I feel like Ennis' Hellblazer is at its best when it's a drama in a supernatural setting rather than a horror story.

These were the years when "indie comics" became mainstream- available not just in comic specialty shops but Barnes & Noble, Borders, K-Mart, 7-11!! People I knew who never touched comics in the early '90s-by the early 2000s were now reading Sandman, Bone, Hellblazer, Love & Rockets, Fantographics, etc. NYTimes Book Reviews now featured the latest published graphic novels. And comic conventions & cosplay became anticipated cultural events for everyone.

Thanks for doing this video. I'm a huge fan of Garth Ennis and remember reading this run in the trade paperbacks that I bought almost 25 years ago now and have re-read it several times. Steve Dillon was such a talented artist and one of the few in the business who can draw different, often hilarious, facial expressions. I especially love the issue with John's 40th birthday party, where he makes Swamp Thing accelerate the growth of his friend's tiny marijuna plant (named "Treebeard") into a giant one. Plus, Constantine refers to Swamp Thing as "Sprout Bollocks." Always loved that. And then they did that one-shot issue where it's just Kit back in Ireland after she has left John. Really amazing issue.

You are without doubt the best comic commentator and the best commentator in general. I can't afford it but I will gladly give you money.

Excellent overview. Ennis' run is my favorite by far.

It’s a pity you couldn’t find a minute to mention Ennis and Dillon’s ‘Heartland’ - the spinoff one-shot about Kit returning to Belfast. It’s probably the best ‘Hellblazer’ story they did, even though it doesn’t feature John.

6:35 Aww, John looks so happy, watching the vampire burn up!

Steve Dillon drew the single greatest Deadpool sequence I've ever seen, in a Wolverine issue. Describing it could never do it justice, so I'll leave others to hunt it down and see for themselves, but Dillon's greatest strength as an artist, was his expressions: Dillon's characters acted, they performed, they felt feelings which you could see on their faces and in their body language. More aspiring comic artist should study Dillon, imo. edit: I misremembered, it was Wolverine Origins.

You're not the only one who likes this series. Best comic horror story I ever read was in this book 😂❤👹

Felt like Ennis' run was better than it was then i reread it again and what you said about the run sums it up perfectly.

I know it's a reference to The KLF, but I love that you end every episode by telling your patrons that they're old.

Have you thought about covering some of Ennis' War comics (war stories, battlefields, Sarah,dreaming Eagles, out of the blue)? They're pretty good and show were Ennis puts most of his passion.

Awesome. I've read the whole Hellblazer series a long time ago, these have been great to watch.

Great video talking about Garth Ennis and Hellblazer and general works. You showing and bringing up the cultural and political and Ennis’s views, blatant and maybe surface level as they may be, have an appeal. I have just been introduced to your channel, and I am so glad I have. Hope you and your channel have continued success. And I hope we can always appreciate comics and all that

Love Ennis and Hellblazer. A great, underrated run

Jesse used the WORD.

In the end, I love the way you say "in the end."

When I was in my 20s both Ennis and Constantine things I adored. Now that I’m 50+ I can’t really read Ennis without rolling my eyes a lot.

I really appreciated your comments on his youth showing through. I found his obsessions with drinking culture and inserting Irish characters incredibly self indulgent. It took me out of the stories. But I recently read The Slaves and it was really, really good, so I guess he matured eventually.

PLEASE NEVER QUIT!

I think Will Simpson is a great artist when he inks his drawings himself, as in issue #50. The other inkers don't do the drawings justice. Dangerous Habits is a home run, the rest of Ennis run mehh... But I have a bias with Hellblazer, because the first issues with Delano and Ridgway are some of the bestest comics I ever read.

great stuff, hope this series of videos goes thru all the run

Love Dillon's work during this period, also his short run on _Amimal Man_ with Milligan, immediately post Morrison, there's a looseness to his line that goes away with his later work, particularly the later _Punisher_ issues.

This omnibus is great. Made Constantine 1 of my favorite characters and made me want to read more Garth ennis work.

Oh, and. It's kind of too bad we'll never escape the legacy of "Nosferatu" at this point. Allegedly Murnau ran out of film and had to wrap up Nosferatu in a hurry, so had him burst into flames at sunrise. That's apparently why even now we think of vampires having that vulnerability.

Hey, thanks for good content! I am so sick of the avalanche of "comic" channels that just read comics out loud. I see that as blatant theft, nothing more. This, on the other hand, is a whole other matter. This is quality content.

You quoted MARSHALL LAW & for that alone, I salute you! Regarding artist Steve Dillion, I’d say his art style was more uncomplicated than “simplistic”. I miss him.

Another fantastic video! Love your no-pulled-punches style of dialogue.

Ahh! My tears and goosebumps are torn. Do I read this dark and fantastic run, or do I listen to you explain why I should read it?

Thanks!

Great video! I hope you review all the other writers

Very cool video. Well done and concise.

Can't wait for Paul Jenkins!

These series walkthrough videos are some of my favorite that you do, especially Cerberus. I'd love to see a similar approach to Sandman

Had the pleasure of meeting Delano, Dillon and Ennis. Legends! And I Loved the early years of hellblazer.

I really need to get around to this run. Obligatory commendation on pronouncing Constatine's name proper and not Constanteen

Spot on: I love Ennis but he wrote JC like a volatile mid-20s guy rather than someone around 40. I always found Delano more authentic because he was the same age as JC. And he channelled the BBC Play for Today meets Clive Barker vibe which was the foundation for the character. JC was a direct lift of the visitor character in Dennis Potter’s Brimstone and Treacle after all.

