Pencilero
03-26-2005, 09:38 AM
Well, I've got to say the movie worked. It got me to read the comics, which is a good thing.
Two things prompted me to read the comics, an inherent interest in the occult; and my friend's insistence that Constantine is not an action hero by any stretch of the imagination.
What sucks about the Hellblazer collection straight off is the first graphic novel, Original Sins collects the first nine issues of the series. Then we make a massive 30 issue leap into the Garth Ennis / Steven Dillon run on Hellblazer. Making the graphic novel reading a bit annoying, because I wonder were those 30 issues that inconsequential, or bad, that DC opted to not collect them?
Here's a very handy Hellblazer resource for interested parties. (http://www.qusoor.com/hellblazer/trades.htm)
Anyhow. Here are some thoughts.
Original Sins is covers the introduction of John Constantine to monthly comics. Jamie Delano does an interesting job of focusing on the occult aspect of Constantine's character. Dealing with traditional occult, and fledgling concepts like techno-magic.
It also sets up a story thread with a woman called Zed, IIRC, who is the vessel for a religious groups apparent plans to breed a new messiah. The problem being Original Sins stops at nine, and the further collections completely disregard this story arc. So this could nag you to death if you're a completest.
John Ridgeway handles most of the art chores, I believe there was a filler artist issue in there. Ridgeway's art is very busy, kind of sketchy, and does an adequate job of telling the story. The only thing to watch out for are the two page spreads. These would consistently catch me off guard, and some were a bit unclear on the Z flow of the page.
Going from Original Sins, readers move right into Garth Ennis's run on Hellblazer. Ennis's take on Constantine focuses more on his relationships with friends. There's still magical things happening in the books, and some of the more notorious Constantine exploits take place in this run.
I enjoyed these stories due to the characterization and attention paid to grounding Constantine in a world of supporting characters that you care about.
Steve Dillon handles most of the art chores in these books and does a great job of handling the pub scenes. Just Constantine and company sitting around talking, smoking, and drinking. He doesn't skip on the action bits, but the bulk of the stories are just characters chatting. For some reason, I found myself enjoying Dillon more here than on Preacher; but it's been ages since I've read Preacher. I'm sure if I go back and re-read it I'll find it was similar.
Warren Ellis's run on Hellblazer is the briefest covering only two trades, and easily the most inconsistent in pairing with artists.
I found Ellis's take on the character to be a bit thick. I'm not sure what direction he was moving in, but his dialogue felt more mired in colloquialisms than Ennis or Delano. So much that it really mired the reading experience in attempting to slog through a lot of indecipherable babble.
The shining point in Ellis's run are two stories contained in the Setting Sun trade.
The first is the story of a killer in a room who cannot be removed, because anybody that enters goes into a murderous frenzy. So Constantine is called in to get this fellow out. This story arc has fabulous art. I forget the illustrators name, but it's a very sketchy / dirty style, reminiscent of Guy Davis. The way the artist illustrates the page, he incorporates busy seemingly inane doodles that convey the sense of magic in the air. Making it visually tangible.
The second story, the last in the book; is Constantine totally bullshitting a conspiracy theory writer about the Royal Family, Kennedy Assassination, and other popular scandal and conspiracies. I believe the art here is handled by Marcello Frusin who will become the regular artist on Brian Azzarello's run. His art style reminds me a lot of Eduardo Risso, or vice versa. A similar use of blacks and very clean line work.
Moving right along we come to Brian Azzarello's run on Hellblazer, and his take on Constantine is quite different from the previous writers work. Making Constantine a much less prominent character in the sense that he's almost there to coax the story along, while being a major player behind the scenes. Something of a magical mastermind.
I particularly enjoyed the Freezes Over story arc. Marcello Frusin just has a wonderful way of telling a story, and it can't be denied that he gives Constantine the perfect "shit eating grin". I found myself laughing out loud at some of Constantine's smirks and grins at the most inappropriate of times.
I would highly recommend this series to anybody that enjoyed the movie, and that has a remote interest in the character. The work is all consistently good, which in my experience is pretty rare with corporate comics; but I also suspect this is due in part to the careful guidance of the Vertigo creative staff at DC rather than coincidentally sticking a random writer and artist on the book.
In fact, I would say each writer did a good job of working off of the history established by the previous writer. Without the humanizing stories of Delano and Ennis, Azzarello's Constantine would come across as too brazen and smug.
The art is mostly consistent. The only artist I can say I didn't much care for was John Higgins. His style was a bit too clean cut superhero book for this title IMO.
I wouldn't suggest Hellblazer to fans of Dr. Strange or religious folks. There is no shortage of blasphemy and other sinful situations.
Big ups to my friend and his wife for allowing me to voraciously consume their Hellblazer library over the course of a week. Stopping over almost daily to return the books I had borrowed and get my next fix. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy this series.
I hope Mike Carey's run on the series is up to snuff. I will also keep my fingers crossed that the character of John Constantine doesn't long outlive his usefulness in comic. Though if that happens, I'm free to stop reading.
