Hellblazer: Death and Cigarettes – graphic novel review

Death and Cigarettes is the final volume in Vertigo’s Hellblazer series. What a shame. I gather that John Constantine – the dubious hero of these stories – will return but in a more family-friendly incarnation. So I imagine out goes his smoking and drinking and womanising... Not that Constantine womanise much, now that he’s married – that happened a graphic novel or two ago.

Anyway, Death and Cigarettes contains four stories – “Suicide Bridge”, “The House of Wolves”, “The Curse of the Constantines” and “Death and Cigarettes” – collected from the Hellblazer annual 1 and issues 292-300. All are penned by Peter Milligan with artwork coming from Simon Bisley, Guiseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini. All the pictures perfectly complement the stories – dark and grim and, when needed, suitably graphic.

 As is usual, Constantine often finds himself enmeshed in a sequence of supernatural events, usually drawn into them by others asking favours or calling in debts. Constantine embarks on the quest to find so-and-so in order to keep a promise – not that he’s adverse to breaking promises when it suits him. In “Suicide Bridge” he searches for a boy-hood friend who went missing decades ago, and in the process other lost souls are discovered.

“The House of Wolves” fills in some of the Constantine-Epiphany back-story, and is bleakly humorous.  In “The Curse of the Constantines” our hero seeks the long-lost son of his dead sister (although she’s in Hell she asked him to do just that). It seems that Contantine’s nephew is in Ireland and may be a serial killer...

And finally we come to “Death and Cigarettes”. Here, Constantine knows that within a week he will be dead. All the signs and portents can’t possibly be wrong. Do the Fates get their way and does he die? Does the Devil (or one of the devils) claim Constantine’s soul, as they have tried to do so over the years? Or is there another outcome? I’m not saying...

As I mentioned, this sees the last of the present John Constantine incarnation. It’s been a good run. Can it possibly be equalled? Let’s hope so.

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Hellblazer: The Devil's Trench Coat

One of my favourite comic books, Hellblazer,  sees a new graphic novel out now from Vertigo ($16.99). The Devil's Trench Coat collects issues 283 to 291 of the monthly comic. The two stories, "The Devil's Trench Coat" and "Another Season in Hell" are written by Peter Milligan, with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini. In the first story, Constantine's old, foul-smelling trench coat assumes a life of its own, with bloody consequences (aren't most of Constantine's action coloured with blood?). And in the second tale the anti-hero revisits hell, to rescue a lost soul. And once more he pits wits against the various demons he encounters.

The Green Woman: graphic novel review

The Green Woman by Peter Straub, Michael Easton and John Bolton. Vertigo $17.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

This graphic novel continues the tale of Straub’s serial killer Fielding “Fee” Bandolier from his Blue Rose trilogy. On Fee’s trail is the NY cop Bob Steele, desperate to get his man, and to make his mark as a policeman. I haven’t read the Blue Rose books so all the characters are new to me. But that isn’t a problem: they are well delineated and their motives clear. It seems that Fee is looking to hang up his knife, maybe retire somewhere nice, but something is stopping him. Besides, not only is Bob Steele on his heels, but other killers follow his lead. This all sounds grand but, sadly, I found the story slight. Not bad, but not especially riveting, and I think I’d rather read this as a novella.

What makes this book special, though, is John Bolton’s exquisite paintings. They are in a class of their own. Bolton is, quite simply, one of the best comic-book embellishers around. How does he find the time to paint 140 pages of art? By magic, I imagine. Some of the panels capture the story’s characters perfectly: the picture of the killer on page 25, for example.

In summary, The Green Woman is a good read but it’s a much better artbook.

Cinderella & The Unwritten: graphic novels

Cinderella, From Fabletown With Love by Chris Roberson and Shawn McManus is now available as a graphic novel, from Vertigo at $14.99. This volume collects issues one to six of the monthly series, using characters taken from Bill Willingham's Fables. The artwork has a comic feel to it, but this  belies the darker elements -- as are in all good fairy tales. Cinderella is a spy, an agent for Fabletown, sent to find out where magical weapons are coming from, and where mundane weapons are headed to.

Also out now is the second volume of Mike Carey's The Unwritten. Subtitled Inside Man, the book is illustrated by Peter Gross and collects issues six to twelve of the monthly comic. The Unwritten is a complex story, about tales with tales, fiction within fiction -- and is quite engrossing. Published by Vertigo at $12.99.

Why Cinderella should cost an extra $2.00, I've no idea. Both books have roughly the same page count.

Madame Xanadu -- Review

I have said so before: “getting into” many of the better (ie, more intelligent) comic books is very difficult; you really have to start at the first issue. Even subsidiary arcs within a greater saga can be hard to break into. Take Madame Xanadu (Vertigo $12.99) for instance. Quite a few months ago I bought a couple of issues of the monthly comic. I liked what I saw, but could make little sense of it. So I waited for the graphic novel version instead. This I have now read and I must say: Wow!

Madame Xanadu is a tour de force of magic and history – from the time of Merlin, when Nimue is cursed by the old codger until mid-20th Century USA. Nimue is a nymph, a creature of good, in contrast to her sister of Morgana, mother of Arthur’s son. We know the story of Camelot – and it isn’t important if you don’t because there are so many interpretations. Arthur’s kingdom is destroyed. Merlin releases a demon into the world. And Nimue, as said, is cursed.

Time moves on and Nimue, now Madame Xanadu, is in Xanadu, the court of the Kublai Khan. There’s palace intrigue and Marco Polo. And Madame Xanadu flees for her life. And again, time passes and at the court of Marie Antoinette and King Louis she is once more at the centre of events. In Victorian London she is powerless to stop Jack the Ripper. And so on to 1940s USA, the time just before the age of superheros…

All her long life Madame Xanadu struggles to do what is right. Yet she is also fixated on a figure that appears at important junctures in her history: the mysterious Phantom Stranger. She thinks him callous and uncaring. In the end she entraps him, to force him to act for good. But Xanadu blunders in ignorance.

Interspersed in the book are references to other DC characters: the Green Lantern; the Spectre; Zatara… Maybe others. But it doesn’t matter if you know nothing of these.

Madame Xanadu is a DC character who’s been around for a long time. She was/is a mystic, someone with magical abilities. I don’t know anything of her earlier incarnation and adventures. And it just doesn’t matter. This is because Matt Wagner (writer) and Amy Reeder Hadley and Richard Friend (artists) have created a story that is self contained, that works within its own context. The writing is intelligent and passionate. Wagner makes you believe in Madame Xanadu. Couple with the beautiful artwork, which has an air of innocence about it, it is so easy to feel sympathy and empathy for our heroine. The stories are engrossing and at times edgy – especially the Ripper chapters. This collection is highly recommended, and I’m sure will appeal to fans of Fables, Books of Magic, Lucifer…

© Peter Coleborn, July 2009