Thank you for the video. I love hearing your takes on series i hold close to my heart. It's been a while since i read HB, need to reread them soon, and then compare my notes to your videos! Ive only read up until the Azzarello run, so i have circa 150 issues unread

Ennis’ run is such a mixed bag for me. As a youth in Mississippi with familiarity with the Reeves film, I read about how influential and important Ennis and “Dangerous Habits” were for the series time and again in my dial-up searches through the web. I eventually read “Dangerous Habits” my last year of high school in 2015 and really loved it and desperately wished I could afford to buy the collections of the other issues. Then, two years ago, I read Ennis’ Hellblazer in tandem with a read of the entirety of Sandman. I really enjoyed the first half of the run, especially the Ripper and Grave robber arcs. After John and Kitt split, though, I felt like stories became much edgier and surface-level. In particular, I find Ennis’ handling of Satan to be very dull. He sets up that a priest became a killer and rapist after hearing “The Devil’s Confession” but when we hear it all he says is “God’s crazy and beats his meat and kicked Satan to Hell for questioning him” which feels like something a 15-year-old atheist on 4Chan would come up with. It’s especially frustrating since, as a Christian, I know there’s potential to say something really interesting that criticizes God or the church given the centuries of culture and philosophy surrounding them. I also think Ennis’ disinterest in genuinely heroic characters hurts John’s characterization in the back-end of the run. John’s a bastard and a liar but what made him compelling in Moore’s Swamp Thing and Delano’s Hellblazer runs is that he is genuinely altruistic in his goals of combatting evil, saving humanity despite his pessimistic posturing. Ennis, though, positions him more as an addict who refuses to get better despite how it hurts those around them and has no interest in growing him beyond this, only highlighting it. I really loved this video and I’m psyched to hear your thoughts on later runs that’re less discussed online ❤

Ah, my cool Uncle dropped a video about a fellow Brit! Let me grab my tea!

!Yohooo, New video!

Ahh, garth ennis a writer i really wanna like but can never do

Gawd I miss Steve Dillon

I wonder what Frank Miller would have done with Hellblazer...

And I wondered why Ennis was considered the definitive Hellblazer writer. It's easy to project your woes when your middle aged, might make you feel younger.

Nice

I thought of another dichotomy between Hellblazer and Preacher. Constantine, who rarely uses "real" magic, who bluffs and bullshits his way out of situations, and projects the tough guy image only to get his ass kicked, while Jesse Custer is honest and forthright, secure in his abilities to handle himself, doesn't act like a tough guy and usually does the ass kicking.

Great video

You should cover the Mike Carey run, best Hellblazer run next to spurrier IMO

I preferred Ennis on this title to Delano. Ennis hadn't become completely obnoxious yet. I feel Constantine's drinking and slef destructive behavior was due to guilt over that botched exorcism as a youth and then all the bad stuff since then. Magic has a cost and he pays for it. That's why it's used sparingly which I liked so it's not just a super hero book.

Ah yeah love me some Garth Ennis and love me some Garth Ennis on Hellblazer

Respectfully, you forgot Ennis' return to Hellblazer with the Son of Man storyline.

"...and he was a lot less subtle." Heh. Yeah. Ennis at the helm, here. Now I'm also wondering how many characters were secretly Jack the Ripper, generally but in DC specifically. The masked Mandelbrot butterfly guy who is also God in Doom Patrol comes to mind.

Silencio, empezó mi novela

A TRUE FAN OF ALEXA ZRNIC HERE! 😂

I connected to the Delano run so intensely that the Ennis stuff felt empty. I appreciate your take on it and, upon reading Preacher, could appreciate Ennis’ writing.

The drinking is a good sign of a twenty year old writing a 40 year old. Fun binge drinking in your twenties just looks like sad alcoholism in your forties.

I never really like Garth Ennis's works, so I'm not sure if I will like his run here.

John seemed dead on for plenty of 40 year old British blokes I know. Maybe it's a cultural difference?

Jesus, I remember when Ennis was as popular as Wolverine at the height of that characters popularity. He lost me when, in an issue of Preacher, 3 or 4 pages passed in succession where the only dialog spoken (and it's said by everybody) is "Fuck." Just "Fuck." That could work, if the artist gave us panels that supplied visually what was missing from the text, to give the expletive context, but Dillon just showed people looking up. It brought the juvenalia into sharp relief.

As a superhero fan, I will never quite forgive Ennis for being so far up his own rear with middle school level "criticism" of the genre But if he really does hate superheroes, and he writes other genres like this one so well. I would encourage him to stick to those and leave the capes and cowls alone for 10 seconds

Delano, Carey > Ennis

Love some people complaining about Zatanna being shown getting high in the birthday party issue, she was, after all, in the Justice League

How did a Constantine show fail and a Preacher show run to the finale. It was whack.

I’ve read about the first 160 issues of hellblazer. My favorite run was the Ennis and azzerello run. Honestly I believe that the majority of hellblazer is mediocre and just a bunch of edge lord stuff.

Ennis had a knack for coming up with interesting premises but not really ever exploring them well enough, imo. It was a solid run, but so often bogged down by edgelordy moments and an annoying sentimentality- “cor, me and me mates down the pub,” blah blah blah. None of the real emotional depth of Delano or Mike Carey or Si Spurrier. It’s so weird to me that his run was the most popular on Hellblazer. Not that he was bad, not at all, just… weirdly juvenile compared to some of the other writers on the title.

They were right, Ennis was not as good a writer

Ennis mocking the concept of god and heaven just exposes his poor understanding of metaphysics and religion. He is one of the OG "subverters" who brought all the classic satanic / marxist inversion and subversion tactics to comics. It makes his edge lord writing style insufferable. People comparing him to a toddler throwing a tantrum with very dubious morals were right about him

Not a fan of garth Ennis

Trite coverage of this

Thanks!!