Ixnay by Night

The cover for vol. 18, "The Gift", by John McCrea.

Care to tell me what you thought of Azzarello's run?

 

That's a shame. I was actually excited for Mina's set of issues; curious how a novelist wrote the series.

 

This issue #250 is intriguing already.

Azzarello's run, to me anyway, was a real mixed bag. "Good Intentions" and "Ashes and Dust" are abominable outside of the Frusin artwork, probably two of my least favorite Hellblazer stories. But, then, Azz also has the really fucking excellent "Freezes Over" and "Lapdogs and Englishmen" in the middle of his run (even "Highwater" was pretty good, I thought).

On a side note, I just got through "Staring at the Wall" and moved onto the amnesia arc. The former was pretty good overall. I find Carey's run to be more exciting, tying in characters like Swamp Thing; the world itself seems a bit large with cameos from Lucifer as well.

That said, I'm still a bit...I don't want to say upset, but maybe confused at the more man-of-action Constantine. Carey does really well with the characterization, but it no longer feels as though he's a regular guy. He's spouting spells, and hooking up with other magicians. The most Constantine thing he did was the meditation while letting his hand boil. The more magic-focus doesn't take away from the stories too much, but I guess I just wouldn't be surprised if fire-balls start coming from his hands.

Additionally, and this might be a product of not yet finishing the run, but I can't quite put my finger on Carey's central focus (comparable to Delano's counter-culture or Ennis's "end of the line" writing of Constantine's life). It seems to be more broad, dealing with the working of the world as a whole and the order of events that come from things, but I could be wrong...?

I quite liked Carey's run on the book, but he was much more concerned with plots than with characterization. Everything had to tie back into his two mega-arcs (Shadow Dog and Rosacarnis) with very little room for side stuff. Compared to Delano, Ennis, or Jenkins, who all had the space to meander out into other areas of interest, Carey was all about Point A to Point B to Point C.

Oh, I agree, that would be my preference as well. I just don't think DC/Vertigo would ever take that approach with it, and if they WERE going to go out on a huge limb and bring Hellblazer back in a yearly format, it would be as an OGN.

Quite. That's why the crime "novel" series was such a success both times DC tried it.

Ouch, touche. However, I give the caveat that Vertigo's "crime novel" initiative shot itself in the foot with its terrible design choices. Yes, yes, I realize you desperately want to be a "real book", but if I'm going to pay $20 for an OGN I want it bigger than a normal comic, not smaller. Plus, didn't they roll those things out with multiple releases every month for a year? The local Half Price Books is flooded with those things now, I hadn't realized DC had produced so damn many of them.

That said, I think a single yearly release of a Hellblazer OGN would still be viable.

Maybe they're hoping that all these John Constantine fans who are rushing to buy the new Hellblazer comics will be drawn to buying the back-issue Trades by seeing covers that look just like the JC they know and love?

I mean, Hellblazer fans are obviously going to pick up a Hellblazer Trade today expecting to see John's past exploits in search of his arch-enemies, the Djinn. DC has to find some way to appeal to that huge core audience.

Delano and Ennis are sorely lacking in Djinn stories, and that's why the original HB series got canceled! Today's discerning readers demand to see intelligent stories about searches for Djinn, not the pap that Delano and Ennis were churning out, obviously just to get a quick pay-day.

But but but...Delano DID use the Djinn! In Pandemonium!

#itsallconnected

Getting something comparable to All His Engines and Pandemonium once a year would be an absolute best-case-scenario, I think. Make it an event for Vertigo with top shelf talent, either new or returning, and sell it as a return to form for the character AND on the backs of the creative teams. I think even as a mature reader vehicle, they'd be surprised by the support.

::/pipe dream off::

You've got through a lot of the good stuff.

 

Oh no. I hope that doesn't mean I'm getting into anything too bad.

To echo the rest: welcome aboard. As for post-Carey being "anything too bad", I think I have a differing opinion than most around here, that the series never dipped into "awful" territory until the very end. Immediately post-Carey, the run by Denise Mina, is the lowest point of the series IMO. Even with a lot of his ill-conceived ideas concerning women and trauma (and a rather brutal and infuriating character assassination), I quite liked Milligan's run. It just wasn't how I wanted the series to end. STILL! Diggle is perfectly decent and you have the rather excellent issue # 250 to look forward to!

While I've quite liked some of the new trade covers (the ones by Francis Manapul and Sean Phillips were fantastic), you can tell that DC is just putting their roster of current artists on the jobs. It started out with their big names - Jim Lee, David Finch, John Cassaday - but now they're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Not that I don't like Tula Lotay, who drew the cover you posted, but she's not exactly a top bill as cover artist. Maybe now they're trying to stick with recent Hellblazer/Constantine artists: Lotay was recently doing covers for the ongoing, and both Riley Rossmo and Simon Bisely did trade covers in the last year. I do wonder why they don't go back and commission new covers from Fabry, Bradstreet, Bermejo, etc... Maybe they don't care enough about the series 17 volumes in to go after a solid name and just toss it to whoever's available at the time?

I have fairly fond memories of Anima, though those memories are vague at best. One of the better "Zero Hour" era titles, along with The Ray by Christopher Priest, that one was pretty good too if memory serves. Like you said, Christian, it was no Starman or Spectre, but better than shit like Primal Force and Gunfire.

