Peter Milligan

Tonto y antisistema, como debe ser Hellblazer. La quintaesencia del punk rock. Me encantaron los issues de Papa Midnite (muy por encima de los anteriores) y los de "No future" (cómo decir "ya no sos igual / ya no sos igual / sos un vigilante y Tori de mierda" en unas páginas nostálgicas). La trama de La India me pareció meh por lo desapovechado de su mitología. "Pandemonium" el segundo punto más alto, donde Hellblazer recupera su ambigüedad moral bien fuerte con un tema geopolítico show more que otra persona podría haber tratado de forma medio pelotuda. No me convenció cómo está tratado el tema de que John es un viejo choto, lo cual un poco me irrita porque claramente es un tema sobre el que pivotean los argumentos de este último tramo.

Lindo tomo. show less

Constantine's plan to go to India in hopes of being made "pure" so that his dead girlfriends can be reanimate all came to naught, as he was plunged into a battle with a colonial-era demon at the behest of a shaman. Of course the dudes who called the thing up in the first place are old "palls" of Constantine's, so he winds up being a target before he has even agreed to fight the demon for the old man. It takes some serious gossip (not magic, haha) to banish the thing, but Constantine doesn't show more get his girlfriend back; instead he gets a brief chat with her, in which she basically tells him to "fuck off," so I can't see this ending well for her as Constantine is a (stupidly) stubborn bastard.

This collection also includes a two part punk-rock opera, which was actually much more entertaining. We all know Constantine was part of the infamous "Mucous Membrane" back in the day so it was great to see him take a trip back to his youthful anarchist ways. He could have done without the cheap haircut, but appearances are everything with this crowd - especially when it comes to their idol, a reanimated Sid Vicious who keeps the spirit of punk alive. For all this story's talk about ancient demons using the government as their puppet, it actually says a lot more about who Constantine really is. He's no longer young, but he's still playing a young man's magic game, which may run him into trouble if the young crowd actually starts to challenge him or demons start wising up to the new world. show less

Clearly wedded bliss is not for Constantine... Between Epiphany freaking out over his lack of thumb (prompting a quest to get a quick replacement, and then the real thing back) and having some lingering issues with an old mentor/teacher/demon-ghost-thing this collection is chalk full of adventures and magical mishaps. Unfortunately John gets caught up in some nasty business with Epiphany's gangster father, which does not bode well for a peaceful marriage at all. At least John has no qualms show more about telling him to fuck off when the occasion doesn't suit him! Overall, what do we really expect from a John Constantine marriage; complications and magic are par for the course, which is far more interesting for readers than happiness and bliss (how dull)! show less

The second issue of Peter Milligan's and Tess Fowler's Burroughs/Kafka/Horror mash-up, and I'm happy to say it is just as resistant to coherent interpretation and as mind-blowingly confusing as the first issue was. Some recurring themes begin to crop up: questions of identity were already prominent in issue #1 and continue to be important here; in addition the introduction of two new characters, a writer and an artist, makes me think that there might be a self-referential element to the way show more brain matter as well as memories and concepts get swapped around by the Kid's ray-gun - possibly this whole comic is an ongoing metaphor about art? or comics in particular? We'll have to see how things develop.

This second issue is really heavy on the Kafka references (and on Kafka references swiped from Burroughs), so heavy in fact that Die Verwandlung is practically required reading for Kid Lobotomy (but then, it should be required reading for everyone anyway). There are porbably tons of references in the graphics, too, but being mostly illiterate in that area,I missed most of those. I do like the graphics, though - they do invite closer scrutny, and I love the way Fowler makes the panels jumple over and into each other, often completely getting rid of the gutter or replacing it with something black with... orange scratches on it? I'm not sure what it is, but the result is certainly fascinating and creates a great visual analogy to our main protagonist's unhinged state of mind.

In short, this comic continues to be oodles of fun, and while I'm still at a loss as to what it's actually about, trying to figure that out has been hugely enjoyable so far. show less