with Ellie... was it ever explained... (or was it just taken for granted)...

as for reprinting Delano's run... did Titan books ever do any...

I know they did the whole of Alan Moore's run in B/W... and I seem to recall they did start with Delano's Hellblazer run (also in B/W)...

(either that or my memory is playing tricks on me)...

I also seem to recall Titan books stoped at some point since they weren't paying royalties on the reprints (or something), so they may have only got around to reprinting what DC ever got to reprinting (issue #1-8?)...

I have to agree with Mark here...

The 'children' know Contantine, since he has been a 'father' to them.

It was so, like Rosa says, they know what he is like and how he thinks.

By the way, what else has Manco done, although I've heard of him, I've never picked up any of previous work...

ummm...

do you think DC will ever reprint 'Royal Blood', after all the problems Marvel had with that princess Di issue of one of the 'X' books (written by Pete Milligan I believe)...

I assume the movie adaptation is still going to printed as a single issue...

or will it only be available in this 'the Hellblazer collection' tpb??

and I'm assuming it's in one of the forum threads already, but what story by Jimmy Palmotti is going to reprinted.

I know he inked a few Steve Dillon issues, but I can't recall any other story he has been involved with...

I'm failry certain his name wasn't mentioned for the adaptation... so is it a new story or a new framing sequence?