Blogathon 43: Hellblazer #229

[Discussed in this post: "With a Little Help from My Friends" (Hellblazer #229).]

Ah, Mike Carey is back despite his wonderful exit. Can no one stay away from John Constantine?

Unlike the return of Garth Ennis, this is just a throwaway one-off that features art by John Paul Leon! Yes, another great artist. There are still more to come! This issue has John telling a story when a friend asks him to use magic to get back at some guys that sideswiped him. The story revolves around two sisters, one of whom lived on the same floor as him. She was in a wheelchair and he overheard her arguing bitterly with her sister one day. Trying to be nice, he offers some sympathy and next thing he knows, he's doing her a favour: going to her sister to ask for what's hers. Her sister will give it up if John gets Innocent's Tears. And soon he's up to his next in weird demon shit where the two sisters are the same demon split into different parts. As I've said many times before, a fine, typical story. Nothing really bad about it, but nothing that blows me away.

The thing I like about this comic a lot is the art. Not just because it's John Paul Leon doing his thick lines with lots of shadows and suggesive line work. I like Lee Loughridge's colours, which are very restrained, reserved for mood. Scenes with be bathed in a colour, sometimes the background with another to pop. It's mostly some brown and a pale blue, but other colours are busted out to great effect, like this sickly green or red. Definitely a strong use of colours in John's story since it plays with the idea of the story/flashback being 'black and white' or just toned, but uses the tones effectively. A very simple, restrained approach, but highly effective.

Ah, I am glad that some of these random one-off type issues come near the end. They're much simpler.

In 30 minutes, the second American to write Hellblazer...

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