Hellblazer, Help required

[Dandontdare]

ooh, that's interesting. I've been considering adding to my meagre hellblazer collection for ages, but haven't done the homework in working out which is which. may wait and get these instead!

[Emperor]

I never understood that old strategy DC had of not numbering trades (I remember having to read the small print on the inside cover to work out the reading order of books!). Presumably this was to make each trade stand alone, and not put off potential buyers who hadn't read any previous books, but all it did was irritate me. 

I'm sure I have numbered trades from DC around here somewhere, although often for specific runs of issues (like Morrison Doom Patrol or Seven Soldiers). The problem with the Hellblazer ones is they have been publishing them out of order jumping around all over the place (I suppose to get the runs from the Big Name writers out first) so numbering was impossible.

[radiator]

The original Preacher trades weren't numbered, which is insane. Preacher is probably the series I'd single out as the one with the broadest mainstream appeal (lots of my non comic-reading friends have borrowed and read it over the years) and yet there was a huge barrier to getting into it!

Even later stuff like the 100 Bullets books weren't explicitly numbered until around book 5.

Lunacy.

[Withnail's liver]

The original trades for Neil Gaiman's series The Sandman were exactly the same.  The whole run was un-numbered on the spine (or indeed anywhere).  Not so vital for some of the stories as they could be read out of order, but you certainly wouldn't want to read The Wake before Kindly Ones (which a friend of mine did). 

Subsequent reprints have numbered spines though

[TordelBack]

I'm battling through a complete re-read of Hellblazer at the moment (it's not all pleasant, I can tell you, and it's taking ages).  I'm in the Paul Jenkins years (90-124 or thereabouts), which took some getting used to at first, but now I'm finding I prefer it to the Ennis run (it's more grounded and less about incessant bromance) and the seminal  Delano stuff (it covers similar ground but it's better written, and far less preachy).  The fact that most of it is drawn by Sean Phillips definitely helps.

There's some very clever ideas, and some of the best single issue tales I've read, but what I really love is Jenkins' use of (specifically) English folklore and myth, and John's incongruous suburban existence.  While I'm sure John wouldn't thank me for saying it, it has a bit of a John Smith flavour - what horror there is comes from the past, but is clad the everyday.  There's one excellent episode where an old lady's death is twinned with a child's birth, with no overt supernatural goings-on, and it's quite gripping.

Plus Jenkins undoes some of the awful handling of the 'stupid Fabio' version of Satan that Ennis was responsible for.  

I had to assemble this run from stray issues backed up by naughty downloads, although I'm pleased to hear it is in the process of being collected.  Definitely worth the effort.

[SmallBlueThing]

While up in my attic the other day, I found a fair few Hellbazers while going through one of my longboxes. About twenty or so, maybe more. As I'm not interested in collecting individual comics any more, preferring trades and excepting the obvious, I thought I'd offer these up to anyone who wants them in exchange for- well, whatever.

If anyone's interested, I can go back up there, get them down and let you know exactly what's there. My GUESS is they go back to the end of the Delano run, through Ennis and into whoever took over after that. Honestly don't know how many there are.

Anyway- PM me- anyone with the Prog 2005 alt cover and collected Nemesis vol3, or old copies of Battle or Action, gets special treatment!

SBT

[radiator]

This arrived this morning from The Book Depository:



This is the new printing of Original Sins - the book I was referring to earlier in this thread. It's a satisfyingly chunky 300+ pages, full colour paperback and includes issues 1-9 of Hellblazer, and also issues 76 and 77 of Swamp Thing - which is a crossover story of sorts apparently.

Not sure if this trade reboot will be a complete and chronological presentation of Hellblazer, but this volume is clearly labelled '1', unlike previous editions.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Me, now, I think Garth Ennis's stuff was pretty good - despite some very clumsy plotting it really helped to establish John as the loveable, miserable bastard he is today, way more than Delano's early new-age-traveller stuff.
And I liked Brian Azarello - a radical change of style but very good. And he pulled off the written English accent in fine style.
Mike Carey's stuff was among Hellblazer's best runs, too.  His final episode was probably the finest Hellblazer ever. And some one-off gems from John Smith and Grant Morrison too.
And they managed to address his non-ageing status as well. Nice work, fellas!