Na razie,
Greg
Two things prompted me to read the comics, an inherent interest in the occult; and my friend's insistence that Constantine is not an action hero by any stretch of the imagination.
What sucks about the Hellblazer collection straight off is the first graphic novel, Original Sins collects the first nine issues of the series. Then we make a massive 30 issue leap into the Garth Ennis / Steven Dillon run on Hellblazer. Making the graphic novel reading a bit annoying, because I wonder were those 30 issues that inconsequential, or bad, that DC opted to not collect them?
Here's a very handy Hellblazer resource for interested parties. (http://www.qusoor.com/hellblazer/trades.htm)
Anyhow. Here are some thoughts.
Original Sins is covers the introduction of John Constantine to monthly comics. Jamie Delano does an interesting job of focusing on the occult aspect of Constantine's character. Dealing with traditional occult, and fledgling concepts like techno-magic.
It also sets up a story thread with a woman called Zed, IIRC, who is the vessel for a religious groups apparent plans to breed a new messiah. The problem being Original Sins stops at nine, and the further collections completely disregard this story arc. So this could nag you to death if you're a completest.
John Ridgeway handles most of the art chores, I believe there was a filler artist issue in there. Ridgeway's art is very busy, kind of sketchy, and does an adequate job of telling the story. The only thing to watch out for are the two page spreads. These would consistently catch me off guard, and some were a bit unclear on the Z flow of the page.
Going from Original Sins, readers move right into Garth Ennis's run on Hellblazer. Ennis's take on Constantine focuses more on his relationships with friends. There's still magical things happening in the books, and some of the more notorious Constantine exploits take place in this run.
I enjoyed these stories due to the characterization and attention paid to grounding Constantine in a world of supporting characters that you care about.
Steve Dillon handles most of the art chores in these books and does a great job of handling the pub scenes. Just Constantine and company sitting around talking, smoking, and drinking. He doesn't skip on the action bits, but the bulk of the stories are just characters chatting. For some reason, I found myself enjoying Dillon more here than on Preacher; but it's been ages since I've read Preacher. I'm sure if I go back and re-read it I'll find it was similar.
Warren Ellis's run on Hellblazer is the briefest covering only two trades, and easily the most inconsistent in pairing with artists.
I found Ellis's take on the character to be a bit thick. I'm not sure what direction he was moving in, but his dialogue felt more mired in colloquialisms than Ennis or Delano. So much that it really mired the reading experience in attempting to slog through a lot of indecipherable babble.
The shining point in Ellis's run are two stories contained in the Setting Sun trade.
The first is the story of a killer in a room who cannot be removed, because anybody that enters goes into a murderous frenzy. So Constantine is called in to get this fellow out. This story arc has fabulous art. I forget the illustrators name, but it's a very sketchy / dirty style, reminiscent of Guy Davis. The way the artist illustrates the page, he incorporates busy seemingly inane doodles that convey the sense of magic in the air. Making it visually tangible.
The second story, the last in the book; is Constantine totally bullshitting a conspiracy theory writer about the Royal Family, Kennedy Assassination, and other popular scandal and conspiracies. I believe the art here is handled by Marcello Frusin who will become the regular artist on Brian Azzarello's run. His art style reminds me a lot of Eduardo Risso, or vice versa. A similar use of blacks and very clean line work.
Moving right along we come to Brian Azzarello's run on Hellblazer, and his take on Constantine is quite different from the previous writers work. Making Constantine a much less prominent character in the sense that he's almost there to coax the story along, while being a major player behind the scenes. Something of a magical mastermind.
I particularly enjoyed the Freezes Over story arc. Marcello Frusin just has a wonderful way of telling a story, and it can't be denied that he gives Constantine the perfect "shit eating grin". I found myself laughing out loud at some of Constantine's smirks and grins at the most inappropriate of times.
I would highly recommend this series to anybody that enjoyed the movie, and that has a remote interest in the character. The work is all consistently good, which in my experience is pretty rare with corporate comics; but I also suspect this is due in part to the careful guidance of the Vertigo creative staff at DC rather than coincidentally sticking a random writer and artist on the book.
In fact, I would say each writer did a good job of working off of the history established by the previous writer. Without the humanizing stories of Delano and Ennis, Azzarello's Constantine would come across as too brazen and smug.
The art is mostly consistent. The only artist I can say I didn't much care for was John Higgins. His style was a bit too clean cut superhero book for this title IMO.
I wouldn't suggest Hellblazer to fans of Dr. Strange or religious folks. There is no shortage of blasphemy and other sinful situations.
Big ups to my friend and his wife for allowing me to voraciously consume their Hellblazer library over the course of a week. Stopping over almost daily to return the books I had borrowed and get my next fix. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy this series.
I hope Mike Carey's run on the series is up to snuff. I will also keep my fingers crossed that the character of John Constantine doesn't long outlive his usefulness in comic. Though if that happens, I'm free to stop reading.
Na razie,
Greg