the girl with the sun in her head (jazzymegster) wrote in hellblazer, @ 2008-08-10 00:31:00 |
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Current mood: | curious |
A question for you guys :)
There's not many posts in this comm. And I had a question flittering around my head - and it's a fairly common one, I dare say you've probably answered it before, but I want to know. I'm incredibly curious.
Who is your favourite Hellblazer writer, and why?
To be fair, I will be answering the question below the cut (partly 'cause I tend to ramble, and partly to save your flist from a wall of text). Er, there could be vague spoilers since I don't know if you guys have read as much as me (I've read pretty much everything, excepting a few gaps and uncollected issues). What is written below is just my personal opinion, and you're more than welcome to disagree and whatnot.
I'm actually torn, myself. I like Jamie Delano, Paul Jenkins, Mike Carey, and Andy Diggle with an equal amount of love.
Delano because he carries on what Alan Moore started. Many of the things he established in his run remain in canon today - like John's twin (dead though he is), and the ghosts. He gives us what happened in Newcastle (although I don't know how much of that's alluded to in Swamp Thing. I have not read that *hangs head in shame*). His version of John I like a lot.
Jenkins I like because he makes a refreshing change from Ennis. It's not that I don't like Garth Ennis' writing, I do. I am just not keen on what he did when he was on HB (Dangerous Habits aside). Admittedly, I haven't read Jenkins' run as much as I've read some of the others (Delano, Ennis, Carey) because his run sadly remains uncollected, and I think that's a shame. He's a good writer, and I think he deserves the recognition as such (there's a reason why I say I am the founder of the Paul Jenkins Appreciation Society *g*). There are some great one-liners, and he does a fantastic (imho) job making The First look like the idiot he is (and he is).
Carey I like partly because he rescued HB from the WTF-ery of Azzarello's later stories (again, as with Ennis, I don't hate him but...I don't like that John feels out of character for a lot of his later stories). He also does a superb line in one-liners, and I feel like he really knew what he was doing when he was writing for HB. I would certainly recommend him to someone who wanted some good stuff to read (and, as far as I can remember, his run doesn't require a lot of back knowledge about John to "get" it. And I would highly recommend All His Engines (the stand-alone HB graphic novel he wrote), as that doesn't require any fore-knowledge of John at all. And it's bloody good).
Now, Andy Diggle. I haven't read much of his run at all (and hopefully he's staying for the foreseeable future), but I have read Joyride, and that I liked a lot. There's shit that's dealt with, stuff that's been hanging around for years, waiting for someone to do something with it. I'm not saying any of the other writers couldn't have done anything with it - I'm sure they could - but the way Diggle deals with it is excellent. And I like that he's gone back to having John as (mostly) acting on his own - this is a John I know and like a lot. And I'm glad to see it :)
So that's what I think. What about you guys? The floor's yours, and I'd really like to hear what you've got to say.