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| HELLBLAZER |
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DANGEROUS
HABITS |
by Garth Ennis, William Simpson, Mark Pennington,
Tom Sutton, & Malcolm Jones III |
Paperback: 160 pages
Warner Books
ISBN: 1563891506 |
$14.95
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| Comic Art
Editor's Recommended Book
Garth Ennis brings a fresh,
in-your-face attitude to the character of John Constantine, a part-time
occultist who gets into more trouble than he prevents. If you like sneaky,
underhanded deals that often go awry, check out this second collection
of comics stories by Ennis. This tale is from the same creative force behind
the Preacher series. |
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Amazon.com
John Constantine, the main
character in Hellblazer, was originally a very minor character in DC Comics'
Swamp Thing. Next came his only series, in which this hard-smoking, hard-drinking,
all around manipulator walked the thin line of magic between this world
and hell. So when Irishman Garth Ennis was asked to write this comic book,
he had asked himself, "What could I possibly do to John Constantine that
hadn't been done before? And one course of action suddenly stood out above
all others: Kill him." The result is a tense supernatural drama that begins
with Constantine being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Though this
book only hints at the freeform casualness and over-the-top vulgarity that
became Ennis's trademark in the Preacher series, this is an immensely enjoyable
read with strong characters and dynamite plot twists.
--Jim Pascoe
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| HELLBLAZER |
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DAMNATION'S
FLAME |
by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry,
& William Simpson |
Paperback: 176 pages
DC Comics
ISBN: 1563895080 |
$16.95
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Amazon.com
Garth Ennis, who is also
known for his popular Vertigo series Preacher, always manages to weave
together the dark and horrific with the commonplace to epitomize the graphic-novel
medium. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Damnation's Flame collects issues
72 to 77 of the DC Comics series in a volume that is really composed of
four short stories. In the primary tale of the collection, Constantine,
a trench-coated magus, wanders the streets of New York City. |
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For mature
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the loss of his lover, Kit, he literally falls under the spell of a minor
magician. Constantine's physical body is abused in a homeless shelter while
his soul travels the barren roads of a tiny slice of hell. His companion
on the journey is President John F. Kennedy, who has been trapped in this
limbo world since moments after his assassination. The site of the ever-suffering
Kennedy will be difficult for many readers, but through Constantine's interactions
with the President on their journey to hell's White House, Ennis punctures
many of the myths that have shaped late-20th-century America. Kennedy is
shown to be all too human, and the ruler of this hell, a ghostly Abraham
Lincoln, reveals himself as the only bigger myth-figure able to free Kennedy
with a heavy dose of reality. "Act of Union," the second story, flashes
back to 1980 with a quotidian narrative about Kit and Constantine's first
meeting. This is a small, beautiful story that demonstrates Ennis's impressive
range as a writer (especially when compared to the bloody opening selection).
William Simpson's sketchy artwork perfectly captures the mood of Ennis's
word balloons. "Confessions of an Irish Rebel" is another tale with a smaller
and less mystical scope than the opening, but, as Constantine becomes mixed
up with his old friend Dublin, things take a turn toward gore and violence.
Finally, "And the Crowd Goes Wild" is actually a frame narrative, a story
told in a bar that again moves back over a decade, to the night Chas Chandler
gave John a ride in his cab and ended up being involved in a terrifying
case that touched hell itself.
--Patrick
O'Kelley
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| HELLBLAZER |
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FEAR
& LOATHING |
by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, & Glenn Fabry
Introduction by Warren Ellis |
Paperback: 160 pages
DC Comics
ISBN: 1563892022 |
$17.95
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| From the writer
and artist of PREACHER, John Constantine is a cynical, hard drinking chain
smoking Brit who's been around the block a few times and occasionally saved
the world with his magical savvy. In this volume, Constantine must prevent
his young niece from following in his mystic footsteps, cope with his own
40th birthday, attended by Swamp Thing and other mystical guests, and engineer
the fall from heaven. |
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| Garth Ennis
brings a fresh, in-your-face attitude to the character of John Constantine,
a part-time occultist who gets into more trouble than he prevents. If you
like sneaky, underhanded deals that often go awry, check out this second
collection of comics stories by Ennis. This tale is from the same creative
force behind the Preacher series. |
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| HELLBLAZER |
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ORIGINAL
SINS |
| by Jamie Delano, John Ridgway, & Alfredo Alcala |
Paperback: 256 pages
DC Comics
ISBN: 1563890526 |
$19.95
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| This volume
introduces John Constantine, master manipulator of magic and mankind, and
follows him through inescapable horrors that threaten his closest friends.
Reprinted from HELLBLAZER #1-9. |
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| HELLBLAZER |
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TAINTED
LOVE |
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Steve Dillon
Painted cover by Glenn Fabry |
Paperback: 176 pages
DC Comics
ISBN: 1563894564 |
$16.95
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| From the breakup
of the romance he hoped would redeem his soul, John Constantine joins the
ranks of London's homeless, meeting a vicious vampire cult and revisiting
the scene of one of his earliest encounters with dark magic. |
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| A gone-to-seed
John Constantine confronts the ghosts of his past as he is stalked by a
vampire who has hunted the Constantine family for generations, recalls
the terrible fate of a friend whose lover summoned a demon, and climbs
back to respectability (or at least John's most reasonable facsimile) once
more. Plus, John's ex-girlfriend, Kit, returns to England; and Constantine
settles a score left over from his teen years. |
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