[Ignatzmonster]

Really do like the Carey run. One of the most consistent and Marcelo Frusin is one of my favorite artists ever on Hellblazer.

Delano is a mixed bag, but to my mind while he did write some of the most Gawd-help-me episodes he also wrote some of the scariest and most powerful as well. DC would of course do a total reprint of his run now that I bought the other trades that collected his work piecemeal.

Azarello kind of lost the plot at the end but I have to say his Hellblazer run where constantine is locked up is one of the best arcs ever. You truly come away from it thinking, Do NOT fuck with John Constantine.

[Keef Monkey]

We really wanted to get into Hellblazer after seeing the movie (what? We liked it!) so we picked up the first couple of books but found them really tough going. Seems to be a lot of Swamp Thing-related stuff that we didn't understand having never read Swamp Thing. I'm sure it gets better, but we never got over that hump. Will need to try it again.

[Dandontdare]

Go. Read. Swamp Thing.

NOW!

[radiator]

I hear what you're saying, Keef.

I'm enjoying Original Sins, but as an introduction to John Constantine it's pretty shocking - it asks quite a lot of the reader and assumes that you know a lot already. Can't believe that the series began in such a user-unfriendly fashion and can't imagine that would fly these days.

As for Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, I'm collecting the hardbacks and have just recently finished book 4. It's... quite good, but I'd have reservations about recommending it and don't quite understand why it is so highly regarded. While there are some truly excellent parts, a lot of it is quite obtuse and hard to follow (to me at least). It's very wordy, and the near-constant appearances/interruptions of established, often obscure DC Comics characters can be quite grating. And as for the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover episode.... I'm sorry to say that I didn't have the faintest idea what was going on. Overall it's quite hard work, and nowhere near as consistent and accessible as something like Watchmen or Halo Jones. There's enough good stuff in there to keep me buying the books, but only just.

I may well be in the minority, but I really don't like the art, either.

[Colin YNWA]

On a side note there will soon be two (possibly) John Constantines running around. He's being reintroduced, along with Swamp Thing into the DCU proper. I assume (as do reports though there is no confirmation) that they'll keep the continuity separate.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/04/24/peter-milligan-confirms-john-constantine-returning-to-dc-universe/

[TordelBack]

And as for the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover episode.... I'm sorry to say that I didn't have the faintest idea what was going on.

As I hadn't read a DC book (bar one Superman annual when I was about 10) when I read that episode, and thus had no idea who anyone was or what they were up to, I always felt that Moore pulled a very clever trick in the way he handled it - Swampy himself hasn't a clue  what's going on, it's just a blur of images and locations and garish costumes to him, and to us.  And it doesn't matter to him, or to us, except as an unsettling distraction.  However, the resulting confusion and enforced disruption to the American Gothic story is used positively (by Moore) as a psychic shock to boost the Brujera's plan.

If you wanted to be all smart and metatextual about it, you could even say that Collateral Damage of Bewildering Superhero Event is just one more aspect of the horror and moral ambiguity that Constantine is exposing Alec to as part of 'training' him to be a soldier in his campaign. 

Either way, it's about the cleverest way to deal with a corporate mandate to feck up the last act of your carefully crafted epic.

[radiator]

I'll never, ever understand this obsessive desire the big comic companies have to make everything tie into everything else - whats the point? In what way does it improve a story? Surely all it does is paint you into a narrative corner?

However, the resulting confusion and enforced disruption to the American Gothic story is used positively (by Moore) as a psychic shock to boost the Brujera's plan.

I see what you're saying, but I just found it flat out confusing and distracting. As for the whole American Gothic storyline, I loved all the lead-in tales but the main event left me very underwhelmed. I find that the stories that just focus on Alec, Abby and Constantine I really enjoy, but when we keep getting extended cameos of tedious DC Z-listers I can feel my brain switching off.