As for Hellblazer # 13, I really REALLY enjoyed it. Best single issue of the series in years, here's hoping Seely can keep the tension up for the next two issues. Reminded me of a solid Mike Carey era story, to be honest. And the artwork, yeah, I seriously dig Jesus Merino's take on the series, a lot less "superhero" than I was expecting given his work on other DC books in the past.

Another creative team switch in November, guess Seely and Merino are only on board for one 3-issue arc. Anyone heard of the writer Richard Kadrey before?

THE HELLBLAZER #16

Written by RICHARD KADREY

Art by DAVIDE FABBRI

Cover by JESUS MERINO

Variant cover by YASMINE PUTRI

Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details. Includes a code for a free digital download of this issue.

“The Bardo SCORE” part one! Another one of John’s magician friends has died—with a smile on his face and the words “thank you” scrawled in his own blood beside him. He wants to nail the killer and get revenge. But it happened in San Francisco so, above all, he wants to go home before he drinks himself to death in that loathsome city.

On sale NOVEMBER 22 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T+

While I was pretty fond of the first arc, the second one was the story that just wouldn't fucking end...until it did, except it more or less just stopped. I had such high hopes for Simon Oliver, I liked the Chas mini-series, but this was yet another swing and miss for the DCU Constantine. Can't they just give John to Young Animal, maybe then it will at least be an interesting train wreck instead of such immense malaise and boredom.

Still better than Ming Doyle's Constantine, though.

Hey all, been a while since I've posted on here, but I wanted to say something about the Ghost Rider podcast that I co-host. It's called Inner Demons, and we review current and classic Ghost Rider comics every episode! I've posted a link to the podcast episode archives on my Ghost Rider blog, Vengeance Unbound, below. You can also listen to us on iTunes and Stitcher! If you do listen and like what you hear, please give us a rating/review, it would really be appreciated. Thanks!

https://vengeanceunbound.blogspot.com/p/inner-demons-podcast-archive.html

I'm so fucking stoked for the Wildstorm relaunch, I was such a huge fan of that universe in the early 2000s. Everyone points to Authority and Planetary as the stand-outs (and rightly so, both were aces), but the best for me by far was Joe Casey's Wildcats. Bringing that sort of maturity back to the characters is what I'm hoping Ellis goes for.

I thought the amnesia plot was kind of slog until issue # 200, mainly because I wasn't digging Frusin's art by that point (and he started out SO GOOD during Azzarello's run, too). "RSVP" still stands as one of my favorite Constantine stories, though.

So, how to start this? I've been a fan of the comic literary anthologies that Sequential Art has produced over the years, my wife usually gets me a new volume every Christmas (with last year bringing me the excellent analysis of Morrison's Batman run). I've wondered a few times, considering Sequart's focus on Morrison, Moore, and Ellis that they've never produced a work like this for Hellblazer, and I've always wished someone would take on that job.

This forum holds such wealth of discussion and information from everyone, all of whom are here not just due to a love of the character but out of the desire to discuss the meaning and impact that the series had on all of us over the years.

Fuck it, what if WE wrote a book like that? Self-publishing is easier than ever (I actually used to work for Amazon's Print-On-Demand department, years ago, for what that's worth), and there's no better authority on the subject than all of us. Break it down into eras/runs if you like, with one writer taking on one apiece from Moore to Milligan (SOMEONE here HAS to be able to talk about Milligan's run other than writing "shit" 2,000 times).

Would anyone be interested in attempting something like this, which admittedly could be a reach for anything substantial, but again...fuck it, I'd love to try.

Anyone else read Doom Patrol yet? I enjoyed it, though I can't imagine anyone who hasn't read the Morrison run understanding any of it. The art was great, too. I'll stick around, I dig it so far.

This conversation reminds me so much of the cinematic Marlowe tirade in James Robinson's Starman, which pleases me to no end.

Well, I gave up on this show during season one, but the addition of Ghost Rider is bringing me back. How lost am I going to be?

I'm not as down on Azzarello's run as most (I'd still rather read his run than what Mina did), but ye gods, "Ashes and Dust" was terrible. It really seemed like Azz was just cackling into his word processor as he tried to get as much nonsense into that story as he could.

I appear to be the only one who didn't pick up on them being angels, what did I miss ?!?

I can't recall it being stated outright, I think we're just supposed to assume they're angels banished to Earth because that's what happens in Hellblazer comics. Time travelers, however, could be much more interesting...

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/justice-league-dark-film-moving-forward-with-director-doug-liman

Doug "Bourne Identity" Liman is now doing the officially named "Justice League Dark" film, with Del Toro staying on as producer.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/diggle-takes-on-capitalism-queen-and-country-in-james-bond-hammerhead

Looks like Diggle's "Hammerhead" will be a separate series from the one Ellis is doing, just in the same universe.

I guess Ellis is only doing the two arcs on James Bond, then? Andy Diggle is taking the series over soon with the third arc.

I'm surprised no one voted for Fabry. Not my cup of tea, really, but I remember people fawning all over them when the run was being released. Of all the Vertigo staple cover artists, I'm surprised Brian Bolland never had a go.