Share your opinions on various Hellblazer writers

[Billy Batson]

@Darrell Yeah, agreed. I liked the change of scenery. What made the run great for me was that John was getting pretty depressing before it and Azz made him kick ass again.

@Holmes: The first trade is out of print but it's up on comixology^^ You should read the last few issues of Ellis' run if you haven't to. The last issue of his gave him a jail sentence if my memory serves right.

Like Darrell said, you should read the run in one go. And if you're an Azz fan already, though the ending issue was just okay, then again some other runs also had weak endings.

[FanboyStranger]

Delano: The first 12 issues of his run was just magic. The rest never grabbed me, though.

Not even The Family Man? That's my favorite HB story-- John at his most desperate against a very human threat who is one step ahead of him. The art by Ron Tiner isn't much to look at, but it gets the job done.

[Superdog]

In my mind Delano and Ennis are at the top, tied basically. They both had some clunkers but they write him better than anyone else.

Ellis was good while at lasted. I would have been keen to read the rest of his "John is the human incarnation of the city of London" stories.

Jenkins is mixed. Some of them are great, like Critical Mass. Others just sort of lay there and do nothing. And if someone wants to explain what happens at the end of Jenkins' wrong I'd be grateful because I don't feel like I ever really understood it.

Azz is great, but looking back I feel like you could throw Good Intentions and Freezes Over out the window and not miss them. The payoff in Good Intentions was silly and Freezes Over was pretty useless. The story with the Nazis is one of my favorite Hellblazer stories, though.

Carey strikes me as good but not great. He had the voice down pat but the story never seems to excel. I'd be open for a re-read though.

[Darrell D.]

Not even The Family Man? That's my favorite HB story-- John at his most desperate against a very human threat who is one step ahead of him. The art by Ron Tiner isn't much to look at, but it gets the job done.

Yeah, I think the art really made it down on my list. But, I may have to dig it out and try it again.

[Darrell D.]

Alan Moore disagrees though.

Man I really need to get to this run. Hear so many mixed things about it

It is a great run. Like most Azzarello stories, the surrounding characters get the spotlight. The Hard Times arc with art by Corben is just amazing, one of my top five arcs of Hellblazer.

[Desaad]

I'll never understand the hatred Azz gets. Loved his run.

[Desaad]

Alan Moore disagrees though.

That's because Alan Moore is the world's biggest Corben fanboy, the artist who did Azz's run.

He's said straight away he'll buy anything Corben draws, and love it for that work.

[Libaax]

It is a great run. Like most Azzarello stories, the surrounding characters get the spotlight. The Hard Times arc with art by Corben is just amazing, one of my top five arcs of Hellblazer.

I really liked The Hard Times but the rest of it was pretty trying everything new that would fly and didnt really capture JC speech patterns. His JC sounded more like film version than the brit guy in HB.

I dont care what Alan Moore agrees with though. I respect him as a writer why would i care what he liked as a fan. I mean would he even say if he disliked any HB writer,run?

[FanboyStranger]

Jenkins is mixed. Some of them are great, like Critical Mass. Others just sort of lay there and do nothing. And if someone wants to explain what happens at the end of Jenkins' wrong I'd be grateful because I don't feel like I ever really understood it.
.

spoilers:

After Ellie targets John's friends, The First of the Fallen uses John to deliver a message to God via the Old Guy in the Woods (the Jesus figure who read John's cards after "Critical Mass"). Essentially, God resets everything, eliminating the curse tying John's friends to the spirit of Britain from eating the stew made from Bran the Blessed's head in "Last Man Standing". No one remembers what happened but Rich, who is this era's avatar of King Arthur. He tells John to lose his number as he has responsiblities now. Dani forgets John completely, but she's safe now, so John's okay with it. I can't blame you for getting confused by it. I was confused myself. I originally thought that God had reset everything, meaning that John hadn't cast his "bad half" into Hell, but that came up later in HB. I also thought that John had used all of Nergal's blood to create his "bad half", which is why the doppleganger was accepted in Hell and John went into detox, but John had the blood later, too. (I think it was during Carey's run that this all came up again.)

end of spoilers

[FanboyStranger]

That's because Alan Moore is the world's biggest Corben fanboy, the artist who did Azz's run.

He's said straight away he'll buy anything Corben draws, and love it for that work.

My favorite Moore praise ever is his introduction for Corben's House on the Borderland adaptation. He says he hasn't read it yet, but it's undoubtedly a masterpiece simply because it's drawn by Corben.

[Desaad]

My favorite Moore praise ever is his introduction for Corben's House on the Borderland adaptation. He says he hasn't read it yet, but it's undoubtedly a masterpiece simply because it's drawn by Corben.

Yup, that is exactly what I'm thinking of.

Just wonderfully brilliant, that sort of childish and naive way you don't expect from Moore.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Makes me wish he wrote the intro for Dark Horse's Creep Presents Richard Corben.

Would claimed it modern day classic.

[Superdog]

spoilers:

After Ellie targets John's friends, The First of the Fallen uses John to deliver a message to God via the Old Guy in the Woods (the Jesus figure who read John's cards after "Critical Mass"). Essentially, God resets everything, eliminating the curse tying John's friends to the spirit of Britain from eating the stew made from Bran the Blessed's head in "Last Man Standing". No one remembers what happened but Rich, who is this era's avatar of King Arthur. He tells John to lose his number as he has responsiblities now. Dani forgets John completely, but she's safe now, so John's okay with it. I can't blame you for getting confused by it. I was confused myself. I originally thought that God had reset everything, meaning that John hadn't cast his "bad half" into Hell, but that came up later in HB. I also thought that John had used all of Nergal's blood to create his "bad half", which is why the doppleganger was accepted in Hell and John went into detox, but John had the blood later, too. (I think it was during Carey's run that this all came up again.)

end of spoilers

spoilers:

For the looooongest time I thought John was meant to not have demon blood anymore too! It's been years and years since I read it, but my understanding was something akin to him selling his soul to the F of the F to save his friends and then God undoing it to be nice. Guess I wasn't toooooo far off.

end of spoilers

[JayPhonomancer]

Here's my two cents on the writers who I have read.

Ennis - my personal favourite run on the book (even though I have not read the middle issues that were collected in Bloodlines cos its out of print again). He introduced me to the character so I suppose he kind of defined the character for me. I still think Dangerous Habits is the best introduction to the character even though the art is a bit dreary (sorry Will). Loved the way he focused a lot on everyday stuff like John's relationships and the everyday horrors commited by real people instead of just supernatural stuff.

Delano - have only read the first 3 trades and while I really enjoyed the first one I have found the next 2 a bit disappointing. I think it has not dated very well. It seems very much of the '80s with anti-Thatcher stuff, anti-nuclear stuff, and a lot of wordy over-the-top purple prose which can make it a difficult read. However, I have yet to read the Family Man which I know a lot of people say is one of the best of his run so I intend on finishing his run, even if DC stops collecting it.

I missed Jenkins run and I started collecting it as a monthly with Ellis so;

Ellis - short but very good. Focused on real-world horror and contained a lot of memorable one-shot stories. I though sometimes maybe he was trying too hard to shock with graphically violent images and it was pretty relentlessly bleak, but a good run nonetheless. The Crib remains one of my favourite Hellblazer shorts.

Mina - I thought her run was ok, not as bad as some people make out - just maybe a bit too decompressed. It was spread out over a lot of issues if I remember correctly and not much seemed to happen sometimes in an individual issue. Haven't read it in ages though so I'll have to give it another look.

Azzarello - Opening Hard Time arc was fantastic but he lost me for most of his run. It felt to me like John became a guest character in his own book - lurking in the shadows grinning demonically and talking cryptic nonsense. It just didn't feel like him to me. I appreciate it probably reads better as one long story but I know I got lost at some point and I remember being terribly confused after reading the one-shot "...And Buried" and I wasn't interested enough to try and figure it out! Highwater was great though, too.

Carey - I wasn't crazy about Carey either to be honest. Like somebody said earlier, it felt like the most conventionally heroic John has ever been. It felt like too big a threat for Hellblazer - an apocalyptic scenario more suited to a superhero book. I think it also used a lot of referencing to John's past to keep fans happy but some of it was lost on me.

Diggle - Pretty good overall. I preferred his shorter stories than the overarching Laughing Magician storyline though.

Milligan - Thought it started weak but it has got better even if I don't seem to be feeling the love like a lot of people are. The whole storyline with the love-potion just did not feel like John to me again and I didn't like Shade turning up or the whole thumb-cutting mental-institution saga but I do like the whole marriage situation with Epiphany. It could be awful but it's actually strangely believable!